I was surprised when I was assigned with the review of this album simply because I had no idea John and Donald Tardy had formed such a project and they were about to release their debut album. I listened to it one time and there I was in pure silence trying to answer my own questions. Would the course of this project affect OBITUARY in any way? Are the Tardy brothers in anyway tired or bored with their main band? Is the TARDY BROTHERS project something completely different from OBITUARY and they wanted to share it with their fans?

Having a long running history as OBITUARY members, the Tardy brothers are two highly respected members not only in the extreme Metal, but the Metal scene in general. The Florida based death metallers have left their own milestone with albums like Slowly We Rot, Cause Of Death and many more. More than 20 years after the formation of OBITUARY, the brothers had some material of their own that they wanted to release. Thus, they gathered some friends like the guitar architect Ralph Santolla, the original EXECUTIONER guitarist Jerry Tidwell, 19 year old guitar prodigy John Li and long time friend Scott Johnson.

They stated that this project is going to release more albums in the future, inviting well known friends to help them every time. As they said, this is not going to affect OBITUARY. Sorry if I am being suspicious, but this is something that I will have to see. I just love OBITUARY since a little child and I don't want to see unimportant things leading to its demise. One more thing is that their official website mentions that this project has nothing to do musically with OBITUARY. I am sorry but if you take into consideration the groovy parts of OBITUARY you will find enough similarities. It is a groovy version of the Florida Death Metal act to be more precise. John's vocals are exactly the same, Donald's drumming is the same, the guitars have a similar rotten sound.

It is just that the whole thing is based on mid tempo grooves. The more Heavy Metal influences of John and Donald Tardy reach the surface, but these are not so tragic differences that could make me see this project as something totally different from OBITUARY. Musically it is a really good album and I admit I enjoyed it, but I am not sure if it would be the release I would spend my money on. As a buyer I would prefer to wait until the new OBITUARY album.