Six Feet Under visits Harpo's

Chris Barnes, former singer of Cannibal Corpse, brought his new band, Six Feet Under (is there a pattern here?), to town this past Saturday in support of the group's latest disc, "Maximum Violence." The group was actually the night's opening band for Manowar. Being as Manowar is a punch line just in existing (the group is famous for cheesy stage antics as well as songs about dragons, medieval quests and scantily clad females), the only band worth mentioning was Six Feet Under.

As usual for Harpo's, there were an endless stream of forgettable local opening bands. Thanks to the flood of local talent, Six Feet Under did not get on stage until much later this evening.

With a confident nod to the crowd and his band mates, the dreadlocked Barnes and company took the stage. The group played a good mix of new and old material from it's catalog of work and did a good job at keeping the audience enthralled with its stage antics. Headbanging, rock signs and flailing dreads were all generously performed for the audience's entertainment.

Barnes proved this past Saturday that his Death Metal vocals still remain a solid cornerstone in this genre. Often imitated but never duplicated, his guttural bark sounds like the embodiment of all that is evil and was a key factor in helping Cannibal Corpse gain popularity in the underground music scene. You could say he's to Death Metal what Pavarotti is to the Opera.

Despite the energetic performance however, there was one aspect to the show that Six Feet Under had no control of improving on stage. All of their songs start the same way, go through similar changes and never break out of a distinct mold of structure. This ultimately hurts the group as it makes the experience of listening to the group much too predictable and uninteresting. And what a shame this is as Chris Barnes is an individual with enormous talent for this genre of music.

To say that Six Feet Under is merely a Chris Barnes vehicle would not be doing the band justice. Guitarist Steve Swanson, bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall are all established musicians within this genre. It is thus an immense shame to see Barnes and company not really expanding themselves musically and artistically.

Six Feet Under's Saturday performance at Harpo's was one with plenty of terrific stage moves. Now if only the could do something about the songs.

10-11-99