Obituary could punch Brian Slagel in the nuts and still get a record deal with the works added. Why ask for money, especially from your fans? I didn't like the idea. But I felt it was important to keep an open mind and see things from the band's perspective. No record label breathing down their necks; no obligations, creative or contractual, to chain the recording and the release of the album; and total artistic control over the final product. Heard that, Obituary. It says clear as day on Obituary's Kickstarter page that they wanted to make an album strictly for Obituary listeners-the old fogies from back in the day, the new kids who are warming up to death metal, the dudes still rocking a copy of "Slowly We Rot" in their CD players. No lamewad labels allowed.

I suppose it is common in the Kickstarter community to offer 'perks' to funders. Obituary, for instance, offered backers a chance to score exclusive merchandise, or have their name posted in a PDF file listing the project's benefactors if they forked up five bucks, which sounds like a blast if you get off to spending five bucks on a PDF file. Long story short, after what some might consider an autistic amount of research, I coughed up forty dollars. There was no way in Hell I was going to spend a small fortune just to go to a barbeque with the Tardy brothers overcooking my ribs and limiting me to seventeen beers, so forty big ones had to do. Not only did I score a copy of "Inked in Blood," but a combo pack featuring an Obituary t-shirt, an Obituary camo hat, and my name in the PDF file (I couldn't get the Obituary beer koozie without paying more). Worth forty bucks? Hell no, but hey, life is meaningless. Even if the album sucked the big one, I'd be forty bucks in the hole. Big deal.

When my package arrived, stocked full to the brim with Obituary items graced with that good Obituary goodness, I was in awe. Immediately my Obituary shirt and camo hat were placed in their appropriate positions. Together they brought out a side of me that was primitive, manly, some might say that of a cave dweller. Everywhere I went, women were deeply aroused by my presence. The Neanderthalish essence permeating from my exclusive Kickstarter gear made them all sorts of stimulated; I almost needed to hire a cleanup crew to mop up the rivers of girl goo secreting from the you-know-whats of these amazed women. Short, tall, plump, thin, beautiful, ugly-none could resist the allure of my Obituary camo hat and t-shirt. I went to the bar one night, rocking my exclusive Obituary gear, of course. Some dude wanted to kick my ass, but once I showed him the PDF file with my name on it, he backed down and bought me a beer. The magic of Kickstarter at work.

But the whole point of crowdfunding was "Inked in Blood" itself, right? As the album intended to be the band's most liberated effort, the effects of proper songwriting and precision in Obituary's craft are alive and well. While it fails to rival the classics, "Inked in Blood" is the longest Obituary outing, clocking in at fifty minutes. A solid excursion from these death metal juggernauts presented through nonstop violence is nothing out of the ordinary; they've been a consistent band for the most part. The music runs with a familiar theme of refusing to change things up, but why would Obituary make a dramatic shift now? Do they really need to? The answer is no.

"Inked in Blood" is one of the better offerings in the Obituary catalog. It mostly excels by capturing the comprehensive idea of Obituary while not feeling restrained by the band's lack of creative elements (they aren't adventurous songwriters, you know). The lack of diversity among these tunes is rendered null by the constant barrage of solid death metal riffs and grooves constantly being hammered out over John Tardy's shouts, which are excellent as always. I find it hard not to enjoy ultra-heavy groove numbers like "Visions in my Head" that bring out the basic joys of death metal; simple, bruising riffs and stomping rhythms, not much else.

"Centuries of Lies" and "Violence" are a bit more up-tempo, in and out in just a slither over two minutes. It's an Obituary album; no cryptic message hiding in the carnage. The bass has more prominence underneath these tracks, I believe. Perhaps this is due in part to the addition of Terry Butler, or maybe it is mere coincidence, but either way, the role of the bass seems to be more pivotal here than other Obituary works. Towards the end the tracks tend to flow together due to the record's unnatural running time and the general uniformity of Obituary's abilities. Still, "Inked in Blood" is meaty and bloody; death metal for the Paleolithic man in us all.