In the ever-grinding world of death metal, patience is often part of the process — and according to Obituary frontman John Tardy, the legendary Florida outfit are very much playing the long game when it comes to new music.
Speaking in a new interview with Alejandro Bonilla Carvajal of Colombia's Alejandrosis, Tardy was asked about the likelihood of a follow-up to 2017's Obituary and 2020's Dying of Everything. While no release date is locked in, the wheels are clearly turning.
"Yeah. It's tough," Tardy admitted. "You come out with an album nowadays and it takes us that three, four, five years just to kind of cover all the territory [on tour] and get things done."
Despite their relentless touring schedule, Obituary haven't stopped writing. As Tardy explains, ideas are constantly being gathered in fragments, often in the most casual settings.
"But we're always collecting rhythms and ideas and songtitles and things like that all day long. It's kind of what we do," he said. "Every time you soundcheck or something, Trevor [Peres, Obituary guitarist] just turns his amp on or something, and you're in a cool room and he'll come up with something and always just kind of go over to his phone, record a little bit, this and that. So you're always collecting stuff."
With the band remaining in high demand on the road, progress has been slow. "We've just been so busy, but it is kind of our goal to go ahead and start putting some of that stuff together this year," Tardy added. "And getting some of these ideas put down and start that slow process towards maybe doing another release here, maybe next year or so."
The conversation also turned to a hot-button topic among death metal diehards: the idea of a Florida death metal Big Four tour, featuring Morbid Angel, Deicide, Obituary and Cannibal Corpse. Former Deicide and Cannibal Corpse guitarist Jack Owen recently suggested such a tour could never happen due to a lack of camaraderie between the bands — but Tardy was quick to distance Obituary from that sentiment.
"[Laughs] That's not us," he said. "We have personally always been that band for as long as I can remember… We have no problem in the world opening for anybody. I don't really care. It doesn't bother me whatsoever to open for anybody else."
In fact, Tardy made it clear that hierarchy and billing politics have never been Obituary's concern. "I would open for Cannibal Corpse or Deicide on any given day," he said. "Maybe some other bands always aren't like that. Maybe they feel like they should be a headlining band and maybe that means something to them. It doesn't matter to us."
When asked directly if he'd be open to sharing the stage with all four bands, Tardy didn't hesitate. "Yeah," he said. "We've done a couple of tours with Cannibal Corpse, and we have told Glen [Benton, Deicide frontman] before that we wanna do some tours with them before we're all too old to do it. And he keeps promising that we'll get together and do something. So, it wouldn't surprise me."
Tardy also pointed to Obituary's long-standing friendships outside Florida's death metal circle, citing their recent European tour with Testament as a highlight. "We've been friends with Testament for the longest of time and finally just went and got to do our first European tour with Testament, which was fun for us," he said.
"Steve DiGiorgio is a really good friend… [Chuck Billy] just flew in the town this weekend. Me and my brother, we went golfing with Chuck and went and had some dinner and stuff and hung out with him."
