Album Review: Six Feet Under - Nightmares Of The Decomposed

This is a review I shouldn't be writing. No, not because Six Feet Under is a death metal band, and I rarely make forays into that genre. It's because Six Feet Under, even in death metal circles, is regarded as a laughing stock. They have put out so much lousy music over the years they engender little respect, and that's not even including their "Graveyard Classics" series, wherein they have put to tape some of the worst ever versions of classic songs. Six Feet Under are a terrible band, the popular opinion goes, so why did I listen to their new album?

I have a morbid curiosity to see just how bad it can get.

It stars and ends with Chris Barnes, whose murderous lyrics were at one time revolutionary. Now, however, he is a weak and lazy writer who strings together violent sounding words with no grammar or syntax to make them have any sense. He is throwing whatever he can at the wall, hammering square pegs into the round holes. Just the writing is enough to disregard this record, but the problems are far deeper than just a lyricist who can't realize his won weakness.

Chris Barnes is also shot as a vocalist. When he was in Cannibal Corpse, he helped to define what growling would sound like for decades to come. Later, as he kept abusing his voice by smoking whatever he could get his hands on, he would become more indecipherable as he started to cover his flaws by going deeper into ranges he couldn't control. He was getting lazy with his delivery, and the music became more insufferable every time out.

Now, his voice is completely gone. He doesn't growl, or bark, or have any voice to speak of. His delivery is a dry croak, a sound I've heard before from singers who have reached the end of their career. The years of abuse have caught up to his voice, which is now painful and practically unlistenable. If I were the label, I would have refused to release this record, because putting a man's physical failure out for the world to hear is a disservice to him. It will only encourage him to continue letting himself fall apart, because people won't tell him he needs to put in the work to improve.

It goes even beyond Chris Barnes. The music and songwriting throughout this album is as pedestrian and lackluster as it comes, with riffs that would have been generic even in 1998, and vocal deliveries that don't even sound like they are trying to fit the music. This album is the perfect embodiment of why outsiders say death metal is nothing but tuneless noise. This album really is that bad. Try to find a riff you can hum to yourself, or a vocal line. There isn't one, and that's the whole problem. You can remember "Hammer Smashed Face". Deicide's "The Stench Of Redemption" is catchy in it's own weird way. Bloodbath's "Like Fire" could be turned into a mainstream rock song, the hook is that good. Six Feet Under have none of that.

I'll give the band credit for one thing; if death metal is to be taken literally as a genre name, maybe Six Feet Under is actually good at what they do. I'm not sure I've ever heard a band that sounds more like they are dying than this. If they didn't already have a long history of being terrible, I would feel sorry for Six Feet Under. No one this bad should be given a push into the spotlight. My language is kind compared to how this album will be talked about by most people.