Oh dear, what to say about this album. Obituary Slowly We Rot. I was a bit young when this one came out and as a result was unable to comprehend the awesomeness of this album. I wanted to like it. I was buying all the cool metal magazines at the time and the advertisements for this were spectacular. This was billed as the “Deadest of Death metal”. I had been listening to Sodom, Gwar and Napalm Death at the time but this was a little beyond what I could comprehend.
It was only a few months later when I went out to the record shop and bought “Cause of Death” (Their second album) and I loved it instantly. The only thing I could do once I got over the shell shock of how briliant “Cause of Death” was to go back and get this album. I’m happy I did too! This is another one of those albums that literally opened the doors to the gates of hell, from which many other death metal bands would spew forth from.
I like this album a lot. I don’t like it as much as their next album “Cause of Death” but this is a damn fine album. This is when Obituary still played fast. I love fast metal. But Obituary carved out a unique niche for themselves by playing slow. The vocals on this. Holy shit. It literally sounded like someone was pulling this dudes entrails out of his ass whilst recording it on tape. This is torment. I have no idea what demons drove John Tardy to sing and perform the way he did, but lordy, lord. This was DEATH METAL. This stuff so extreme for the time that you either like it or you don’t. There was no half measures. The stand-out track on this would be the title track “Slowly we Rot”. It’s got the slow. It’s got the fast. It’s got everything that death metal needs.
As far as influences go, I’d have to say this would have been hugely influenced by Death, Celtic Frost / Hellhammer and also their fellow statesman, Nasty Savage. Even though I didn’t totally get it when it came out, I have to pay this as a masterpiece of its time.
For more great Heavy Metal album reviews be sure to keep checking back on Metalhed.com as regularly as you can!