Obituary is an American death metal band formed in 1984 in Tampa, Florida under the name Executioner, then changed the name's spelling to Xecutioner, and later changed their name to Obituary in 1988.

The band comprises vocalist John Tardy, drummer Donald Tardy, guitarist Trevor Peres and bassist Terry Butler. The band is a fundamental act in the development of death metal music and one of the most successful death metal bands in the world.

Possessed and Death may have brought death metal to life, but Obituarybrought it to fruition. After releasing some demos as Xecutioner as far back as 1986, the five-man band debuted as Obituary on Roadrunner Records in 1989 with Slowly We Rot, and in a word, the album was landmark. The previous forays into what would quickly become tagged as death metal -- primarily by the above-mentioned bands, Possessed and Death, along with grindcore innovators Repulsion and Napalm Death -- were exercises in relentlessness. These bands took the breakneck abandon of Slayer's Reign in Blood one step further, to the point of sheer, sometimes even ridiculous musical abandon. Obituary, on the other hand, varied their tempo considerably -- and did so at the absolute height of speed metal nonetheless. Yes, the band could play at breakneck speed, but within the same song, guitarists Allen West andTrevor Peres could slow the tempo down to dirge-like levels in a moment's notice, all the while keeping the music as heavy as hell thanks to down-tuned guitars and the snarling vocals of John Tardy. As a result, Slowly We Rot made quite a splash back in 1989, influencing an entire legion of death metal bands in Florida: Morbid Angel, Deicide,Malevolent Creation, Cannibal Corpse, and numerous others now forgotten among the thousands of international bands that followed. In a way, Slowly We Rot was the prototypical death metal album, establishing a template that would come to define the style (one that is distinct from grindcore or black metal, it should be pointed out). A few albums followed -- Cause of Death (1990) and The End Complete (1992) both also very influential -- but by the mid-'90s Obituary had run its course and the band splintered, reuniting now and then. Yet even as the bandmembers went their seperate ways (most notably West going on to much success as the guitarist of Six Feet Under), Obituarycontinued to stand tall as one of the definitive death metal bands, if not the definitive (a distinction that probably goes toDeath, whose James Murphy actually was a bandmember for a while). Their latest, Xecutioners Return was released in August 2007 on the Candleight label.

Obituary was signed with Candlelight Records for its next two albums, Xecutioner's Return (2007) and Darkest Day (2009), as well as the EP Left to Die (2008). A concert DVD release was also announced for January 2010. Since April 2010, Obituary has been working on new material for their ninth studio album, which is due for release in early 2014. This will be the first Obituary album not to be recorded with longtime bassistFrank Watkins since their 1989 debut album Slowly We Rot. According to guitarist Trevor Peres, Obituary does not have a record label, but they have been in talks of signing with Century Media Records.

Since 2012, the band have been highly involved with the promotion of a new social networking site called Unation, as well as Donald Tardy beginning a Cat Sanctuary organization called Metal Meowlisha. In 2013, the band rebuilt their studio, and continued work on the new album, with Tardy claiming that the band's progress in the studio will be documented on the new website.

On Friday, August 2, 2013, the band launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of raising $10,000.00; the money raised was promised to allow Obituary to record and release their ninth album independently. The goal was met in on August 3rd, and is still climbing. Obituary has claimed that if the amount of money earned through the campaign extends to 20,000 dollars, the band will release a 4-part documentary style video filmed at the legendary Morrisound Recording Studios in Tampa, Florida. Morrisound is credited with the popularization of heavy metal, and its sub-genre death metal. The band Obituary recorded their most popular, and still most loved albums of their career at Morrisound. The Kickstarter "Morrisound Experience" documentary is said to be shot over three days in which the band revisited their roots, and will include sets from "Slowly We Rot," "Cause of Death" and "The End Complete."

When interviewed by metal webzine All About The Rock, John Tardy said of the Kickstarter campaign, "This campaign has been awesome and just confirms again what we already know and that is that we have the greatest fans in the world. We are using Kickstarter to raise enough money to release an album on our own. This is not a bash against record companies, it is just what we want to do. Years ago this would not even be a thought, but today we feel everything is in place for us, for better or worse, give it a shot.".