Six Feet Under - Torment

Do I really have to? Let’s see if we can make this the shortest post yet, because this album really doesn’t deserve too many words… because it’s crap. I couldn’t muster the strength to do this over the weekend, but now, I suppose, is the time. Six Feet Under have long been the unimaginative project of former Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes, but as of late they have been exceptionally terrible (with almost anguish-laden criticisms surrounding their “Graveyard Classics” cover albums series), and this album of original (if we’re being generous with that term) material brings nothing new to the table. Chris Barnes has sounded like garbage for years now, and his weak, monotonous “growls” have not improved on this album. Not once on the album do they sound fitting or constructive. Chris Barnes manages, once again, to sound worse than any shitty high school death metal vocalist and ruin his own project. The production of the decently-performed but lazily-written instrumental parts is equally neutered, as if to lower the bar to make Chris not sound as shitty. I’ll take a moment to be positive and say that “In the Process of Decomposing” is a pretty alright song, but I cannot recommend giving the rest of the album a listen. It’s like 47 minutes of lower-tier Cannibal Corpse, but with crappier vocals. I gave the whole thing a few listens and none of the death metal cliché-ridden drone stuck with me, only the agonizing sound of Chris’ horrible and saddening burping-growls, so I would say just avoid it. I took one for the team and sat through it for you, so if you trust me, you can just avoid wasting three quarters of an hour on an album by a band that is generally only receiving continued support because of its washed-up singer’s decades-old work with another band. The only redeeming quality of Torment is that it’s not bringing Six Feet Under’s toxicity to other artists’ work, staying in its own lane. (i.e. at least it’s not butchering Iron Maiden or Judas Priest)