Album review: Six Feet Under “Nightmares of the Decomposed”
Florida death metal is not dead. Chris Barnes and his Six Feet Under chaps return with an uncompromising new album.
Six Feet Under is a Florida death metal band seemingly, and unsurprisingly, obsessed with the subject of death. From the band name to the album cover, the album title, the song titles (“The Rotting”, “Death Will Follow”, “The Noose”, “Dead Girls Don’t Scream”, “Drink Blood, Get High” and so on), the lyrics and beyond, it’s all a bit tongue-in-cheek and over the top. Six Feet Under was founded in 1993 as a side project to Chris Barnes’ main gig in the band Cannibal Corpse. When Barnes was kicked out of that band, Six Feet Under became his main focus. They released their debut album “Haunted” in 1995 and soon established themselves as one of the biggest death metal bands in the US. The new studio album, “Nightmares of the Decomposed”, is an uncompromising show of strength. In the current line-up of the band, Barnes is joined by two other former Cannibal Corpse members – guitarists Ray Suhy and Jack Owen – as well as two former Vile and Brain Drill members – bassist Jeff Hughell and drummer Marco Pitruzzella. The music is often slow-ish and doomy yet crushing death metal. But there are some faster tracks, such as “Amputator”. The music is extreme and punishing and it has a tremendous underground quality to it. On the surface, initially, some of the music sounds primitive and a bit like meat-and-potatoes, but then there is often a groove in the music and some glorious guitar solos do come into the picture. Those touches make the songs less straightforward, more complex and more interesting. The Japanese edition comes with two terrific bonus tracks, “Violent Eruption” and “Midnight in Hell”.
Six Feet Under’s album “Nightmares of the Decomposed” will be released on 2nd October in Japan via Ward Records and Metal Blade Records internationally.
