Despite all the Internet rumors (which were eventually confirmed) about famous rapper Ice T appearing on the new Six Feet Under album, most fans were impatiently awaiting the new album. Chris Barnes himself was swearing to fans that «True Carnage» would be the most brutal thing ever written by the band. However, the promo-CD had only three tracks (out of eleven) and few people were brave enough to make any conclusions based on these «crumbs». When Fono announced their intention to license this album for issue in Russia, everybody here (including the ones who were furiously retching when the name «Ice T» was mentioned), was rejoicing. The only thing left to do was wait. After some time, «True Carnage» has finally appeared on the store shelves, and of course, one copy of the CD emigrated into my pockets.

I have a special sentiment towards Six Feet Under. I adore their first album and I consider it to be a sort of «quintessense» of classic death metal. It was played the way death metal should logically be played: harsh, primitive, and straightforward. Everything was there, including the horrifying vocals «right from the grave», lyrics about things like death and such, and adequate atmosphere. The band’s second release, «Warpath», took an unexpected lyrical step toward more social themes. Musically, it was more death rock than death metal. To the horror of many, some songs featured Barnes using a clear voice. Everybody was guessing what SFU’s next album would be like, and the news that West had departed with ex-Massacre axeman Steve Swanson taking his place only heated up the anticipation. To the amazement of many, Six Feet Under swung like a huge pendulum and issued «Maximum Violence», which was more a «brutalized» sequel to «The Haunted» than anything else. The songs were faster, heavier and darker, and the vocals of Barnes set a new standard for growling which was unreachable for most extreme music bands. Fans were simply revelling in the new album, and were already anticipating the next album before they had their fill. While everyone was secretly hoping that it would be another «Tomb Of The Mutilated» in terms of popularity and genre impact, they failed to relaize the obvious: it was time for the pendulum to swing to the other side.

I won’t be dwelling upon the visual side of the album for too long — the exceptional artwork (as is typical for Metal Blade) is nice and solid. You get an impressive cover, huge inlay (Fono has outdone themselves — these 28 pages are hard to stuff into the CD box), and grim inlay pages (I hope everybody has noticed that the lyrics are printed on the negative of the picture from the nearby page?). Of course, there is a typical horror movie picture in the spread, which was shot similarly to the video scenes from «The Day The Dead Walked» (which is present on this CD). Finally, there is a picture of the band wearing zombie make-up which is really impressive. From a strictly visual standpoint, everything is (so to say) perfect.

And what about the music?

Well, it’s hard to give a simple answer to that. I’ve listened to this album more than a dozen times for two days, and I’m just now realizing how I might describe it. Deterring myself from the temptation of dissecting the songs (we’ll do that later), I’ll say from the start that the «pendulum analogy» fits perfectly in this case. Lyrically «True Carnage» continues where previous album left off — the lyrics are dominated by themes connected with death, blood, disembowelment, fucking, asses, shit, knives, guts, guns, holes, corpses, tits, whores, throats, pus, severed limbs stuffed in vaginas… you know, all those trivial themes we normal people encounter in everyday life. The only songs which I’d like to mark out for being somewhat unique are «One Bullet Left» (which was written with Ice T and is surprisingly fresh, and even somewhat shocking) and «Cadaver Mutilator» which uses some interesting (though not really new), symbolism which ironically is very similar to the compositional principle of the band. The song tells the story of a man who kills people, dismembers them, and constructs various thingies from the body parts he has obtained, as if through this gruesome procedure he is (probably) trying to improve his logical thinking. This puzzle principle is the keystone of the most (if not all) band songs.

It’s a simple fact that after West (one of SFU’s main songwriters) left the band, the rest of Six Feet Under have had trouble with writing new songs. However, it seems that these problems have been solved due to the acquisition of Steve Swanson. Now there are no problems with writing riffs (sort of), but the art of making these riffs logically flow into each other without making a «salad» effect is apparently eluding the band. Starting with «Maximum Violence», Six Feet Under began showing an evident flaw — many songs lack fluid, logical transitions between themes. This situation is aggravated by the fact that these «parts» from which the band is trying to compose their songs have already been used repeatedly on occasions by other bands before them. As a result, Six Feet Under songs resemble the puzzles-thingies made from foreign-based material, i.e., the image depicted in «Cadaver Mutilator». If you need an example, try the first track off «True Carnage», entitled «Impulse To Disembowel». Everything is smooth until 1:51, when one theme is so abruptly and insupportably changed by another that it really grates one’s ears. Fortunately, «True Carnage» doesn’t have many similar parts (especially when compared to the previous album), but I think they should work more on this issue.

As long as we’ve started to speak of individual songs, let’s look at the rest. In theory, all music on «True Carnage» can be divided into two parts: fast death metal songs with typical death metal riffs and circular structure, and slow, measured songs with metalcore riffs and fairly obvious verse-chorus structures. Accordingly, the former ones are leaning towards «Maximum Violence», and the latter to «Warpath» and «The Haunted». Speaking of individual song characteristics, it’s worth mentioning that as a rule, the fast songs are played in the vein of «Bonesaw» (off «Maximum Violence»), and the slow ones are more like the tracks from «Warpath», but with a certain grimness akin to the songs off «The Haunted». Stylistically I’d define Six Feet Under’s music as a mix of classic death metal, metalcore and thrash. The last two are usually seen on slow songs in the form of specifically «jerky», or slow, drawn-out riffs. The guitars and bass are typically entwined in a monolithic lump of dense, juicy sound, while the drum parts, although not very technical, are effective and great-sounding. Barnes’ vocals are absolutely inimitable and very diverse, but are unfortunately not as monstrous or emotional as on «Maximum Violence». While I could endlessly enjoy the vocal work on the aforementioned album, here the vocals sound uninspired and somewhat emotionless, as if the recording was some sort of routine for Barnes.

The album starts with a good opener, entitled «Impulse To Disembowel». In many ways, this one continues the tradition of «Stripped, Raped And Strangled» from Cannibals’ «The Bleeding» album. The changes in Barnes’ vocals are seen immediately: first, there are fewer «raw» overtones, as his voice becomes lower, deeper and less decipherable. High-pitch screams will rip your ears if you’re lucky enough to be listening on headphones, and frankly speaking, it’s not a pleasant feeling. I suspect that it’s a production problem, and not a planned effect, however. But whatever it is, you’d better be careful. The central theme of this song has somewhat confused me — I’ve heard different versions of this chord progression in several other well-known bands (but if I can’t recall something in particular, it’s not that bad), and the end of the theme is almost identical to the end of the intro theme of Gorefest’s «Reality — When You Die» (and this fact is much worse). The second song, «The Day The Dead Walked», also has a typical passage which has already been beaten to death by the already mentioned Cannibal Corpse (listen to the theme that starts at 1:06). The central themes of such songs as «Snakes» and «Knife, Gun, Axe» remind me something from old White Zombie. Actually, I never considered Six Feet Under to be pioneers of original riffs, but this somewhat baffles me. Speaking of another shortcomings of this disc — it seems a strategical mistake to put the aforementioned «Knife, Gun, Axe» and «Snakes» next to each other, because musically they’re nearly identical. «It Never Dies» starts with a riff which resembles Napalm Death somewhat, and the song itself sort of reminds me of «Animal Instinct» off «Warpath». Another song, «The Murderers», sounds like «As I Die» and a bit like «Manipulation» from the same «Warpath». «Waiting For Decay» was a definite surprise — it is done in the vein of early Cannibal Corpse (without blastbeats, of course), with very similar riffs, and very low vocals which sound like they were recorded around the time that «Tomb Of The Mutilated» hit the stores. Time warp, guys!

«One Bullet Left» has a small but outstanding monologue by Ice T who puts more emotion in his vocals than Barnes does in all other songs combined. I can easily see how the most «cool» and most «true» metallers will curl their lips with dramatic disgust and contemptuously bleat «indeed». Relax, smartasses — Chris Barnes himself has always been using recitative verses here and there, you just haven’t noticed it because he doesn’t recite these parts with clean vocals. Listen to «Feasting On The Blood Of The Insane», «Nonexistence», or even «Shredded Humans» — you will see first-hand that recitative verses are not as dreadful as you initially thought. While you’re at it, check out E.Town Concrete and broaden your musical horizons. «Sick And Twisted», with the peerless Karyn Crisis providing vocals is a cut above apart from the rest. This song somewhat differs from the others musically, as it is more rock-like, and the vocals of Karyn are simply staggering; sort of like being haunted by the ghosts in an abandoned mansion. Without a shade of a doubt, Karyn Crisis is the Diamanda Galas of metal. Very impressive performance.

As I’ve already mentioned, the CD has a video for a song «The Day The Dead Walked». The video is quite good (much better than usual extreme music videos) and the quality of picture and sound is quite up to par. I could make fun of the content (some fun at last) but after all the hours I spent listening to this CD and writing this review, I’m certainly out of gas. As such, we’d better put aside the silly jokes ’till next time.

Confused? I felt the same way after listening to this album. It’s hard to give any specific recommendations. If anything, this album is worth purchasing if you like death metal (especially without too much technicality and unusual stuff) and solid extreme music without hypersonic riff barrages and weird riffs and rhythms. «True Carnage» also has a good level of «headbangability», which will certainly be appreciated by those who like to train their neck muscles. Of course, hardcore fans will be stark raving mad about this one, but I doubt if they’re going to read any reviews (they’re hardcore, after all). As for me, I’ll be listening to «True Carnage» and waiting for the pendulum to take another swing.

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