Nile x Six Feet Under

Nile is an influential and uncompromising death metal band that has carved its name into the annals of extreme music. Since their formation in 1993, they have left an indelible mark on the metal scene, garnering a devoted following with their unique blend of ferocity and technicality. With a sound as relentless and brutal as the ancient Egyptian gods they draw inspiration from, Nile transports listeners into a dark and mystical realm. Their music is a relentless assault of blistering guitar riffs, thunderous drumming, and guttural growls, accompanied by intricate and atmospheric passages that evoke the grandeur of ancient civilizations. With their mastery of technicality, unrelenting aggression, intricate compositions, and lyrical exploration of ancient Egyptian mythology, Nile continues to captivate audiences with their unparalleled sonic assault.

From the opening moments of “Know-Nothing Ingrate,” which kicks off Killing for Revenge, it’s immediately clear that Six Feet Under focused their energies into something that’s as brutal, lyrically visceral and musically dazzling as one would hope for from the ground-breaking Tampa-bred death metal lineup on their 14th studio album.

Killing for Revenge, a gnarly beast of a record that’s not for the faint-hearted, dishes up nightmare-inducing imagery courtesy of frontman Chris Barnes via the vocalist’s trademark guttural vocals. Both the album title and darkly detailed red-hued album cover by artist Vince Locke are perfect containers for the brutality within. “I chose the title Killing for Revenge after we completed writing and noticed that all the lyrics and storylines had a common theme of revenge. Revenge by human or revenge by nature—or both in the song “Bestial Savagery,” which describes the destructive paths of man-made storms,” Barnes says. “The album title describes the flow of the stories within the lyrics perfectly.”

Killing for Revenge marks the second album that Barnes and guitarist Jack Owen (ex-Cannibal Corpse) have created together since reuniting for 2020’s Nightmares of the Decomposed, an album one critic praised an “often slow-ish and doomy yet crushing death metal” which offered an “uncompromising show of strength.” Owen also produced Killing for Revenge, with Barnes as production assistant. “We worked well together in Cannibal Corpse,” Barnes says. “He was probably my favorite person back then in that band. I loved him to death as a friend and a musician, so I’m really comfortable giving him the reins because I just have such great respect for him as an artist.”

It’s clearly a partnership that works, given the brilliance of Cannibal Corpse’s early work under Barnes and the fact that the Owen-Barnes rekindled symbiotic relationship has breathed new life, or perhaps new death, into Six Feet Under. “I asked Jack to map out what parts of the songs he wanted lyrics for, and he just started writing lyrics instead and gave me a demo vocal track for pretty much all the songs,” Barnes says. “I thought it was great. That’s how the music and lyrics wanted to appear this time, so I just let it come through that way and worked with him in a collaborative way. Like we did back in the old days, like on the song ‘Shredded Humans’.”

Six Feet Under was initially formed as a side project for Barnes during his final years with the band that he co-founded, Cannibal Corpse. It became the frontman’s sole focus in 1995, coinciding with the release of their debut, Haunted. Only Barnes remains from the original SFU band, but the quality has remained remarkably consistent. The current lineup of Barnes, guitarists Owen and Ray Suhy, bassist Jeff Hughell, and drummer Marco Pitruzzella make for a devastating unit.
While Barnes is the sole remaining member, Six Feet Under is about more than he and Owen. The singer is thrilled with the current lineup, and what each member brings to the table. “Jeff and Marco have been with me for about 10 years,” Barnes says. “I’m really fortunate that I have probably the best musicians in metal. If you look at it, we have the same amount of original members as Cannibal Corpse. Jeff is a killer bass player. Marco’s probably the best drummer out there. Jack’s the greatest songwriter I’ve ever been involved with over the 30-plus years I’ve been doing music professionally. And Ray is just a phenomenal guitarist who can play everything from jazz to death metal. The lineup now is untouchable.”

The chemistry between the five men is palpable; listening to Killing for Revenge, one could be forgiven for assuming that they hid themselves away somewhere for a couple of months and hammered it out in blessed, creative seclusion. Not the case.“We all recorded it on our own, in different parts of the country since we’re all spread out,” says Barnes. “I think the most important thing is to put everybody in a comfortable space so that they get a great performance. That’s what you want to capture. It’s really hard nowadays to afford everyone being in the studio recording like we used to back in the ‘90s. It can be done just as effectively this way.”

The songs on Killing for Revenge—highlighted by the singles “Know-Nothing Ingrate,” “Ascension” and “When the Moon Goes Down in Blood”—dive headfirst into subjects that are as gleefully vile, graphic and downright grotesque as you might dream of from a Barnes/Owen project. After all, the two men were vital cogs in the Cannibal Corpse band that released such delightfully offensive death metal classics as Butchered at Birth and Tomb of the Mutilated. Highlights of this latest Six Feet Under opus include “Compulsive,” which tells the tale of a disturbed individual in a padded cell, eating himself alive: “Display of carnage for the poor soul who finds you; To discover sick survival that binds you; Heaving lungs the only thing intact; Scattered expelled organs your final act.”

“Jack wrote 90 percent of the lyrics on this album, and that was one that he came up with the storyline to,” says Barnes. “How you want to interpret it is up to you. You can find deeper meaning or metaphors or symbolisms. But I would say a good interpretation is someone suffering who is devouring himself. You could look deeper as it being about addiction.”

The album opener, “Know-Nothing Ingrate,” launches Killing for Revenge as the LP’s first single.
“I kind of went back and forth on what song should be the first one to throw out into the world,” says Barnes. “Jack liked the idea of ‘Know-Nothing Ingrate‘ as the first single as well.”

“Know-Nothing Ingrate” was written early in the album process. “We wanted to keep the aggression of a prior Six Feet Under song like ‘Amputator,’ explains Owen. “I wrote music in the style of early Dark Angel or Kreator, who always had cool driving drum beats. I had all the riffs in my head as I wrote the drums in a couple hours. Lyrically, It’s basically about online trolls who voice their uneducated and unnecessarily spiteful review of any artist’s output. You’re entitled to your opinion, and I’m entitled to mine.”

Six Feet Under also recorded a cover of Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog,” which appears on all formats of Killing for Revenge with the exception of vinyl. “’Hair of the Dog’ has such a heavy groove to it and the vocal is so killer and memorable that it seemed like a perfect fit for us, and something fun to add to the album as a bonus track,” explains Barnes. “Plus there’s cowbell!” Clearly, 2024 is shaping up to be a massive year for Six Feet Under, and Barnes hopes to take full advantage.“I’d like to get a tour put together,” he says. “I would love to get back out on the road. It’s been too long. Three of those years were due to the pandemic. I love being on the road. I love being in a tour bus and being in front of people on stage. I have missed it so much. It’s what I was meant to do.”

Listen to this record and it might just put a baby in you. Not by the traditional means, interesting though it might be to imagine those mechanics. Instead, Arizona’s Embryonic Autopsy debut with a concept album about the experiments, designed to birth human/alien hybrids, that may or may not have been performed at Area 51.1 With songs like “Telekinetic Insemination” and “Craving of the Mutated Fetus,” these gentlemen have a very specific kind of breeding on the brain. The sci-fi milieu, and some elements of the music, put this offering of brutal death metal squarely in Artificial Brain territory. As an avowed fan of those Long Island mind-benders, I was excited to yank this platter free from the muck of the promo sump.2 Is Prophecies of the Conjoined a healthy birth, or could it have used more time in the womb of its host organism?

Embryonic Autopsy play a musically adept strain of brutal death, but the wonk factor never rises to the level of “tech.” Soupy riffs burble over a punishing rhythm section, with drums that feel like a reflex hammer tapping incessantly against your skull. It’s all a playground for the vocals of Tim King–his growls, alien and menacing, match the concept perfectly. Solos, many of them ripped off by a series of notable guest axemen, pop up to lend a hint of melody to the proceedings. The style echoes the halcyon days of the nineties when early editions of bands like Aborted and Suffocation pioneered the subgenre and harvested souls throughout the land. The retro flourishes make sense–Tim King fronted Oppressor, a tech-death act who hovered at the edges of the scene and released three albums from 1991 to 1999. King may have spent the last twenty years in death metal hypersleep. but the man hasn’t lost his edge.3 Prophecies of the Conjoined is a gnarly beast indeed, a savage good time that marks this foursome as an outfit to watch.

The band isn’t synthesizing anything original in this laboratory, but quality execution and a knack for introducing flashes of variety keep Prophecies of the Conjoined suspended above the pack. The solos are especially effective, as the band imports a gaggle of ringers to keep the Bunsen burner turned up under these songs. James Murphy of Testament, Obituary, and motherfucking Death lays down hot fire on “Cauterized Womb Impalement,” while Terrance Hobbs from Suffocation does likewise on opener “Regurgitated and Reprocessed.” The four guest shots, had they been done poorly, could easily have felt like mercenary work-for-hire. Instead, each one is a bespoke addition that enhances the song where it appears. Elsewhere, King deploys a range of techniques that keep his vocals fresh over the album’s run time. He can bark and gibber like he’s singing for caveman metal act Becerus (“Telekinetic Insemination”), or drop in patches of spoken word that actually add menacing atmosphere (“Upon the Mayan Throne” and “Prophecies of the Conjoined”). It’s a bravura display of puked-up anti-singing that’s especially impressive coming off a twenty-year break.

While there isn’t much that stands out as “wrong” here, this forced injection of alien DNA never rises to the level of excellence. The album pummels you for thirty-five minutes, but when the assault is over you’re not left with any standout moments. There’s no lowlight among the nine proper songs on offer, but neither is there one worth adding to a playlist. To put it another way: Prophecies of the Conjoined might leave you feeling like your face has been smashed with a hammer, but it will not leave you with a “Hammer Smashed Face.”

Embryonic Autopsy burst out of the gate with committed performances and a pleasingly batshit concept. If they can stick their songwriting in the incubator for a spell, the band could carve out an interesting space for themselves in the death metal scene. If you choose to open your mind, or your womb, to Embryonic Autopsy as they stand right now, you still won’t be sorry. Prophecies of the Conjoined may not register a perfect Apgar score, but there’s plenty to like about this misshapen newborn.

Psycroptic are an Australian technical death metal band formed in Hobart, Australia in 1999. Mainstay members are Dave Haley on drums and his brother Joe Haley on guitar. Their lead vocalist, Jason Peppiatt, joined in 2004. In 2008 they signed to Nuclear Blast. As of August 2022, the band have released eight studio albums. They have undertaken Australian national tours supporting international acts, Incantation, Decapitated, Origin and Misery Index. Psycroptic have also toured Europe with Nile and with Deicide. In February 2019, the band started a co-headlining tour alongside Aversions Crown and support bands Within Destruction, Hadal Maw and Hollow World across Europe. They also headlined a 2019 tour in the United States in support of their album As the Kingdom Drowns.