So Obituary’s last album, Xecutioner’s Return was a pretty good album let down by some seriously self indulgent guitar playing from Ralph Santolla. I approached this new album with a fair amount of caution and quite honestly expected another album’s worth of better than average death metal with way too much lead guitar from Santolla. I think the band has managed to make a better album this time around. It’s still not as good as Frozen in Time which really was a kick ass comeback but the band sound a bit more assured on this latest offering and Santolla’s guitar playing isn’t as distracting as it was on the previous album.

List of Dead starts proceedings with a typical Santolla flourish but before I could say more of the same, the band goes off into a Slayer inspired riff with John Tardy doing his trademark vocals. Kickass opener and things are off to a good start. Blood to give has a kickass groove reminding me of Redneck Stomp from Frozen in Time while Lost is pretty much vintage Obituary with its mid paced death metal riff and another manic performance from Tardy. Title song Your Darkest Day is the highlight of the album and reminds me a bit of Infected from Cause of Death with its death metal as a slow dirge.The news isn’t always great though.  Truth be Told on the other hand borrows a Six Feet Under riff and sounds pedestrian while This Life, See Me Now and Fields of Pain drag the album along and become background noise very quickly.

Santolla turns in a much more restrained performance this time around and isn’t half as distracting as he was on the last album. For the rest of the band, it’s pretty much business as usual which is a good thing. John Tardy still sounds like he’s coughing up great gobs of phlegm when he’s growling and the rhythm section of Watkins and Tardy are as good as they’ve ever been. Also, the songs benefit from a very sludgy sound that works well and adds to the heaviness.

The album tapers off in the second half and is probably a good three songs longer than it needed to be. Still, overall, this is a pretty enjoyable album from one of the founding fathers of the genre and a bit better than the bands last effort.

Label: Candlight

Year of release: 2009