Six Feet Under

True Carnage (Metal Blade)
by Martin Popoff

Six Feet Under and Cannibal Corpse are consistently Metal Blade’s top-selling acts, and both are relentless corpse-chopping death metal killing machines, at least lyrically. Six Feet Under, however, have created a niche by slowing down, simplifying, and in an odd way, shoe-gazing (blue-hazing?) their way through hypnotic, crunchy mainstream metal riffs. True Carnage stays this course, offering tasty, punchy songs, but there is a sharp, bitter-tasting difference. Chris Barnes is a rasta-man on fire. His vocals are drier (when he’s not using his new Dani Filthy gurgly caw) and his lyrics are flagrantly, shamelessly blood-feasting, idiotic, to the point, gleefully dismembering. Brian Slagel’s production is both power-packed and warmly rumbling, and the band respond with a coterie of riffs that offer both variety and drinkability. The end result is a deliberate step back to the extreme – all of it on the shoulders of Barnes – that might just pull in a few Six Feet Under haters, of which there are many, veritable armies of purists who call these guys the Kiss of death metal. Look for the Ice T cameo, which sticks out like a severed thumb.
(2828 Cochran St. PMB #302 Simi Valley, CA 93065)