Obituary

Obituary is an American death metal band formed in 1985 in Tampa, Florida under the name Xecutioner and later renamed to Obituary. The band comprises vocalist John Tardy, drummer Donald Tardy, guitarists Trevor Peres and Ralph Santolla and bassist Frank Watkins. The band is a fundamental act in the development of death metal music and one of the most successful bands in its genre.

  Obituary is one of the pioneering bands of the death metal genre. Founded as 'Xecutioner' in Seffner ^{Seffner, Florida} , Florida during 1985. At the time the band was composed of John Tardy (vocals), Allen West (lead guitar), Trevor Peres (guitar), Jerome Grable (bass) & Donald Tardy (drums). They made their vinyl debut in 1987 with two tracks (Find The Arise & Like The Dead) on the Raging Death compilation. Not long after its release Grable was replaced with bassist Daniel Tucker. Shortly before the release of its first album the following year, "Slowly We Rot", they changed their name to Obituary. The band still remains an influential band of the Florida death metal movement that arose in the late 1980s. The 1990 release Cause of Death has been described as a seminal album in the genre, and vocalist John Tardy is recognized as one of the first vocalists to use an abnormally low growl ^{death grunt} (compared to the screechy growls used by predecessors Death ^{Death (metal band)} and Possessed ^{Possessed (band)} ) . Obituary is listed by Nielsen Soundscan as the fifth best-selling death metal band of all time and its albums have sold 368,184 copies; A concert DVD release was also announced for January 2010.

For the beginning of 2010 Obituary has confirmed to join the Summer Breeze Open Air metal music metal festival. The festival will
beginning on August 19th and run to the 21st. The festival features over 50 bands and has brought in 40,000 attendees to Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria, Germany.;Current members
* John Tardy - vocals (1984 / 1997, 2003 / present)
* Donald Tardy - drums (1984 / 1997, 2003 / present)
* Trevor Peres - rhythm guitar (1984 / 1997, 2003 / present)
* Frank Watkins - bass guitar (1989 / 1997, 2003 / present)
* Ralph Santolla - lead guitar (2007 / present)


;Former members
* Allen West ^{Allen West (musician)} - lead guitar (1984 / 1989, 1992 / 1997, 2003 / 2006)
* Jerome Grable - bass (1984-1988)
* James Murphy ^{James Murphy (musician)} - lead guitar (1990)
* Daniel Tucker ^{Daniel Tucker (musician)} - bass guitar (1988 / 1989);Studio albums
*Slowly We Rot (1989)
*Cause of Death ^{Cause of Death (album)} (1990)
*The End Complete (1992)
*World Demise (1994)
*Back from the Dead ^{Back from the Dead (Obituary album)} (1997)
*Frozen in Time (2005)
*Xecutioner's Return (2007)
*Darkest Day (2009)
;Live albums
*Dead ^{Dead (album)} (1998)

;Compilation albums
*Anthology ^{Anthology (Obituary album)} (2001)
*The Best of Obituary (2008)
;EPs
*Don't Care (1994)
*Left to Die (2008)
;DVDs
*Frozen Alive (2006)
*Live Xecution - Party.San 2008 (2010)