Metal Reviews
Metal Reviews
SIX FEET UNDER |
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Not since the initial public
offering of this DeathCore outfit have we heard such extreme wailing's
in fatal portrait painting-a blood-spurting cataclysm that's the audio
equivalent of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. |
Graveyard ClassicsSix Feet Under |
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Just in time for "Fright Night…" Six Feet Under present their latest twisted vision in the ghastly form of a number of traditional metal classics, unearthed and massacred beyond recognition… well almost! I have to admit to doing a double take when Savatage's ancient "Holocaust" came blurting out. Building on their usual inclination to revisit and reinterpret the work of one classic artist or another on their records-they've covered the likes of Kiss, Priest and Holocaust up to now, Six Feet Under have made some pretty impressive strides in taking the whole dogma of Death Metal and bringing it further along in the public ranks. Not that they've ever needed to compromise their style… but then again, their style's always been one that embraces tradition-a usually sadistic one in any case-but the sharp riffs and the basic structures within the songs have always drew upon the late great classics of the past… and then there's Barnes to top it all off with that painful drone! There's not one song done here that doesn't deserve to be among anyone's classic list, Death, Punk, Metal or otherwise. That's not to say however that the average listener's gonna go out and pick "Son of a Bitch" or "Stepping Stone" out of a crowd… (Hey didn't The Monkees…) but how about the idea of covering Exodus' "Piranha," or Angelwitch's "Confused?" Confused? Then try this one out-they do a cover of The Scorpions' "Blackout" and manage to somehow get John Bush to lend his chops in the background-no, I'd imagine you don't want to "find out!" And one can only wonder what'll become of the poor soul after this. The true test of SFU's capabilities is whether or not they'll embarrass themselves tackling tunes that helped define three different eras in hard rock music. They don't, but they are an acquired taste… a sour one at that! Barnes gets downright irritating at times to the point where you want to clear your own throat for fear of gagging, yet that's just him. And so much for dreams of desecration… the songs basically sound like they're supposed to! The band plays on and does a halfway decent job and throws a few shovels of dirt to cover the holes from time to time but this is Death Metal so you're supposed to fuckup! In case anyone was expecting happy whistling tunes on a pleasant evening stroll past the graveyard, guess again and try to rest easy in finally accepting the truth… that all of your heroes are dead… dead and buried! Released by Metal Blade Records
GmbH, P.O. Box 1332, 73054 Eislingen, Germany.
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"True Carnage" Six Feet Under |
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"Knife to the gut… Gun to the head… Axe to the neck… Dead." Such concludes the well devised "Knife Gun Axe" track basically spelling out all anyone needs to know about the new Six Feet Under record-they ain't takin' no prisoners so stay the fuck out of their way! Crushing is perhaps the polite way to put what "True Carnage" is all about… for any more severe description, one need only skim the pages of the insert booklet-in a well-lit room of course. Their fourth full length is an exercise in putridity in the finest Corpse-like tradition, something they got a little away from on a few of their gratuitously ghoulish past works, no less severe, simply not quite as wrenching as this one. A bitter taste first forms in your mouth-moments before the foam starts spewing-right from the sinister opening grind of "Impulse to Disembowel," and early on we find Barnes' growl in fine form, bark and bite on parallel levels of intensity. SFU has launched an all out campaign against their Death Metal peers with this one-a bloody reunification between band, lyrics and song, driven by anger fed destruction-a head twisting convulsive action that makes full use of blinding speed, indecipherable noise crossbred with Demonic lust, a savage beating bore of contempt-role-playing butchers who'll have their say at the cost of more than a few lives. "One Bullet Left"
will be the one cynics will jump on, featuring the vocal "talents"
of Ice-T, never short on opinions or a variety of F-words, featuring
a chiseling riff to both carry the tune as well as the remains of
the bodies after all's A horrific return to the "Haunted" days when pain and sickness devoured a still sound mind unknowing of what was waiting in the dark…also features CD-Rom bonus video for "The Day The Dead Walked," as if listening and losing ten years off your life wasn't enough, welcome to your future. Released by Metal
Blade Records GmbH, P.O. Box 1332, 73054 Eislingen, Germany. Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu] P.O. Box 20252
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