SIX FEET UNDER

Death Rituals

Metal Blade/ CD

Being one of the most productive death metal bands these days SIX FEET UNDER are still pumping their filthy, poisoned death gore metal into arteries of a dying world. The newest effort of Chris Barnes & Co. is entitled "Death Rituals" and contains a bunch of painful hits. It's hard to believe, but the tenth studio album of these Florida death metallers is probably their best work do date.

If you are not even remotely interested in primitive death metal, you should stop reading this review right now. But if you're looking for some good old-fashioned stuff, buying "Death Rituals" will be a good choice. Of course, SIX FEET UNDER remain maddeningly consistent and predictable in their bloody work. They are following their own path and don't intend to prove that their brutal death gore is one of the most progressive genres in the contemporary metal music. It doesn't really mean that "Death Rituals" is another boring slab of noise. Definitely not! I would say this is one of the most varied ( I don't want to use a "sophicticated" term with referrence to this band, that would be a little... inappropriate) albums in SIX FEET UNDER's discography. "Death Rituals" features thirteen mid-tempo tracks, full of ripping, chunky riffs and excellent guitar solos of Steve Swanson (listen to his great parts in "Seed Of Filth" for example, this guy has really improved his way of playing solos), angry screams and threatening growls of maestro Chris Barnes, gurgling bass lines of Terry Butler and very direct drumbeats of Greg Gall. But the most important factor concerning this album is definitely the quality of these new songs. Despite of the fact they all have been written in the same, I mean rough and primitive way, some great arrangements added a lot of vitality and energy to each of them. Cuts like "Seed Of Filth," "Eulogy For The Undead", "Shot In The Head" or my favorite "Killed In Your Sleep" are definitely one of the best this band has ever written. Actually, progress can be observed almost in every song featured on this CD and it seems like the guys had spent some time in the rehearshal room, before they entered the studio. It's still SIX FEET UNDER- extremely heavy, rough and brutal yet fully listenable, maybe except for MÖTLEY CRÜE's "Bastard" cover song which is actually a piece of shit.

10/12