Death Rituals_音乐专辑
Death Rituals
表演者: Six Feet Under
介质: Audio CD
发行时间: 2008-11-14
唱片数: 1
出版者: Metal Blade
条形码: 0039841469004
专辑简介
Ever since Cannibal Corpse singer Chris Barnes started Six Feet Under in 1993 they’ve been a real hit and miss band. Their albums ranged from inspired to boring but whatever they did Six Feet Under stood head and shoulders above most death metal bands.
That trend hasn’t ended with “Death Rituals” their eighth studio offering and easily one of their best. Time has seasoned Six Feet Under into a mature band who has relaxed their need to impress everybody with sheer musicianship. These guys still play like technical guitar ninjas but they’ve laid back on the frenetic energy and that has made all the difference.
Death Rituals has everything that all other Death Metal records have. There’s the incredible speed, the blast beats, the bark-bark vocals and the skull cracking heaviness. The difference here is that Six Feet Under understands the importance of variety in their songs as well as dynamics in what they do. There are actual riffs in this album, real riffs, ones you can bang your head to and also stick in your brain. Death Rituals isn’t one long blast beat which is what most of these other Death Metal bands churn out on a nearly a daily basis.
The first song on the album is proof of Six Feet Under’s ability to surprise you with what they’re doing. The song begins with a straight blasting metal riff that rides in on the pounding-pounding-pounding Death Metal ideal and then slides into this seriously groovy thrash riff. When the change comes it’s sudden but it completely works and literally punches you in the chest. It’s like a boxing match, Six Feet Under realize that you hit the head and then the body and then the head again. Most Death Metal bands just want to hit you in the face until you fall over.
Nothing on Death Rituals comes off like a standard Death Metal record; instead it manages to stay current while harkening back to bands like Death, Cynic, Atheist, and the golden age of Death Metal. Take the almost punk rock feel of the tune “Involuntary Movement Of Dead Flesh”, the grindcore guitars on “Seed Of Filth” (my favorite track) or the killer thrash feel of “Shot In The Head” and you can see what I’m saying.
Each of these songs has a totally different feel to them while staying within the framework of what the Six Feet Under sound is. On top of that there are the straight blast beat Death Metal tunes like “None Will Escape”, “Ten Deadly Plagues” or “Murder Addiction” which help round out Death Rituals into a fully realized metal record. There’s also this weird ambient tune and an experimental sounding brooding song that’s just a guitar riff. In short there is a hell of a lot going on in Death Rituals that pushes the boundaries of what can be done with Death Metal.
Another reason that Death Rituals succeeds where others fail largely is due to the drums. For the most part Death Metal drums are super fast blast beats with repetitive fills thrown in to break up the blast beatness. On this record the drums are actually part of the music, a living breathing entity that does more than prove the drummer can play fast. Really interesting dynamics, switching between straight playing and playing off of the toms even….GASP….slowing the drums down to a crawl.
There are some problems with Death Rituals, mainly having to do with the vocals. It’s not simply that I find Death Metal vocals silly it’s that on a record this varied and complex they really stand out as boring and uninspired. To me vocals like these are equal to spending hours creating a wonderfully textured and gorgeous meal and then smothering the whole thing in ketchup. Luckily the music is so good that the dull vocals don’t ruin it but I would love to have heard some really mean and ugly vocals here.
I hear Death Metal bands on a daily basis and for the most part it all bleeds together into one long droning sound that wears on my nerves. I don’t know if it’s due to Chris Barnes being a more old school Death Metal guy or the fact that he’s been writing songs for so long but Six Feet Under really does put out a different kind of album. Grooves, dynamics, interesting interplay between instruments as well as solid song writing give Death Rituals a sound that’s really refreshing. Now if only I could get these other bands to follow suit.
曲目
01. Death By Machete
02. Involuntary Movement Of Dead Flesh
03. None Will Escape
04. Eulogy For The Undead
05. Seed Of Filth
06. Bastard
07. Into The Crematorium
08. Shot In The Head
09. Killed In Your Sleep
10. Crossroads To Armageddon
11. Ten Deadly Plagues
12. Crossing The River Styx (guitar outro)
13. Murder Addiction
