OBITUARY 'Spent Almost Four Years' Writing New Album 'Inked In Blood'

Riff-Mag.com conducted an interview with drummer Donald Tardy of Florida death metallers OBITUARY on August 17 at the Motorcultor Festival in Saint-Nolff, France. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On OBITUARY's ninth studio album, "Inked In Blood":

Donald: "The new album's unbelievable. We spent almost four years writing the album, so it was a long time in the making. And then we actually took it to another level. We recorded the album on our own in our own studio, and we mixed it and produced it ourselves in Tampa, and we could not be more excited about how it turned out."

On what keeps OBITUARY motivated to keep touring, sometimes under less-than-ideal conditions:

Donald: "It's the passion for the music. I know my fans want music, they want OBITUARY in their town, so that's why we're committed. We're committed to playing every corner of the planet and we're committed to playing as many festivals as possible. And it's not easy, and Lord knows it's not easy for the bandmembers, especially at this age. At 20 years old, it wasn't easy, but at 45, it's not easy. It's fun playing drums, it's playing onstage, but that's one hour of the day. The rest of it is travel and planes, trains and automobiles."

"Inked In Blood" will be released on October 28 via OBITUARY's new partnership with Relapse Records. You can pre-order the disc at Relapse.com.

OBITUARY's first full-length CD in over five years was recorded by the band this past April at its own RedNeck Studio in Gibsonton, Florida.

"Inked In Blood" track listing:

01. Centuries Of Lies
02. Violent By Nature
03. Pain Inside
04. Visions In My Head
05. Back On Top
06. Violence
07. Inked In Blood
08. Deny You
09. Within A Dying Breed
10. Minds Of The World
11. Out Of Blood
12. Paralyzed With Fear

The song "Visions In My Head" can be streamed in the YouTube clip below.

The album recording was funded by an extremely successful Kickstarter campaign in late 2013. Now the band has partnered with Relapse worldwide to maximize the release and impact of what is surely their heaviest and most cohesive record in 20 years.

The group elaborated on the decision to create the Kickstarter campaign and sign with Relapse.

"We always knew that our fans were some of the most devoted fans on the planet and they proved it by stepping up, being a part of something new and supporting us with our Kickstarter campaign," says the band. "This was an amazing display of true fan support and we could not be more proud of everyone who helped raise the money to record this album by pre-ordering it, buying all the cool stuff we offered and just being a part of something that we believe will be the way of the future. Now we have teamed up with Relapse Records to have them get this new album out there, in stores and available to the fans worldwide.

"We are very excited about our partnership with Relapse and are looking forward to working beside them with the release. They are a great label and super-cool people who have shown us that they are excited to have OBITUARY on their roster and are ready to push this album to its fullest potential."

OBITUARY is:

John Tardy - Vocals
Trevor Peres - Guitar
Donald Tardy - Drums
Terry Butler - Bass
Kenny Andrews - Guitar