Does anyone really care that Six Feet Under has released their seventh (original) album earlier this year? Apparently not; I didn’t get the usual hype from Metal Blade’s PR folks, just a discreet, late single package with little fanfare and I never saw much press online or in print concerning Commandent and I figured it was because of the debacle that was Graveyard Classics II and their last handful of albums that have simply…….well, sucked (especially Bringer of Blood). The thing is, Commandment is easily the bands best album since Haunted (I know that’s not saying much, but…) and a surprisingly satisfying, simplistic listen.

The formula Barnes and co. is still in place, simple, mid paced chunky, groovy death metal with a lyrical focus of blood, death, zombies and any combination of the three. Barnes seems to have left his personal and political agenda behind and focused on delivering straight up gore in the form of his trademark bellows, but it’s musically where SFU seem to have literally ‘found their groove’.

The Erik Rutan production gives each of the 10 rumbling songs ample heft as “Doomsday”, “The Evil Eye”, “Zombie Executioner” (even though at times it sounds a little too much like Suffocation’s “Infecting the Crypts”), “Bled to Death” and “As The Blade Turns” lope and lumber with little flair or finesse, though the occasional slightly wheezing faster segment surfaces here and there (“The Edge of the Hatchet”, “Resurrection of the Rotten”).

At 34 minutes, Commandment is perfectly timed for a mindlessly satisfying exercise in death metal simplicity that requires little thought or attention and sees Six Feet Under somewhat revitalized. Let’s just hope they don’t follow this up with a Graveyard Classics III and cover something like Appetite For Destruction or Nevermind.

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