Let’s not beat around the bush: this is not a groundbreaking record – unless you call a weird Casio drums driven track groundbreaking (Crossroads to Armageddon). I, for one, don’t.

Quote Thomas Nielsen April last year:

‘The riffs are SO 1988-89 and for me, that always holds some quality when we’re talking death metal. It’s by all means a solid effort, the minuses in my book being Barnes’ occasional somewhat silly squeals and the fact that…well, face it, SFU stand still in terms of originality.’

This was my review of SFU’s previous effort, ‘Commandment’ and it is also true of the present release, however with the twist that there is a notable early Nineties heavy metal influence this time. And it suits Six Feet Under. This is not another Graveyard Classics, but it almost could be.

Just listen to the clean guitar intro of opener Death by Machete: that could have been Chris Oliva anno 1984, couldn’t it?! Death by Machete is by the way also the most varied track on the album.

And it’s not the only hint at heavy music of yonder years. Throughout the album, mixed in with the neckbreaking, grinding death metal riffs, there are concrete heavy rock and hard rock parts, most notably the track Bastard is as dirty as it gets.

On the other hand, you have the staccato monster Seed of Filth and the other crushingly effective old-school death metal tunes that just grind and groove on.

I can’t help but loving this album. Unoriginal or not.

(Death) metal up your ass!