Six Feet Under: Unborn – new album

He leads and we follow: SIX FEET UNDER. Chris Barnes and his group of fiends this time bring ‘Unborn’, after delivering ‘Undead’ less than a year ago. Mixed by Chris “Zeuss” Harris, ‘Unborn’ is out now in Europe as an exclusive European boxset edition containing the limited digipak of ‘Unborn’ and a bonus track entitled ‘Illusions’, a poster, a patch, two pins, a sticker “plus enough space for last year's ‘Undead’ album!”, and will be unleashed upon North America tomorrow, March 19th, 2012. Visit Metal Hammer here to hear the ‘Prophecy’ and check out ‘Zombie Blood Curse’ lyrics video below and then shop for ‘Unborn’ here (Metal Blade Records):

“The journey to create, write, and record ‘Undead’ and ‘Unborn’ has been the most challenging and exciting musical endeavor and process I have ever been involved with,” [expressed vocalist and founder Chris Barnes] Working with all these amazing writers and musicians like Ben Savage (WHITECHAPEL) on songs like ‘Neuro Osmosis’ and ‘Fragment’ are some of the most dynamic, beautiful, and brutal songs I’ve ever had the pleasure of putting lyrics to. I believe Ben is a true innovator of the death metal genre. It was also a lot of fun working Jari Laine from TORTURE KILLER again. We wrote a great album together a few years back called ‘Swarm!’ [TORTURE KILLER's 2006 album] – one of my favorite releases I’ve been involved with – and Jari is someone who I have really wanted to work with again ever since. I wanted to revisit collaborating with Jari because of how well we work together; proof of that on ‘Unborn’ are the hook heavy sounds of songs like ‘Zombie Blood Curse’ and ‘Incision’.”

Originally a side project for CANNIBAL CORPSE vocalist Chris Barnes and OBITUARY guitarist Allan West, SIX FEET UNDER eventually became a full-time proposition featuring Barnes, West, bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall. This “exciting collaboration” was spotted by Metal Blades' Brian Slagel, who took the band under his wings. SIX FEET UNDER's debut album, ‘Haunted’, was issued in 1995. ‘Alive And Dead’ EP, which presented four live songs off the band's debut album, as well as two new ones and JUDAS PRIEST cover, followed in 1996. According to Jason Birchmeier, AllMusic, SIX FEET UNDER already “fulfilled [their] potential” on second album 1997's ‘Warpath’, “merging Chris Barnes' Godzilla-like growl with West's lumbering, snail-paced riffs” (read the rest here). ‘Warpath’ proved to be the last album recorded with Allan West. In 1998, Steve Swanson became the group's new guitarist; SIX FEET UNDER delivered the goods again (“ridiculously over-the-top vocals spewing tales of death, dismemberment, and other variations on gore and splatter themes” – Steve Huey, AllMuisc – more here) on 1999's ‘Maximum Violence’. The band enriched their catalogue with entertaining cover album entitled ‘Graveyard Classics’ in 2000, and with their fourth full-length, ‘True Carnage’, in 2001. ‘True Carnage’, featuring guest vocalists Ice T and Karyn Crisis, peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Heatseeker's chart, with its follower, 2003's ‘Bringer Of Blood’, reaching position number 22 on the aforementioned chart, where it had remained for two whole weeks. SIX FEET UNDER recorded ‘Graveyard Classics 2’, a cover version of AC/DC's album ‘Back In Black’, in 2004, and had celebrated a decade of existence with a 4-CD and DVD box set ‘A Decade In The Grave’. Their sixth longplayer, ‘13’, followed in 2005 and 2007 and 2008 saw the release of ‘Commandment’ and ‘Death Rituals’ respectively. ‘Graveyard Classics 3’ inevitably followed in 2010; the last album to feature original members Greg Gall and Terry Butler. Undeterred, Chris Barnes returned in 2012 with ‘Undead’, the band's ninth full-length featuring guitarists Rob Arnold and Steve Swanson, bassist Jeff Hughell and drummer Kevin Talley :

“Now, as for everyone else who actually digs SIX FEET UNDER for reasons known or unknown, rest assured that ‘Undead’ is, well, pretty good,” [came across decisive Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic] Heck, the dreadlocked old goat is sort of like that wacky uncle (if he sounded like, you know, Cookie Monster) that keeps things interesting for the family: you can’t really miss him ‘cos he won’t go away, but you still invite the old coot for kicks on Thanksgiving. The same is true, in roundabout fashion, of SIX FEET UNDER, even if ‘Undead’, like most of their albums, makes better stuffing than cranberry sauce. Who doesn’t like a little stuffing now and then?” [Read the rest here]

SIX FEET UNDER features: ‪Chris Barnes – vocals, Ola Englund – guitar, Kevin Talley – drums, Steve Swanson – guitar and Jeff Hughell - bass‬