Six Feet Under – “Unborn”

Now I know, amongst death metal circles, it is something akin to treason, but I have be honest when I say that I’ve always found the death metal peddled by Six Feet Under to be a bit m’eh. I know, I know, it’s Chris Barnes and he was in Cannibal Corpse in a time when they redefined death metal but, I’ve never found any of his post-“Hammer Smashed Face” output in Six Feet Under to be anywhere near as potent or unrelentingly sickening.

Sadly, much the same can be said about Unborn, the latest offering from the Six Feet Under crypt. Don’t get me wrong, Unborn does have its moments like the groovy, moshy “Prophecy”, a track which displays the sort of traits that, should there be more of them on Unborn, would certainly drag me back for further listens.

Disappointingly though, for every “Prophecy” or every B-movie horror-death ‘n’roll metal track like “Zombie Blood Curse”, there are uninspiring, run-of-the-mill moments like “Incision”. I think what the problem is that, on tracks like “Zombie Blood Curse”, you get to see Six Feet Under in full flow but, you know that some of the material a seasoned pro like Barnes could probably knock out in his sleep and, like the aforementioned horror movies, the end result leaves you feeling a little like you could have spent your time doing something more satisfying.

I think the problem arises from the fact that, during his Cannibal days, Barnes was partially responsible for shifting the boundaries of heavy music, whereas you listen to some of the Six Feet Under material and you’re left wondering if Barnes has discs full of this stuff that he churns out with little effort required on his part. There is no doubting his place in the heavy metal history books but, sometimes you just yearn to hear such an icon of extreme metal delivering something more than an album that is, at best, pedestrian.

Track Listing:

01. Neuro Osmosis
02. Prophecy
03. Zombie Blood Curse
04. Decapitate
05. Incision
06. Fragment
07. Alive to Kill You
08. The Sinister Craving
09. Inferno
10. Psychosis
11. The Curse of Ancients

Run Time: 36:05
Release Date: March 18, 2013

Check out the song “Zombie Blood Curse”