There are bands you follow for years not because they keep surprising you, but because you’ve already invested so much emotionally that you can’t stop. SIX FEET UNDER are one of those. A band with a history dating back to the early 90s, with Chris Barnes at the helm — the man who once put his voice on the first Cannibal Corpse albums before deciding to do things his own way, for better or worse. Mostly worse, in recent years. But Killing for Revenge showed some signs of life. Next to Die comes out on April 24, 2026, and the question is one: does the upward trajectory continue or was it just a window?
The answer is… both, in a way. And that is at the same time the good news and the bad news.
Let’s start with what works, because yes — there are things that work. The riffs on tracks like “Destroyed Remains” and “Next to Die” itself have a sense of old-school death metal that doesn’t sound bored. There are grooves in here that make you nod your head without having to think about it — and in death metal, that’s already half a victory. “Mutilated Corpse in the Woods” — yes, that’s the title, welcome to the world of Six Feet Under — manages to smell authentically old school without becoming self-parody. Almost.
Barnes seems to have found his voice again — or at least part of it. He no longer sounds like he’s trying to sing through a layer of cement. He moves somewhere between his good eras — more faded, more tired, but recognizable. In some places, in “Skin Coffins” for example, he reaches for lows that remind you why this guy was once a reference point.
Now for what doesn’t work — and there is some.
Drummer Marco Pitruzzella sometimes decides to do his own thing, with arrangements that break the flow instead of building it. On tracks like “Unmistakable Smell of Death” and “Mind Hell”, the drums zig when the rest of the track zags, and the result is that you lose momentum exactly where you shouldn’t. “Approach Your Grave”, which opens the record, needs two and a half minutes to reach its essential theme — and two and a half minutes in a death metal opener is an eternity.
And then there’s “Ill Wishes”, which builds correctly toward a climax that never comes, because Barnes decides to deliver vocals that sound like he’s reading a shopping list out loud. The opportunity is lost, and you feel it.
The absolute paradox of the record though is “Mister Blood and Guts”. Musically it’s the best track — it has energy, it has a chorus that sticks, it has joy. If you don’t pay much attention to the lyrics, it’s fun. If you do, you wonder if they were written by a thirteen-year-old with a lot of free time. And with Six Feet Under, that isn’t criticism — it’s almost tradition.
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Overall, Next to Die isn’t the dumpster fire you’d expect from a band with so many years of consecutive disappointments. It’s something worse and at the same time better: it’s good enough that you can’t dismiss it, and imperfect enough that you can’t defend it comfortably. For Six Feet Under, that counts as an achievement. For the rest of the world, it’s a record you’ll put on once, nod your head to two tracks, and forget until the next time you see their name.
Rating: Middling with good moments Out: April 24, 2026 | Label: Metal Blade Records Websites: Bandcamp
