Obituary drummer Donald Tardy revealed in a recent interview with 'Chaoszine' that the band's long-awaited follow-up to their 2017 self-titled album is completed. However, he stated that the record is not expected to be released until the band is able to tour Europe. As previously reported, Obituary are embarking on the 'East Coast RedNeckRun III' next month with Gruesome and 200 Stab Wounds.

Tardy said: I can proudly tell you that the new album is finished. But I can also tell you that until this pandemic opens up Europe, we will not release this album until we are invited back to Europe. Because the only thing that albums are good for now, and some people won't agree with this, especially fans, is that it's there to get people talking about the band so when we get ready to go tour, we can make a living because nobody - and I don't mean nobody as in zero percent - but the percentage of people actually walking to a Best Buy or walking to a store and physically buying one of my albums compared to 18 years ago, as you can imagine, is nil. So we have to wait for the prime opportunity to release this thing so everybody wants to go and get it. And the prime opportunity is when Europe is open, when America is open, we can release it and we can be in Europe and we can go bust our asses and hope that people go and buy the new album. 'Cause everyone is listening to it, but we're all listening to it on Spotify and on these streaming sites, and that doesn't do musicians like myself, it doesn't do us any good because we don't get royalties from those companies. The new album is done and it is fucking awesome! But you guys are going to have to have patience. We're going to wait until Europe opens up. It is Obituary, absolutely 100%, meat and potatoes, but with Ken's [Andrews, guitarist] influence and him able to write a few songs with me on this one, he brings a much more old-school thrash metal feel. So it's fresh, it's killer, it's exciting on some of those songs, but then also the meat and potatoes, there are some songs that are so heavy on this record, man. I'm so proud of it. I can't wait for people to hear it. And the production - we recorded it at our studio and then we sent it off to Joe Cincotta, my boy who's done the last four albums with us. He did an amazing job; the sound of this record is fantastic. I can't wait for everybody to hear it. We're working on the album cover right now. And we are now just waiting for the target date that we're gonna release it."

Source:	youtube.com
Band profile:	Obituary