When they first burst onto the scene with 1995’s Haunted Six Feet Under were an old school, down tuned, simplistic death metal act. The band was basically a side project of Obituary’s Allen West, Massacre’s Terry Butler and Cannibal Corpse’s Chris Barnes and the music they played is exactly what you’d expect from those three musicians. They weren’t out to re-invent the genre, they were just having fun playing catchy, albeit very simple, death metal.

Following the departure of Allen West in 1998 the band morphed into a death n’ roll act that simply continued to embarrass themselves with terrible release after terrible release, including the horrible musical abominations dubbed Graveyard Classics (the musical equivalent of having a naked herpes-infested hobo farting on your uncovered cock) and the “What the fuck?”-inducing "One Bullet Left" featuring Ice-T on True Carnage. Six Feet Under’s last full length offering, 2007’s Commandment, was an improvement over the band’s material that plagued the rest of the decade but still failed to live up to their earliest work.

2008’s Death Rituals, quite honestly, surprises the fuck out of me! It seems like Chris Barnes and company have finally started reading my memos on how to improve their musical output. Death Rituals isn’t a “re-invention”, the band is simply taking their musical sound all the way back to the very beginning. Rather than plopping down a steaming pile of death n’ roll riffs, Death Rituals is filled with simple down tuned Obituary and Bolt Thrower-styled bass heavy chugging riffs.

My main complaint with 2007’s Commandment was the vocal cadence didn’t flow with the music at all, the material itself was okay, but Barnes would just bark randomly, whether it was in tune with the material or not. He still has that problem at times on Death Rituals but, for the most part, he growls along with the music, which actually makes the music a lot more bearable.

I’m actually pretty shocked that, other than the predictably shitty cover of Motley Crue’s Bastard (it sucks, but sounds more like Six Feet Under’s cover of Judas Priest’s "Grinder", than the steaming piles of shit their cover albums were), Death Rituals is actually not a bad album. I’m surprised to find my toe tapping and head nodding while listening to a few of the tracks. Standout tracks include "Involuntary Movement Of Dead Flesh", "Seed Of Filth" and "Ten Deadly Plagues", although a few other tracks are pretty solid too and have a very strong Haunted and Alive And Dead sound to them.

Six Feet Under have finally returned to playing a style of music that suits their abilities the best and, for the first time in 12 years they’ve recorded an album fans don’t have to be ashamed about enjoying. If you thought Haunted sucked, you’ll hate Death Rituals, but the average fan of simplistic death metal should find something of value from this release. This won’t stay in my stereo for long, but while it’s in there I’m not hating it. It’s refreshing to hear something from Six Feet Under that doesn’t suck. I like it. Wait, did I just say that out loud? Am I high? Oh, wait, I am… but this album is still better than I expected.

Review byTeufel