Following on from their self-titled 2017 opus, (a magical pre-pandemic era that seems far longer ago than six years!) Floridian death machine Obituary are back and it's a pleasure and a relief to immediately raise a thumbs up and declare the band have done it again, if that means produce a fun album. For some reason the Tardy brothers and friends (here with the same line-up as on their previous two full-lengths) are treated like they're one step away from producing nu-metal in comparison to the boringly consistent likes of Deicide who always have their fans even when the results are less than compelling. And, as seemingly ever with their post-2003-reunion albums, Dying of Everything may not be anything close to the band's still-legendary first couple of releases in quality, but it is a more than solid album and has plenty of meat on the bone to prove life in the old dog yet...

....Although in a direct comparison to the fat-free Obituary, the songs here are a little more complex and a lot less memorable. The Wrong Time bursts out early in the tracklisting with its crispy groove, as infectious as leprosy with those riffs and showing off a little more atmospheric verve with echoing Tardy howls. There's next to nothing experimental at all across the album, with the exception of War beginning with crackling machine gun samples, building up to a crunchy groove stomper. It almost feels like it should have an Ice T guest spot were it not for how bone-jarringly timeless the riffing is. Closer Be Warned takes steps towards doomier territory with a slower pace, yet it's hardly out of the norm for Obituary and isn't evidence of them moving towards, for instance, Asphyx.

There's a vague sense of thrashiness otherwise, which comes across most strongly on opener Barely Alive, which is downright Slayer-esque in its second half, with multiple points where the band seem content to settle into Kerry King-style riffing. Of course, for a band that can trace its roots back to the early 80s it's hardly unexpected, and the plentiful lead guitar across the album (particularly on, for example, the title track and By the Dawn) fits in more than well with what is easily describable as classic death metal approach. And elsewhere, such as My Will to Live and Weaponise the Hate, veteran Obituary fans will be more than at home with the band essentially doing what they've always done, make solid death metal. It can feel like a little bit of a missed opportunity in how unexciting Dying of Everything is if you had higher expectations for the band, yet this is Obituary in their comfort zone, and as such is good enough to be hard not to recommend.