A Vicious Lust For Blood !
Taken from the "Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles" magazine, Sept/Oct '97 edition
Why teach an old dog new tricks ? Chris Barnes’ death metal past has been well-documented in BW&BK, from the guttural beginnings of Cannibal Corpse, to his side-project, now full time bruiser, Six Feet Under. On the verge of raping and pillaging the metal world once again, with the second full platter, Warpath, Six Feet Under’ cryptic stench has hit the surface. While retaining the ironclad traits of the Florida pastime of death and disemberment, Barnes, along with Obituary guitarist Allen West, former Death bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall, appear to be on the verge of breaking the coffin wide open.

« I just wanted to write something I could listen to five year from now and still like, » Barnes summarizes in his calm, drug-induced tone. « That’s what we did. A lot of the lyrics are from the heart this time, a lot of my personal philosophies and thoughts on the world and what the human race has become. A lot of the songs stick out at you and that’s what I like. That’s the type of music that I like. It really catches your ear. » Warpath follows last year’s moderately received EP, Alive and Dead.

« We basically finished that up at the end of july last year and took about two or three months off and didn’t really do much at all. We jammed a couple of times. Alan was busy writing with Obituary, but we were just kind of hanging out. It gave me a bit of time to reflect on things. I didn’t sing for three months and that was the first time in probably six years that i took three months off from singing. We just took a break. We were pretty burnt. The whole year was a whirlwind, just being tossed around the fuckin’ world doing tours and everything with the new band. There was more to it than it seemed. I thought it was just going to be another tour and I was used to it. But it was a tour with me singing a completely different style of voals in a different band. It was just a different atmosphere. It defenitely took a lot out of me physically. I took a couple months off and just hung out and reflected on the whole year past. When we got back into jamming, it was like a really casual situation. We just kind of eased into it. Al had a couple of songs. I wrote at my own pace. We weren’t rushed into writing anything. In the other bands, it seemed like we wanted to get into the studio as fast as possible because we had a preconceived notion about when we wanted to do. This time, it was more like, ‘let’s write a fuckin’ cool album’. Al came up with some really good riffs. I even took a different point of view on some of the lyrics. Some of the songs I wrote lyrics for before there was even music and had Al structure music to it from stuff that I jusy had in my head. It was really a different way of writting on this one. »

The inner world of Chris Barnes is rather fascinating. Whether he’s placing himself in the maniacal mind of a serial kille, striving for hemp legalization, or looking for hidden truths, self-réflexion in a world full of many wrongs makes for quick-witted lyricism.
« I just sat back and really thought about the things that make me angry. » he comments about the loss of certain freedoms in an unjust world. ‘Nonexistence’ epitomises this effect : ‘I’m gonna cut out my eyes ; And rip out my tongue ; I should just puncture my ears ; I’m not alive now ‘ « Basically, my hatred for hypocrisy and removal of our freedom as human beings that are guaranteed at birth, overbearing tyrants at every level of being. I like sitting and talking to people and discussing things about what’s going on out there and what people think about things. This time I just asked myself those questions and wrote down the things that pissed me off. I still like writing fictional stuff. There’s some fiction in there, like ‘revenge of the zombie’ and stuff. I just wanted to mix things around a bit, switch it around. »

Genuinely, Warpath is a gripping sensation of primal metal power and prowess. Simplistic rhythims, pounding senselessly, the feast is comprised of twelve cuts, slicing and dicing, shredding and splintering. Dare we say a deathly updated version of Priest’s British Steel, Maiden’s Killer or ‘DC’s Let There Be Rock. Classic metal brought to the unnerving present.

« I still haven’t stopped listening to it’ » Barnes echoes equal sentiments. « Everything on this record came out the way I intended it to come out when I first planned it. The sound, everything in the past, working with Scott, no offence or anything, but he scraps really really good up to a point, but once you get him in to mix an album, something happens and it turns into a tin can. It’s like you’re listening to it in a box. It’s just not in your face. His rough mixes are amazing. I’ve got a lot of the Cannibal stuff, the rough mixes before they master and before they mix, and it sounds better than the fuckin’ albums. This time, I wanted that type of feel. That rough, in your face, everything very separate, non-polished type of production. When I listened to it on my cassette deck at home, that’s what I heard. I was really happy with that. I got to record my vocals the way I wanted to. Bill (Metoyer - engineer) made me really comfortable in there and it came out that way on the record. I got more of my live sounding voice on the record this time. I didn’t have to use headphones or anything like that. When I listened to the record for the first time, I heard a comfortable recording. One that wasn’t forced and it really sounded good to me. It still does. »

About the voice, the Eaten Back To Life are well in his past, Barnes’ vocal swaths becoming more menacing as legibility ensues. « I looked at it different this time with my vocals. When I got the songs, I sat down at my desk and listened. I didn’t want to do the old death metal pattern. I wanted to cut it up a bit. ‘Animal Instinct’ is a perfect example. I used three or four different tones on that. I just wanted to make it interesting for myself and it turned out to be interesting to hear. My voice just felt like that’s what I wanted to do with these songs, with the riffs. I just really go along with the melodies a lot of the times and structure my vocals around that. I’d practise with some of the clean parts. There’s a couple of singing melody parts or going with the harmony. »

Barnes’ dosen’t appear to be too worried about the traditionalists offended by such ‘growth’.
« It fuckin’ took people 15, 20 years to understand Mick Jagger. I guess They’re just starting to understand me now or i’m getting a little bit better at what I do. Really, I’ve cleaned myself up a little bit with the vocals just because this shit’s really important to me. Now, it’s like I want people to hear what I have to say since it is so important, so dear to me. I don’t think that people should really have to sit down and read the lyrics anymore. I want them to hear my fuckin’ thoughts up front. I think I can still keep it heavy, as I’ve shown with this one. It’s interesting. It’s a little more flavourful. »

By Tim Henderson
Transcription by : Eric Morissette