Legendary Florida death metallers OBITUARY are in the process of reforming with a view towards releasing a new CD in late 2004 or early 2005. "[Drummer] Donald [Tardy], [guitarist] Allen [West] and I have been working on some new stuff and are thinking about a new album," singer John Tardy told BLABBERMOUTH.NET. "We are just getting started and I know [Donald] has talked to [ex-OBITUARY guitarist] Trevor [Peres] about it, too. Right now we have no timeline or record deal set up, but we are writing songs. If all goes well, [the reunion] would be with all 'original' members [John, Donald, Allen, Trevor and bassist Frank Watkins]."

Although the reformed OBITUARY would likely perform select live shows before and after the recording of a new studio album, there is no truth to the reports that the band will make an appearance at the Sun N' Steel festival in Tampa in early March. "I don't know anything about a Sun N' Steel show...never heard of it," John said.

Formed in 1984 as EXECUTIONER (later shortened to XECUTIONER), OBITUARY are widely considered to be one of the most influential and groundbreaking bands in the death metal genre. After releasing several successful albums in the late Eighties/early Nineties (including the classic 1989 debut "Slowly We Rot" and its equally punishing 1990 follow-up, "Cause of Death"), the band announced their breakup, with John Tardy's disinterest in touring apparently a major factor, according to the Internet heavy metal encyclopedia BNR Metal Pages. Trevor Peres has since started CATASTROPHIC, while Donald Tardy joined Andrew W.K.'s band some time ago.

Band profile:

Obituary