Band: Obituary
Title: Left To Die
Label: Gibtown Records / Candlelight Records
Distribution: Candlelight Records - PHD
Release date: October 2008
Review: MCD

Left To Die is a mini-release (20:42 minutes) to celebrate the band’s twentieth (!) anniversary, and this piece was recorded by John (v) and Donald Tardy (d), Frank Watkins (b) and guitarists Ralph Santolla and Trevor Peres at the Redneck Studio with Mark Prator. Another celebration fact was the best-of release earlier this year (Roadrunner), by the way. The first new track, opener Forces Realign, is a pure Obituary-song with all known elements: an abyssal throat, ultra-pondering riffs, a heavy mid-tempo-driven rhythm and a warlike atmosphere. The second new hymn is the slow, titanic title track, which also exhales a filthy old school spirit. At the same time, this track may be the grooviest in their career. Besides those two new titles, Left To Die features the Celtic Frost-cover Dethroned Emperor (in a nice, obituarian version) and the re-recording of the majestic track Slowly We Rot. The mini-album, finally, does also include the video from Evil Ways.

80/100

Ivan Tibos.