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SIX FEET UNDER
Undead

Metal Blade (2012)
Rating: 6/10

A lot of Six Feet Under fans are heralding this as the band’s best, but as we all know it’s a matter of opinion. I was a big fan of the Florida band’s 1995 debut, Haunted, and some nine albums down the line Six Feet Under are still producing high quality lashings of gore and horror.

It must be said however, this isn’t Chris Barnes’ (ex-Cannibal Corpse / ex-Leviathan / ex-Tirant Sin) strongest vocal performance in my opinion, and on slower, blood-soaked tracks such as ’18 Days’ his vocals seem relatively weak, especially as they try to complement the twisted guitar attack of Steve Swanson (ex-Massacre) and Rob Arnold (ex-Chimaira).

Even so, Undead is still 12 depraved death metal dirges that combine some truly ugly riffs with the impressive drums of new guy Kevin Talley (Dååth / ex-Chimaira / ex-Misery Index / ex-Dying Fetus), who one moment can effortlessly provide some fantastic hyper work, the next his cymbals crashing as if they were a tolling bell.

The band, especially Barnes, do seem more focused and tighter on this opus. Talley’s drums kick in like a mule on ‘Formaldehyde’, and as those nefarious riffs twist and turn, Barnes provides his best vocal on the album; his distinctive guttural growl only weakening it seems at the end of each gargled sentence.

Lyrically Undead is, as expected, rather simplistic, almost naive in approach, and as each track flits by there is little that moves me. This is rather formulaic death metal, solid, sturdy, but like the recent Cannibal Corpse opus, Torture, it provides nothing we haven’t already heard before.

Of course, many will disagree, and they are entitled to their opinion, but while this is still a heavy record with a bottom-end feel to it, nothing really grabs me. ‘Blood On My Hands’ and ‘Missing Victims’ lumber along as rather generic death metal, but maybe I was wrong to expect something more invigorating, and so, despite a few listens, Undead, for all of its 40-minutes, fails to live up to my expectations. Despite the musicianship being accomplished, there is an air of the predictable.

If this had been released in the late 80s or early 90s then it would no doubt have been swallowed by the blossoming Florida scene. But death metal has lost its way somewhat, especially since the recent Morbid Angel atrocity (2011’s Illud Divinum Insanus), and that’s why I constantly find myself slapping on those old Obituary, Gorguts, Monstrosity, Entombed, Atheist et al records. In the modern climate, Six Feet Under’s Undead may be good enough for many, but for me it’s a rather stale affair that I can live without. Sorry.

Neil Arnold

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