Genre: Death Metal
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Metal blade Records
Year: 2020
Six Feet Under’s Nightmares of the Decomposed is their seventeenth album. Easily you can think that Barnes needed something efficacious in order to save the game. It was common secret that SFU’s albums were a bit repetitive if not boring despite some brilliant moments here and there. As the band is no stranger to line up changes (let me remind you that there’s been a completely new line up for the last 4 LPs, with only Chris Barnes being a consistent member). So Ray Suhy, from Cannabis Corpse joined the band but mostly the one and only Jack Owen. Guitarist Jack Owen (ex-Cannibal Corpse for 16 years, ex-Deicide for 12 years) and drummer Marco Pitruzzella (Rings of Saturn among others) were activated trying to help Barnes by writing some excellent solos and catchy rhythms (actually Owen replaced in writing duties bassist Jeff Hughell that wrote most of their previous album Torment with Pitruzzella). Owen’s return may made many expecting the revival of the glory days of Tomb of the Mutilated or The Bleeding. Nightmares of the Decomposed is focused on the groove-based death metal mixed with sludge or even stoner elements. It has the riffs, the solid rhythm section, but surprisingly for a SFU release, it has not too many speed or fast parts. The absence of fast, pummeling, blast beat drumming might pissed some of their loyal fans, but what most of their fans will be disappointed of is definitely Chris Barnes’ performance. He sounds lazy, without nerve and mostly boring. I don’t think that is because of his age. I assume that he thought that the brilliant soloing from Owen and Suhy will save his ass this time. But no. Damn no. Even though some songs suffer from being too simple or too repetitive, we can skip this as the album has a dozen of songs and we can understand a couple of fillers. But Chris Barnes should give a damn about his vocals…as it’s not the first time he sounds weak, if not awful! I literally get sad when I hear the state of his vocals anymore…
2/6