Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Six Feet Under - Haunted (1995)

For a band fronted by one the most reknowned exponents of brutal death metal, Six Feet Under's debut feels almost muted in comparison to what the world was accustomed to hearing Chris Barnes normally deliver.  There's no feeling here of any real intensity and that is obvious from track one.  No artist can get away with such a monotonous riff selection and expect much in the way of plaudits from a death metal fan such as myself.

There's an obvious Obituary influence on Haunted which given Allen West's involvement isn't that unexpected, but fuck dude you know more riffs surely?  At times it does play like an Obituary record with Chris Barnes on vocals instead of Chief Spewer Tardy.  The mix on the guitar sound leaves it with an odd grating edge to it that belies something that sounds like death metal but reminds me of the sound of a White Zombie record in all honesty.

When the album does pick up it soon loses any mojo it manages to muster and falls back on dull and lifeless riffs played against mid-tempo drums and vocals.  I mean Terry Butler was in fucking Death five years prior to this and although you can hear him plinking away on here he literally must be bored to tears and Greg Gall sounds like he is only using one arm on the drums.

I have heard lots of death metal in time but I cannot remember anything else as dull, lifeless or uninspiring as this record.  It sounds almost simplistic as opposed to just stripped back, like the band are all new to death metal and are learning how to play full DM songs together (badly).  What we end up with on Six Feet Under's debut is what sounds like an Obituary cover band who don't really know the band that well (other than the guitarist who can play all the riffs in his sleep) and deem it okay to just write their own tracks (badly).