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Biography:
Something of a death metal supergroup, Six Feet Under was originally formed as a side project by then current Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes (born 29 December 1966, Buffalo, New York, USA) and Obituary guitarist Allen West (b.
17 October 1966, Brandon, Florida, USA). West had been making demo recordings and asked Barnes to contribute the vocals. Shortly after, the pair was joined by Terry Butler (bass, ex-Death, Massacre) and Greg Gall (drums).
Haunted, released on Metal Blade in 1995, was the first fruit of these labours, a punishing death metal album considerably aided by Barnes' ferocious vocals, although lyrically there was less reliance on the gory subject matter of the vocalist's previous efforts.
Creative differences within Cannibal Corpse prompted Barnes to leave the band and confine his energies to Six Feet Under. Alive And Dead was a live EP recording released partly to stem the rising tide of bootlegs. Warpath (1997) was recorded at Morrisound Studios in Florida, and proved to be a typically brutal affair characterised by Barnes' new-found lyrical freedom.
The collaboration with West was also generating some more adventurous song structures, but the guitarist left the band in early 1998 to rejoin Obituary. He was replaced by Steve Swanson (ex-Massacre), who impressed the band by learning all their songs in the three weeks before his first tour.
The addition of Swanson changed the band's chemistry and after much experimenting they returned in 1999 with Maximum Violence. The album featured a more technical sound than their previous work, and received mixed reviews. The following year's Graveyard Classics was a much different proposition, a diverse collection of gritty cover versions of songs by AC/DC, Venom, the Monkees and Black Sabbath, all delivered in Barnes' trademark vocal, it also featured contributions by Anthrax's John Bush.
2001's True Carnage featured a guest appearance from rapper Ice-T, but the level of experimentation on the album was not greeted with universal approval by the band's fans. Even worse was 2003's Bringer Of Blood, a murky, disjointed album that featured Barnes trying out an unpleasant squealing vocal register.
A second instalment of Graveyard Classics gave the band some breathing space before they completed their next album. Released in March 2005, 13 marked a return to a more traditional death metal style and was warmly received by the band's fans.
After a brief sojourn in the Finnish death metal band Torture Killer, Barnes returned to Six Feet Under to complete the recording of their 2007 release, Commandment.
