Six Feet Under

Six Feet Under – Torment Review

Six Feet Under – Torment Review

“As anyone whose late teenage years were lost in a fog of Jägermeister and regret will tell you, lessons learned the hard way often stay with you the longest; fuck things up badly enough and you won’t repeat the same mistake again anytime soon. There are, however, a few hardy souls upon whom this principle is destined to be forever lost—people to whom common sense and reason are just meaningless buzzwords dreamt up by the establishment. People like Chris Barnes.” Fight the power!

Morta Skuld – Wounds Deeper Than Time Review

Morta Skuld – Wounds Deeper Than Time Review

“The process of quantifying quality is always a capricious thing. Contrary to nature, what I might allow for one band, I may use to vilify another, and we haven’t even begun to touch on the perils of genre favoritism — because, despite any reviewer’s very best attempts to consider a product on its individual merit, there will always be some material that I’ll subconsciously allow an extra furlong of leeway.” Media bias!

Neurogenic – Ouroboric Stagnation Review

Neurogenic – Ouroboric Stagnation Review

“Although death metal forms a sizable chunk of my metal rotation, it’s often maligned offshoot, brutal death, can prove a more awkward pill to swallow and a difficult style to get right. Too often brutal death bands over focus on the sheer obliterating brutality and over-the-top extremity, where decent songwriting becomes an afterthought.” auralboric stagnation?

Autokrator – Autokrator Review

Autokrator – Autokrator Review

“Remember that scene in A New Hope where our rebel heroes get caught in an imperial trash compactor and have to somehow get out before they’re crushed into a Jedi-flavored bullion cube? Autokrator watched that classic escape and thought it would be a great idea to musically explore a similar situation in which R2D2 fails to shut down all of the garbage mashers on the detention level and Han, Leia, Luke, and Chewy are replaced by Stephen O’Malley, Nergal, Chris Barnes, and a the GM Frigidaire 1-18, respectively. It was a stupid, stupid idea.” Nuff said.

Feared – Synder Review

Feared – Synder Review

“Swedish musician Ola Englund is a busy fellow. Between stints helping rejuvenate The Haunted on their solid return to form platter Exit Wounds and breathing a glimmer of life into the caveman corpse of Six Feet Under on their Unborn album, Englund has also built a solid and prolific output with his main band, Feared.” Sometimes simple death is good death.

Six Feet Under – Crypt of the Devil Review

Six Feet Under – Crypt of the Devil Review

“After a few decades in the music industry, Chris Barnes may have his share of enemies, but none can cause the mammoth career damage he regularly inflicts on himself. After what seems like a lifetime of sub par and outright terrible releases from his Six Feet Under project, he finally stumbled onto something decent with 2013s Unborn. Sure, it was still rudimentary, groove-heavy Neanderthal death, but the writing and playing was a big step forward and for once, things didn’t feel like a parody of the genre.” Cup thy hands and shout at the devil.

Massacre – Back From Beyond Review

Massacre – Back From Beyond Review

Massacre holds a special place in the annals of American death metal. They were one of earliest true death metal bands, and along with Death, they started the infamous Florida death metal scene. Hell, original vocalist Kam Lee is even credited with inventing the death metal growl! At one time or another, members of Obituary and Death passed through their ranks and though they released a series of highly influential demos like Aggressive Tyrant, their plans to release a debut album in 1988 were hamstrung when Terry Butler, Rick Rozz and Bill Andrews all jumped ship to record Death’s immortal Leprosy album instead.” The co-originators of American death metal are finally back from beyond with a new album. But should we seal the portal from whence they came?

Death Toll Rising – Infection Legacy Review

Death Toll Rising – Infection Legacy Review

“Monty Python’s Life of Brian had a tagline that said something to the effect of: “See the movie that’s controversial, sacrilegious, and blasphemous. But if that’s not playing, see The Life of Brian.” Remove the satire and replace Life of Brian with Infection Legacy from Canadian death/thrashers Death Toll Rising, and you’ll have a fairly good idea of what you’re getting into here on their follow up to their embarrassingly titled Defecation Suffocation.” A super obscure death/thrash act that’s comparable to a Monty Python classic? If that doesn’t tickle your curiosity bone, you must’ve had it removed.

Six Feet Under – Unborn Review

Six Feet Under – Unborn Review

“Having never been a supporter of Six Feet Under and their caveman, cartoonish take on death metal, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of a few songs on their 2012 album Undead. While the album as a whole was still pretty rancid, there were telltale signs of a band maturing a bit (finally). When I heard they had line up changes, but still had another album ready less than a year out from Undead, it didn’t bode well in my mind for continued maturation. When, it shows what I know, because Unborn is a shockingly big step forward for these guys in terms of writing, playing and all things death related.” Steel Druhm has been mighty harsh to Barnes and Co. in the past, but times change and apparently Six Feet Under can as well. I like these little life lessons!