Roadrunner
1989
Slowly We Rot
About This Album
If death metal first came to life in Florida during the mid- to late '80s courtesy of Possessed (Seven Churches) and Death (Scream Bloody Gore), another Florida band, Obituary, brought it to fruition in 1989 with Slowly We Rot. These five guys took what Possessed and Death had done to a new level of deathliness. The music of Obituary wasn't simply an extreme form of Slayer-esque speed metal with ghastly vocals; it was full-fledged death metal, with down-tuned guitar riffs of monstrous size, painful-sounding growls and moans for vocals, and distinct tempo changes that often brought the songs down to a lumbering doomy tempo rather relentlessly breakneck speeds à la thrash. These innovations don't seem so revolutionary now, given the innumerable death metal bands that arose during the '90s and beyond, to the point where the style practically burned itself out, spinning off into such substyles as black metal. But in 1989, Obituary were blazing a new trail, along with other Florida peers like Morbid Angel and, a bit later, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, and Cannibal Corpse. The guitar riffing of Trevor Peres (rhythm) and Allen West (lead) is downright pummeling, especially when they slow the tempo down to a crawl and chug along.
Track List

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