Maybe it’s the eye-popping, blood-chilling H.P. Lovecraft-inspired cover art from the masterful Michael Whelan. Maybe it’s the song titles like "Body Bag, "Chopped in Half" and "Turned Inside Out". Or maybe it is the name of the band, dripping red against the horror show cover: Obituary. 

Combined, the elements that made up Obituary's "Cause of Death" were enough to scare the shit out of mainstream America. This was a good thing. The sub-genre that slowly, assuredly evolved into Death Metal was due in part to said isolation and lack of intrusion from the suits. For better or worse, few consumers and everyday music listeners ever stumbled upon the Tampa Bay-area band’s second release. 

If anyone did stumble upon the record, the music surely struck terror in the meek and challenged even the most daring Metal fan. This was sick sludge skimmed from the scummiest Florida swamps. Chugging, down-tuned riffs courtesy of Trevor Peres while Donald Tardy supplied doomsday drum fills that helped define Metal drumming across all of its sub-genres. 

Add James Murphy to the mix and not only do you get a great, doom-laden vibe, you get one great guitar man adding slick licks to the recipe. With Murphy’s influence, songs double in length compared to the band’s debut. Some point to a more progressive trajectory, too. Either way, Murphy only stuck around for one album, but every six-string flourish would leave a mark that hurt . . . and we wanted more.

Of course -- vocalist and brother to Don -- John Tardy adds the most recognizable aspect to Obituary’s sound: warlock-burned-at-the-stake screeches and troglodyte growls seemingly summoned from the gallbladder of Hell. It’s not pretty and the words are difficult to decipher. But who needs vowels when a well-placed growl can say it all? Tardy’s style is often imitated, but outside the Obituary orbit, it just never works as well. 

This was scary music. Record executives surely soiled their satin skivvies at first listen. If the New Kids on the Block ever came within earshot, they exploded into a cloud of parachute pants and hair gel -- Metal fans could only hope. After all, mainstream radio and MTV totally ignored anything that came close to the likes of Obituary. Moreover, the airwaves were jammed with pretty performers who moved units based on their looks and sing-along pop grooves. Janet Jackson, Roxette and Wilson Phillips, anyone? Sure, the release of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” would change everything in 1991, but at the time, music lacked any semblance of balls. 

Suffice to say, Obituary was neck-deep in a noxious mix of sugar-sweet pop and soulless rock. The benefit of a total lack of mainstream response (even most Metalheads avoided Obituary) was that this record found a home in the collections of devoted fans and musicians looking for something meatier, nastier, more horrific and brutal. Only constant touring, tape-swamping and word-of-mouth via the underground forced Obituary into the conversation. 

1990 is a wild year. It's the start of a new decade and a time of hope, but most North Americans, anyway, feel like humanity is on the edge and nobody's sure if the majority will land on the side of good or in the dark. It is a time before the home computer becomes ubiquitous and a world-wide web is still more science fiction than fact. The compact disc is still a new way to listen to music and although Metal experienced a renaissance in the mid to late '80s, the important bands like Metallica and Guns 'n' Roses start getting a tad bloated and lack real teeth. 

Eastern Europe is in upheaval, from the regime changes in Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Iraq invades Kuwait. Liberia is taken over by Charles Taylor and his guerrilla forces. Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry is convicted of drug possession and George  Bush Sr. vetoes a Civil Rights Bill that would establish racial quotas in employment while Laurence Wilder is inaugurated as governor of Virginia, the first African American to be elected governor in U.S. history. Some good news, to be sure, but did we mention Wilder's skin tone is a shade darker than the president? 

Meanwhile, tucked away in tiny Temple Terrace, Florida, brothers Jim and Tom Morris open their doors to another pair of brothers and their long-haired, scruffy looking bandmates. Little did they know that, along with now legendary producer Scott Burns, Morrisound would go on to be THE studio for making important Death Metal records, beckoning several bands like Cannibal Corpse to relocate to the Tampa area just to be closer to the “scene” with Morrisound as its epicentre. 

( BTH ) spoke with John Tardy about the three weeks Obituary spent at Morrisound recording "Cause of Death": 

“This was the first time we actually planned, wrote and really had a budget to record, so it was a pretty exciting time for us. Watching Scott Burns (producer) actually cut up tape to edit is still crazy to me,” recalls Tardy with a chuckle. 

Nobody was laughing in Tampa. This sleepy, muggy, seaside stopover for tourists was quickly becoming a hotbed for angry, aggressive and brutal music. Why? Or more importantly, how? In his book “Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal”, Ian Christe opines that perhaps “the boundless energy came from the water--as Ponce de Leon believed centuries earlier during his doomed search for the Fountain of Youth. In any case the climate was a torrid cauldron for musical agitation, an unholy promised land as far from the cool mist of grunge Seattle as geographically and philosophically possible.”

Chuck Klosterman, in his vital look at mid-80s glam metal “Fargo Rock City”, makes mere mention of Death Metal as a sub-genre: “I suppose it’s possible that these kinds of groups inherited some of their ideas from the goth scene, and it’s just as possible that savvy death metal groups simply stole the sexy brand of satanism practiced by the Crue, Maiden and all three of Glenn Danzig’s projects. . .  perhaps there is a societal aspect to this world and I’m just not seeing it. There’s still a thriving death metal scene in Florida, so maybe the presence of old people makes the concept of death more pertinent.”  

Arielle Stevenson, a staffer at the St. Petersburg Times, wrote about the burgeoning scene. “Seattle has grunge and the Bronx has hip-hop but Tampa lays claim to the cradle of hardcore death metal. . . If the Tampa Bay area has one signature musical legacy, this dark, devilish sound may be it.” Said sound was nurtured by Morrisound Studios, recording early Death Metal bands like Nasty Savage, Death, Deicide and Morbid Angel. 

Tom Morris is quoted in the Stevenson piece as saying that neither he nor his brother were familiar with death metal. “It was a unique sound at the time these bands were creating. It was fast everything and loud everything, which is different from a pop record where everything has its own place. In a fast thrash blast beat, there is no space, notes are everywhere. It was and still is a challenge.” 

A bigger challenge was selling the sound to the masses. In Christe’s book, he quotes Monte Conner, an exec from Obituary’s label, Roadrunner: “With Obituary, whether we spent twenty thousand dollars promoting something or two hundred thousand dollars, we’d sell the same amount of records.” 

That was just fine with John Tardy. When we asked him what his hopes for a record like Cause of Death was, he said the band never set out with a set of goals. “I don't think we ever really have a goal or purpose. We do not think that much about it or look too far into it.We always just have a good time writing. [We] write what we like and it is what is.”

Fans see it a bit differently. Just glean some of the reviews and quotes left by fans at music’s mega-merchant, Amazon.com. Bay Area Thrasher writes: “What I got was a slow, groove-laden but very heavy album with some of the most bizarre vocals I’ve heard in Death Metal.” From Angelofmorbidity: “John’s lyrics are pretty unintelligent, but hey thre (sic) fun and cool, especially for that time period when death metal was just beginning.” And another anonymous reviewer may have missed the record’s intent or even that of humanity, but it’s interesting to read: “The riffs are simplistic--just like human hatred and human evil in general.” Okay then.

This was not the template for death metal, and "Slowly We Rot", the band's first release may even be a better album. Some fans prefer the shorter, thrashier songs compared to the meatier, fleshed out tracks on Cause of Death. For our money, COD was a benchmark album helping to bridge the gap between thrash and progressive Death Metal while helping to solidify the Tampa Bay death metal scene, ensuring the genre had a solid base to build upon. Thus, the record is a true “Metal Masterwork.” Next month, BTH explores another Metal Masterwork.

NOTE: Mr. Tardy says Obituary are working on the follow-up to their fantastic 2009 release, “Darkest Day.”  “It’s still in the early stages. . . but we are having a good time with it. Not sure when it will be released, but we are in no hurry with it. Donald and I are also working on a new Tardy Brothers Bloodline album.”