As far as death metal goes, it doesn’t get much more legendary than Obituary. When they arose from the Florida swamplands in 1985, death metal barely existed. With their down tuned guitars, varied tempos and John Tardy’s unintelligible grunts (he didn’t even have lyrics for some songs), they helped set the stage for everyone who came after them. They recorded several classic albums, took a little break in 1998 and returned in 2005 a little older, a little wiser, but just as nasty and brutal as ever. We talked with founding guitarist Trevor Peres and new bassist Terry Butler (ex-Death, Six Feet Under) prior to their appearance at this year’s Scion Rock Fest in Pomona. Here’s an excerpt: Having been reunited for a while now, how do things differ from the first time around? Peres: It’s different because we’re a little more mature now. I mean, we’re still kids, we still act crazy, do stupid things, but we’re all kind of on the same page. We can communicate better. If there is an issue or problem, we can work through it. I think when we were younger, it was easier to ignore a problem and not work through it. When you get five people together, it’s like a family. It’s more of a family now than ever. I met Donald [Tardy] and John [Tardy] in 1980, so that’s, what, 31 years? I’m 41 now, so I met them when I was 10 years old. I’ve known them longer than I’ve known some of my cousins. How do you feel your post-reunion work compares to the classic material? Peres: It’s real heavy. To me, that’s what Obituary is. It’s the same thing, in a way. Butler: To me, coming into the band a year ago, I’ve known Trevor and Donald and John for a long time, but from my point of view the music sounds a little more thought out, a little more together, a little more mature. From front to end, it’s like a complete song. Not that the others weren’t before, but it feels like now you have your beginning, your climax, your lead and then you finish off the song. They just sound like classic songs. I understand you guys actually have lyrics now. Butler: That’s even more a part of the maturity process! Peres: No central meaning to them, but actual words now.
Do you feel that it’s limiting to just be expected to put out Obituary material, or is that how your brain works anyway? Peres: I do what I want to do for music. I want to write this heavy, Celtic Frost/Slayer style brutal music, and that’s what we do. I don’t really care if a journalist says, “Oh, it’s the same old thing.” Yeah, so is AC/DC! Butler: When a band has their style, why break it? Rush are always going to play Rush songs. AC/ DC aren’t going to start playing reggae. Obituary is going to play Obituary music. Why change it? How does it feel to be such a big inspiration to newer generations of bands? Butler: Old. Peres: It’s pretty weird to be an influence to young kids. I never expected that. Ever. I remember the first day our first album came out, in 1989, holding the vinyl in my hand and going, “Killer! We got an album!” We were just a bunch of young kids having fun playing music. And then, Obituary broke up at one point, and I did a little side project band. I was on tour in Europe a few times, and there were younger bands on tour with me, and I was opening up for them most of the time, but they were always telling me, “You influenced us so much!” I thought it was kind of weird, because it was just coming out at that point that we were influential. It’s cool, though. I don’t even know how to describe it. Why do you think that death metal has endured as a genre? Peres: The music is real. I said this years and years ago, when people would ask me, “Do you think death metal will continue forever?” I was like, “I don’t really know,” but I consider it kind of like blues music, on the same kind of level. I think there will be death metal going forever, real death metal. Like, my children, when they were infants, I’d put on some Celtic Frost and they’d stop crying and go, “Whoa, what’s that?” You feel it. obituary.cc Watch an interview and live performances from Obituary at Scion Rock Fest at scionav.com/rockfest