Obituary

Obituary is an American death metal band from Tampa, Florida. He was initially trained in 1984 as Executioner. In 1985, the group then took the name of Xecutioner, until 1988 when it adopts the name of Obituary. It is, for the specialized press, one of the best death metal bands of all times.

Obituary is a band from Tampa, Florida, and one of the founders of death metal> alongside Mantas, Ravage and Death Strike (future Death, Atheist and Master). First named Executioner, the group was formed in 1984 around the Tardy brothers (John on vocals and Donald on drums) and Trevor Peres (guitar) under the main influence of Celtic Frost, then Possessed thanks to the cassette < Death metal , now cult demo that will also influence Chuck Schuldiner (so he will change the name of his band Mantas in Death).

In 1985, the group changed its name to Xecutioner. The following year, Allen West (guitar) and Daniel Tucker (bass) join the group and record a demo pretty quickly. The latter will fall into the hands of Boriroj Krgin (director of the magazine "Violent Noise" ). Impressed by the violence of their music and the slamming voice of John Tardy, a guttural almost unpublished for the time, Krgni includes their titles on the compilation Raging Death , published in 1987 with groups like Lethal Presence, Sadus, Betrayal and Atheist (still under the name of Ravage).

Quickly, Boriroj Krgin offers to the group to finance (only part of) an album, he then contacts Monte Conner (working at Roadrunner), inviting the latter to listen to the compilation Raging Death . Convinced, Conner invites the band in late 1987 to record at Morrisound Studios with Scott Burns (who is working on his first recording of extreme music) and comes to convince the band to change its name to Obituary.