Six Feet Under - Undead

When Cannibal Corpse and Chris Barnes split, most thought it was the worst thing ever. Then we heard his next band Six Feet Under. There never seemed to be a middle ground with the band; you either loved them or thought they were a complete joke. The first album was ok, but over the years I feel into the latter category. This was especially cemented by their horrific covers albums and the song Amerika the Brutal.

Not too long ago some tracks of this surfaced. A lot of people started praising it. I ignored this. Then a friend who felt the same about the band told me to check it out. Then two more said similar things. I refused to believe the band had put together an awesome album. Well, they did.

Undead is anything but what the title suggests. This albums is heavy and often grooves like crazy. I couldn't believe this was the same band. Well, mostly it's not. Kevin Talley (of Dying Fetus fame) is now on drums and they have a new guitarist (formerly of Chimaira) and bassist. The Chimaira guitarist also recorded bass on the album. If he contributed a lot to this album is doesn't sound like his prior band at all.

These tracks remind a lot of early-mid 90s US death metal. It pulls that off while not sounding like a dated throwback. Some tracks also nicely incorporated traditional metal/hard rock riffs. The groove is ever present and not cheesy at all. They have some real nasty riffing going on here, especially in the opening tracks.

This is without a doubt one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. It's pretty solid start to finish. it has a few problems (mainly some of Barnes vocals sounding weak as hell), but overall it's great. It's technical when it needs to be and grooves when it needs to. The songs are just well put together.

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