If you had told me in 1995 that down the road I would be reviewing the 19th album, Next to Die, from Six Feet Under, I would have said No Way!! I was very fortunate to have toured with them when I was in Internal Bleeding, with our first album Voracious Contempt, and Immolation was on the tour, and Six Feet Under in support of their debut album, Haunted. To this day, I still love that album, and it’s the band’s best album.
The 19 albums reflect all their cover albums too, and honestly, I am not a fan of those. Past the band’s fourth album True Carnage, 25 years ago, I felt the band started going downhill. A never-ending revolving door of members. When former Cannibal Corpse / Deicide guitarist Jack Owen entered the picture in 2017, the riffs started to become catchier and the songs a bit better. Let’s not forget they have one of the best death metal drummers around with Marco Pitruzzella (Anomalous, Sleep Terror, ex- Vile, ex-The Faceless, ex-Brain Drill), manning the helm for over a decade. Ray Suhy on guitars and Jeff Hughell on bass. The band is completed by legendary frontman Chris Barnes. Barnes has had his vocal struggles over the course of the SFU discography. Many of his high-pitched ‘eeeeessss’, ‘ahhhhhssss’ over the last several albums have bordered on comical, I will say. Never saw any real positive reviews over the course of their last several albums, mainly due to his vocals. They have started to get weaker and weaker and crack on albums, and definitely did not do those albums any favors.
The band stays true to their rocking, grooving death metal, but something is brewing on this album that has not been heard from the band in years. Chris’ vocals are actually fairly decent on this, and the songs are much more memorable with quality riffs. Now, did I set the bar low on this album, prior to listening? Perhaps. However, this past weekend I listened to this album quite a lot, and I noticed, while boxing at the gym, I was making that heavy bag my bitch. Chris has scaled back those highs to the point where they are not there. He is comfortable with his mid-range gravelly tone, and he sounds like Barnes.
12 songs in 46 minutes and opening with “Approach Your Grave”, this is an interesting album opener, as it is a slow, dirgy, and doomy number. The production is pretty darn good to boot. This song is slow, heavy, and filthy, and the lead guitar riff is excellent. The bass guitar is audible, and Barnes sounds good. Again, this is not Haunted or Tomb of the Mutilated Barnes, but his mid-range is audible, enunciated well, and the simplistic SFU formula helps with his vocals now. I would not open their live set with this song. But it’s a good middle-of-a-live-set tune, and my head bobs to this song.
“Destroyed Remains” is a faster number, and Marco has some killer drum rolls. He is trying to make the best of it because his skill set is far above the formula SFU writes and crafts. Some excellent isolated guitar riffs, and Barnes sounds pretty decent over some of the faster moments. The lead guitar riff is catchy, and we get some cool guitar solos, and I can hear a little Deicide influence in the solos. The song is rooted in mid-90’s death metal, and Marco tosses in a slight little blast every so often, but only for like 2 seconds, but still it’s very cool.
The band has always had some tongue-in-cheek chorus moments over the years, and “Mister Blood and Guts” is that one such song. It is so catchy, and while there is a dip in some of the vocal moments, Chris comes across as growly talking. Just him saying the title over and over in the beginning, for me, is catchy AF. Now, there are times a band will pay homage to an earlier band as a sign of respect. The song ” Rock ‘ N ‘ Death Rolls ” goes along, and the chorus repeats multiple times. When the vocals, tonnage, and phrasing of “Arriving as the living, Leaving as the dead, Aisles are filled with blood, Seats are filled with heads” now go to the classic Death song “Zombie Ritual”. Listen to the chorus moment when Chuck sings “Drifting from the living, joining with the dead Zombie dwelling maggots, now infest your head”. Whether it’s an homage or the band poached it from Death, it is almost perfectly replicated on this SFU album. I will take it as an homage to Death. Check it out, you will hear exactly what I am hearing – it’s fun.
“Grasped from Beyond” sounds like it could have been on Haunted. I am serious. The same galloping technique, and again, while simplistic in nature, it has a really nice lead guitar riff, and the band knows what they like, and they write what they like. Nice time changes, to the mid-paced double bass moments, and again some Deicide-inspired guitar solos, from Jack. Some excellent double bass moments as well, with Barnes growling “Grasped from Beyond” until the song ends. “Unmistakable Smell of Death” gets into brutality with blast beats and is definitely one of the best songs on here.
The album cover almost looks like something Carnifex would have on their albums a few albums ago, and it’s a pretty cool cover. Will Six Feet Under’s Next to Die blow you outta the water? Nope. Will you be pleasantly surprised at the improvements? I believe you will be. The band is very popular still, especially in Europe, and the band members know where their bread and butter lies, am I right?!? However, can Jack or Marco put out more intricate and brutal types of songs with another band? Absolutely! I look at it like this with the band, like an NFL team with a QB. They build the team around the strengths of the QB. Six Feet Under writes songs to the strength of Chris Barnes, now. Chris can no longer sing fast. His tones are not what they used to be; however, Chris has also made adjustments on this album with his vocals. He stays in his mid-range for the most part. He gets deeper here and there as well. There are the talky type of growly moments, but those cringy eeeeesssss etc… have taken the proverbial back seat on this album.
If you, like me, were a fan of the band’s first four albums but have been less than impressed with their output since, I urge you to give this a listen, with openness. I am enjoying the catchiness of this album and the improvements with Barnes on vocals. Call me a sucker, but I am digging this album!
