Obituary live in Perth – photos
This was the last show of a near sold out Australian tour, and yes this is a full Australian tour, having hit Adelaide and the final show in Perth.
Magnet House was getting warmed up, sweat dripping for local openers Crypt Crawler. With one foot firmly planted in death metal and the other kicking about with some thrash riffs, the finely tuned five-piece got the Perth crowd nicely toasted.
“How the fuck are ya?” Drawls frontman Marco Leritano from the barrier as he calls for the first circle pit of the night, Perth punters not disappointing the request.
Tour mates Black Lava are up next, having opened the other shows, (Psycroptic couldn’t make it this far west) they get the spotlight tonight and thrashed their way through forty solid minutes of blackened death metal.
Baptized In Ice kicked it into fifth gear from the get go, playing fast and furious through Ironclad and Nightshade the quartet barely gave the crowd time to breathe.
If death metal had a big four, we all know Obituary would sit smack bang in that list. Celebrating forty years of grinding death metal, the Tampa Bay five piece have crushed all in New Zealand and east coast Australia before tonight’s final desecration in Perth. Opening with the barnstormer Redneck Stomp, John Tardy a mess of long hair flicking about with every headbang. One rowdy punter who came over the barrier had security struggling to release him from his handhold on the foldback speakers, the band ripping through A Lesson In Vengeance seemingly unaware.
Touring their eleventh record, the brutal slab of Floridian death metal, Dying Of Everything, saw no less than five of the tracks on offer tonight. The Wrong Time, Barely Alive and My Will To Live hitting like a sledgehammer of sludgy, groove ridden metal. Donald Tardy is a beast behind the kit, bass drum beating into my chest with every kick, Chopped In Half/ Turned Inside Out rounding out the initial onslaught.
Returning quickly for a four song encore, more from their latest offering, War and the title track, Dying Of Everything. Keeping the banter to a minimum, Tardy faces off with guitarists Trevor Peres and Ken Andrews for the final beat down, the crowd brawling as the mighty Obituary slam us with Slowly We Rot. Short and fucking sweet, old school death metal forever.
Words and pictures by Brendan Delavere.
