Obituary
Royal Arena, Copenhagen - 2018
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
(photos were not allowed this evening, so we've put together a collection of archive photos to go with the review)
Choosing a surprisingly strong line-up to support them on their 2018 farewell tour, Slayer had none less than death metal icons Obituary as the first support of the evening. That this would be a special, no holds barred evening of metal was beyond question.
Still, Obituary had been found unexpectedly underwhelming in our last encounter, so at this point the scales could go either way.
Seven songs was all that the old-school death metallers had at their disposal to fire up an almost sold out Royal Arena, which was already at this point fairly well packed.
They chose to open this set with an instrumental, Redneck Stomp. Not what was anticipated for a set like this, but why not?
Why not indeed… Well, to put it mildly, if your band choose to play an instrumental, especially when opening with it, your musicians have to bring their absolute A-game in performance and delivery, to connect with the audience. Obituary didn’t bring the A-game, they brought nearly nothing at all. There was some headbanging, but at the same time, their feet had obviously been stapled to the ground before starting to play. Sad thing, that.
After this, John Tardy joined the others on stage, and the band shot directly into their next song. John Tardy proved to be more mobile than his bandmates, walking back and forth across the stage for most of the gig, but he did so in a slouching way, with his big hair covering his face and most of his upper body, so there was no discernable expression to be seen, and absolutely no contact to be had.
Add on top of this, that no one in the band took a few seconds out to talk to the audience between songs, and what you end up with is an uninviting and impersonal show, that fails to grab at nearly every level. Sure, Slowly We Rot, which ended the gig, is a pillar of the genre, but that alone and by itself does not a great gig make.
Now, this might sound a tad negative, but I will say this for Obituary - it wasn’t as bad as their Metaldays gig earlier this year. Close, but not equal to. And they can play, but sadly they have completely forgotten how to perform, if they ever knew it.
So far, not off to a good start of the evening…
Choosing a surprisingly strong line-up to support them on their 2018 farewell tour, Slayer had none less than death metal icons Obituary as the first support of the evening. That this would be a special, no holds barred evening of metal was beyond question.
Still, Obituary had been found unexpectedly underwhelming in our last encounter, so at this point the scales could go either way.
Seven songs was all that the old-school death metallers had at their disposal to fire up an almost sold out Royal Arena, which was already at this point fairly well packed.
They chose to open this set with an instrumental, Redneck Stomp. Not what was anticipated for a set like this, but why not?
Why not indeed… Well, to put it mildly, if your band choose to play an instrumental, especially when opening with it, your musicians have to bring their absolute A-game in performance and delivery, to connect with the audience. Obituary didn’t bring the A-game, they brought nearly nothing at all. There was some headbanging, but at the same time, their feet had obviously been stapled to the ground before starting to play. Sad thing, that.
After this, John Tardy joined the others on stage, and the band shot directly into their next song. John Tardy proved to be more mobile than his bandmates, walking back and forth across the stage for most of the gig, but he did so in a slouching way, with his big hair covering his face and most of his upper body, so there was no discernable expression to be seen, and absolutely no contact to be had.
Add on top of this, that no one in the band took a few seconds out to talk to the audience between songs, and what you end up with is an uninviting and impersonal show, that fails to grab at nearly every level. Sure, Slowly We Rot, which ended the gig, is a pillar of the genre, but that alone and by itself does not a great gig make.
Now, this might sound a tad negative, but I will say this for Obituary - it wasn’t as bad as their Metaldays gig earlier this year. Close, but not equal to. And they can play, but sadly they have completely forgotten how to perform, if they ever knew it.
So far, not off to a good start of the evening…
