Six Feet Under
Warpath

THE REVIEW

"Warpath" is Death Metal that smells of rust, mold, horrid thickets, and terror.

An unhealthy autumnal fruit of the year 1997, with a foggy and cemetery-like sound signed by Brian Slagel, the boss of Metal Blade, promoting his own exsanguinated Obituary sound created by the industrious Allen "Corrosive" West, alongside the thunderous growl of Chris Barnes (ex Cannibal Corpse) and a rhythm section "Slowly we rot." Booming double bass not present, sparking mini-bass solos absent, no fantasy of swirling guitars, the tangled geometries are banned from this platter. We resume from "Haunted," trailing in the distance the polar star of Bolt Thrower. The front cover is austere with the four Six Feet Under unleashed in the bushes in search of the "Time Does Not Heal" knife of darkangelian memory, a photo so candid it's unsettling.

War, zombies, the diabolical entities lurking in the human soul are crowned with tormented and dark music, a heap-layer of human hypocrisies exposed. Heterogeneous lyrics, not only gory, to reinvent in one's own conscience, especially when the ear doesn’t catch the slow Death Metal carpet, with its stagnant atmosphere, sometimes inadequate, but so shining in Barnes' protean growl, who devises every microscopic vocal change to magnify indigent phrasings that infest some songs. "Nonexistence" is the hypothermia of inspiration, even similar to "Manipulation", yet undignified cyanotic pathos paired with "Burning Blood". We approach, exhausted and ready for the burial of the songwriting, at "Caged And Disgraced" with Barnes categorically against incarceration for marijuana possession. Pieces, therefore, very close to the mini-LP "Alive And Dead" of 1996, where the unreleased "Insect" and "Drowning" fluttered like plane tree leaves in October and the Judas Priest cover "Grinder" (title ad hoc) was performed pedantically except for the iconoclastic voice.

Nonetheless, eight successful tracks allow the album to gain appreciation without being miraculous. So bring it on with the war siren of the opener "War Is Coming", let's cleanse our auditory canals with the slow-paced riff of veteran Allen and the amazing growl of Chris, let’s stay there warming our necks mystified, to anticipate a slalom like "Suffering In Ecstasy" that occurs in the fourth track, the beautiful "Animal Insinct", with a rhythm increase vaguely similar to "Whiplash" that builds its impact on the great Barnes: "Survival!… "Survival!…" he yells at the beginning and continues to grumble sardonically. "Death Or Glory" is a cover of the pirates Running Wild, a sort of dress rehearsal of Graveyard Classics but also an unnecessary exercise also performed by Mordred at a Dinamo Open Air. Yet the forlorn charm of "As I Die" is palpable, certainly inspired by Allen West’s finest solo heard so far, extended with delightful meows and usual final distortion, but this time the fingers run fast, with lugubrious and desperate wisdom, even making our hearts jump: we find ourselves wondering where he found the inspiration. "4:20" is still narcotic, chaotically slow, but at least we can applaud Chris's modulated shout in the opening marked by the usual "Yeeeahh" supporting the already metabolized riff, with verses starting in a low voice and fading into clean vocals: a nice idea that allows Chris to praise marijuana.

"Journey Into Darkness" and "Revenge Of The Zombie" are two other pearls of gloomy musical romanticism for a scenic trip to the graveyard, sinister melodies that walk arm in arm with the "fragile art of existence." There is also a bleak reinterpretation of "Threatening Skies" (Obituary- "Back From The Dead - March 1997) which is the lively dance of "Night And Visions". The most meritorious tracks are scattered throughout the album, rather than at the beginning as on "Haunted". To have an excellent Death Metal beat, it is necessary to merge the brightest tracks from our SFU’s first two albums, thus obtaining a solid product to rise in the Olympus of Death Metal. Good recklessness but more daring was needed. Probably these reflections will lead to a guitarist change. The talented Steve Swanson (ex Massacre age of decadence) arrives, injecting new sap and compositional ideas into the sound of Six Feet Under. But this is another bittersweet story.