Florida death metal icons Obituary are looking ahead to the future, both in terms of touring alliances and new material. In a fresh interview with Alejandro Bonilla Carvajal of the Colombian outlet “Alejandrosis,” vocalist John Tardy offered updates on the band’s creative schedule and weighed in on the logistics of a potential genre-defining tour.
Regarding the follow-up to their recent studio efforts, Tardy admitted that the cycle of recording and touring has lengthened over the years. However, he confirmed that the band intends to get serious about compiling ideas this year, eyeing a potential release window around 2027.
“Yeah. It’s tough,” Tardy explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “You come out with an album nowadays and it takes us that three, four, five years just to kind of cover all the territory [on tour] and get things done. But we’re always collecting rhythms and ideas and songtitles and things like that all day long. It’s kind of what we do. Every time you soundcheck or something, Trevor [Peres, Obituary guitarist] just turns his amp on or something, and you’re in a cool room and he’ll come up with something and always just kind of go over to his phone, record a little bit, this and that. So you’re always collecting stuff. We’ve just been so busy, but it is kind of our goal to go ahead and start putting some of that stuff together this year and getting some of these ideas put down and start that slow process towards maybe doing another release here, maybe next year or so.”
The conversation also turned to recent comments made by guitarist Jack Owen (ex-Cannibal Corpse, ex-Deicide), who suggested that a “Big Four” tour of Florida death metal—uniting Morbid Angel, Deicide, Obituary, and Cannibal Corpse—was unlikely due to a lack of friendship and conflicting egos among the bands.
Tardy dismissed the notion that ego would ever stop Obituary from participating in such an event.
“[Laughs] That’s not us. You know what? We have personally always been that band for as long as I can remember… And I know there’s lots of bands that would show up and they might say, ‘Oh, we’re better than you. We wanna play after you,’ or, ‘We wanna headline’ and this and that,” Tardy said. “And you can even see with a lot of the tours that we do, we have no problem in the world opening for anybody. I don’t really care. It doesn’t bother me whatsoever to open for anybody else. And I would open for Cannibal Corpse or Deicide on any given day. And maybe some other bands always aren’t like that. Maybe they feel like they should be a headlining band and maybe that means something to them. It doesn’t matter to us. We like to drink and party a lot, so if to get on earlier in the night and get done and then go ahead and start drinking, I’m totally down with that. [Laughs]”
He went on to express a specific desire to hit the road with Glen Benton and Deicide sooner rather than later.
“Yeah, you know what? We’ve done a couple of tours with Cannibal Corpse, and we have told Glen [Benton, Deicide frontman] before that we wanna do some tours with them before we’re all too old to do it. And he keeps promising that we’ll get together and do something. So, it wouldn’t surprise me [if we did something together].”
To illustrate the close ties that still exist between veteran metal bands, Tardy shared a personal anecdote about a recent visit from Testament‘s frontman.
“We’ve been friends with Testament for the longest of time and finally just went and got to do our first European tour with Testament, which was fun for us. I know they’re not a Florida band, but they’re friends of ours from long ago. And Steve DiGiorgio [Testament bassist] is a really good friend. We actually had [Testament singer] Chuck Billy — [he] just flew in the town this weekend. Me and my brother, we went golfing with Chuck and went and had some dinner and stuff and hung out with him. So that was a lot of fun. But it wouldn’t surprise me, and hopefully here sometime soon we get to at least maybe do some shows with Deicide, for sure.”
Earlier in January, Obituary have announced plans for a headlining tour across the United States this March. The run will feature support from Castrator and Intoxicated on most dates, alongside two high-profile support slots opening for Acid Bath.
Obituary March 2026 Tour Dates:
- March 19 – Gainesville, FL – The Wooly (no Castrator)
- March 20 – Birmingham, AL – The Canteen
- March 21 – Pelham, TN – The Caverns (with Acid Bath, Herakleion and Saint Avangeline)
- March 22 – Memphis, TN – 1884 Lounge
- March 24 – Oklahoma City, OK – 89th Street
- March 25 – Columbia, MO – The Blue Note
- March 27 – Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves
- March 28 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall (with Acid Bath and High On Fire)
- March 29 – New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s
