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Six Feet Under > Warpath > Reviews
Six Feet Under - Warpath

Borepath - 40%

mothgirlrose18, November 21st, 2023

Six Feet Under from other people seems to be a hit or miss, mostly misses. I think one of the albums that you can like a bit and not totally be made fun of is Warpath, the other being Haunted. This album is full of just nothingness and each song copies the next. His vocals are boring with sometimes some highs that you actually can appreciate at the moment. His vocals aren't completely ruined yet, but you still can hear them declining from the last album.

The most horrible songs on the album might have to be "A Journey Into Darkness" as well as "Animal Instinct", and "Burning Blood". All are just so repetitive with the most insanely horrible lyrics ever. All of them, especially "Burning Blood" show you the same vocals you'd expect from Chris Barnes today. The repeating "survival" in the beginning of "Animal Instinct" may give you the instinct to rip your ears out. Of course we're also going to mention the lyrics "You can't stop me, I'll just kill again. You'll never stop me, I'll kill until I'm dead." Chris's approach on writing each of these songs is just repeating most of the words he's already written in the song. Another example of this writing style would probably be War is Coming. "Time to choose, time to choose or die." This writing style just completely bores you to death because the artist isn't coming up with anything new except just repeating what they said before or trying to rhyme with each word they say.

"Nonexistence" is a song that I don't think is horrible and probably is the only song I'd say people could listen to if they wanted to. Even then it obviously has flaws. The riff and beginning of the song is almost completely ripped off from the first song "War Is Coming", but it's just a bit faster. The lyrics are still very corny, but it's easier to get through as the vocals aren't horrible and the highs are almost enjoyable. Every other song on this album is mediocre at best. "Burning Blood" and "4:20" have some of the worst vocals I've heard and an early version of Chris Barnes "reeeehh". He sounds like the cookie monster and not in a good way, like if the cookie monster was drunk. His highs you can tell are becoming what he's known for, almost becoming the highs in the album "Nightmares of the Decomposed."

Overall this album is repetitive and shows the decline of Barnes's vocals. The lyrics are some of the worst you will ever hear as well as the boring riffs. This is surprisingly not considered one of the worst Six Feet Under albums. At least an album like "Haunted" had some remnants of Chris Barnes from Cannibal Corpse, but was still bad. This I don't even know what to say or call it.

Barnes doesn't kill - 73%

Felix 1666, April 21st, 2018
Written based on this version: 1997, CD, Metal Blade Records

I am not familiar with each and every output of Six Feet Under and no, I do not intend to change this. Their products are usually either mediocre or absolute crap. Whenever I think of their "classics" series, I cannot eat as much as I want to puke. But even a blind chicken finds a corn once in a while and as far as I can see, "Warpath" is the best full-length of the formation.

To avoid misunderstandings right from the beginning, I am not talking about a masterpiece, a milestone or something like that. The tracks are nearly painfully repetitive, the vocals of Chris Barnes appear pretty one-dimensional and lyrics like "I'll kill 'til I die" give me absolutely nothing. But I am aware of the fact that I will not change the weird genre rules of death metal and therefore it is futile to moan about the lyrical stupidity of the songs.

Maybe it makes more sense to speak about the production. Brian Slagel has been responsible for the mix and the dude from California belongs to the people who have shaped the sound of extreme metal right from the start. It is therefore only logical that the Metal Blade boss knows how a death metal album should sound. The guitars are not too low-tuned, the drum appears pretty natural and the voice does not sideline the contributions of the other band members. But what about the tracks themselves?

Doubtlessly, the album is not free from failures. The verse of "4:20" and the chorus of "Burning Blood" show that Barnes is a very limited, nearly miserable vocalist. "A Journey into Darkness" offers nothing but boredom. Nevertheless, the majority of the compositions hits the mark. In spite of the fact that mid-tempo prevails, Six Feet Under are able to fascinate the listener with creeping monsters like the opener and "Death or Glory". A short outburst of velocity ("Animal Instinct") makes clear that the dudes are also able to handle more aggressive configurations. And "Revenge of the Zombies" scores with an effective interplay of the verses and some instrumental parts that rely on a pretty belligerent yet smooth riff. I admit that there are no signs of compositional innovation and the world did not really need an album like the here presented one, but that's not the crucial factor. Maybe the world would even still exist without "Hell Awaits" (I don't think so). More relevant is that "Warpath" has a couple of extremely catchy, coherent numbers under its belt that make fun from time to time.

Finally, the songs are not too groovy. Rhythm plays a prominent role, but it is still more death metal than death 'n' roll or comparable shitty styles. So feel free to ornament your lovely face with war paint in order to take your first steps on the warpath in an appropriate manner. And don't worry. Although some dubious creatures scream permanently that they will kill until they die, one thing is for sure. I am listening to "Warpath" since 1997 from time to time, but my head is still on my neck.

Buried Deep, but Still Belligerent and Battle-Prone - 82%

bayern, May 11th, 2017

When I bought the “Haunted” cassette in 1995, I had only heard a few notes from "Butchered At Birth". I certainly knew the whole story with the brutal musical outrages, the obscene cover art, the diverse apocalyptic vocal performance… in theory I was acquainted with the Cannibals’ saga, but practice-wise my knowledge amounted to just above zero; one of the five or six bands I took exclusively on prejudice, and never bothered to check them out more thoroughly until much much later.

Anyway, I already knew this new Chris Barnes, and Allen West (Obituary), project wasn’t going to be anything like Cannibal Corpse so I approached it with the utmost curiosity, and was left pleasantly surprised by it. So our favourite hellish death metal throat has decided to embrace the transformational sounds that became quite prominent in the mid-90’s thanks to albums like Entombed’s “Wolverine Blues”, Cemetary’s “Godless Beauty”, Sentenced’s “Amok, and Massacra’s “Sick”, leading death metal out of its rigid canons and frames. The groove had been epitomized only too well into the post-death metal sctructure making this effort a perennial, instantly memorable roller-coaster.

And not only but Barnes and West were able to pull it off admirably once again with the album reviewed here. Hats off to you, Chris and Allen, for these supremely catchy, prime slab of groovy, doomy, speedy, deathy, thrashy delights which wastes no time starting the party with the ultimate groovy pounder “War is Coming”, a rousing hymn for all belligerent and angry metalheads out there, excluding the Cannibal Corpse lovers, seamlessly rolling into “Nonexistence” which throws more playful grooves into the fray as the carefree mid-paced fiesta goes on unperturbed on the short frolicer “A Journey into Darkness”. “Animal Instinct” speeds up to thrashy dimensions and may even pass for the highlight if it wasn’t for the supremely infectious “Death or Glory” which strangely reminds of the Germans Warlock’s brilliant “Dark Fade” from their debut “Burning the Witches” only with a beast, not a beauty behind the mike.

I ended up listening to “Burning Blood” multiple times on the same day also trying to reproduce this brutal semi-recital (“your torture brings me pleasure”) identically to Barnes’ venomous spit, and almost nailed it although I nearly choked in the process; anyway, this prime doomster is one of the man’s finest achievements, a supreme moshpit stirrer regardless of the seeming lack of speed. “Manipulation” is the next in line instant hit with the bouncy playful grooves, the remotest possible musical element from the Cannibal Corpse atrocities. Time for more, this time real, doom with “4:20” on which Barnes even tries some cool cleaner vocals to match the Sabbath-esque ship-sinking rhythms which sink all the ships at exactly 4.20-min. Rude awakening is lined-up next with the brisk speed/thrasher “Revenge of the Zombies”, but don’t expect two in a row as “As I Die” is a surprising Paradise Lost cover… kidding of course!; the staple for the band vivid mid-pacer. Alternation of the two sides is mandatory, and “Night Visions” is a more dynamic power metal rouser leaving the doom-laden finale for “Caged and Disgraced”, another admirable excerpt from both the groovy and doomy roster.

This handsome double established the band on the forefront of the post-death metal transformation movement although it also won them legions of detractors who couldn’t forgive the supposed betrayal encountered here with two death metal luminaries joining forces and coming up with anything but first-rate classic death. Well, the times were calling for changes, and in this particular case this is by no means the worst contribution to the numetal vogues; it even has a characteristic old school aura, especially on the doom metal moments. Obituary’s “Back from the Dead” opus strongly reminded of this album’s playful nature, West incorporating some of the groovy variations into his main band’s repertoire. He left Six Feet Under after this recording, leaving Barnes to cope with all the invective and diatribes alone.

Not that the latter ever cared about who liked his music and who didn’t although he did return to a more aggressive death metal sound on “Maximum Violence” two years later which was a step in the right direction as the old school was bracing itself for another spell with the music industry, and the album sold over 100,000 copies. Barnes never attempted a full-on tribute to his groovy post-death beginnings, and more good quality death metal kept coming also mixed with some horrible displays of bad taste: remember the “Graveyard Classics” franchise… the man and his comrades are by all means having a good time, testing the audience’s threshold of tolerance with dubious, also openly laughable on occasion, references to the classic metal legacy from time to time, but one only lives once, after all, except James Bond… and Chris Barnes, I guess.

Solid sophomore album, the better of the West era - 75%

12disneyhater, August 6th, 2015

Back when Allen West was the man behind Six Feet Under's guitar work, they had quite a different sound from their succeeding releases. "Haunted" was good, but it was obvious that the band were still a new unit and still had some rough patches to close up. While it's popular to like that album, "Warpath" was when the band started to come into their own a bit more. In fact, it's arguably the best SFU album of the 1990's, what with its crisp production, big sound, and overall consistency. But with that being said, it's also the black sheep of the band's catalog.

A good amount of people often label SFU as "death 'n' roll", but if anything, this is the only album of theirs that can safely be called that. Some of the songs have noticeable hard rock-styled riffs and semi-sung vocals that the band has rarely or never revisited since. That doesn't make the songs bad, but it's a little bit off-putting to hear Barnes attempt to use melodies with his voice such as in "4:20". Although it can be argued that he was doing this to fit the theme of the song and/or to follow its riffs, and at times it sounds like he tried to adapt the style of John Tardy.

Like the album's predecessor, the guitar work is very reminiscent of Obituary thanks to West, and in fact the song "Nonexistence" bares a beyond uncanny similarity to Obituary's "By the Light", which was actually released the same year. Had the band kept West as their guitar player, SFU may have devolved into a clone of Obituary. But for a second outing from a band who back then was still a side project, there really wasn't a whole lot to complain about since back in those days, nobody knew they'd eventually become a full-time band.

The production on the album is fantastic for its time. The instrumentation is crystal clear, the vocals are well-mixed, and the guitar work is powerful as all hell despite the riffs being very simple. The songs flow well into one another and basically pick up right where "Haunted" left off. Combine these elements together with the catchy songwriting and groove that has become SFU's signature, and you get an very well-done sophomore release. While it's far from the group's best album as a whole, it is definitely the standout album of their original lineup.

Why all the hate? - 80%

KAS11n, October 5th, 2014

Six Feet Under is a good band. Although I never understood why Barnes left Cannibal Corpse at the peak of their popularity (after watching "Centuries of Torment", I got a better understanding. Chris left because he didn't want to keep making "Traditional" death metal, and he felt that Six Feet Under was a way he could have more of a say in the music) but it's a good thing he did because he clearly didn't agree with the direction of the music, and starting Six Feet Under allowed him to be more free when it came to songwriting and the overall sound of the band. They know how to write good songs, and hell, they're pretty damn innovative and willing to try new things, which is what they did on "Warpath".

I think one of the reasons people hate this album is that they expect it to be death metal, which it definitely isn't. This is a groove metal record with death metal vocals. Some classify it as death'n'roll, but I think they were going for more of a groove laden sound. The songs here are very groovy indeed, and the opener "War is Coming" sets the tone for what the album is going to sound like; mid-paced old school stripped down and bare heavy metal with death metal vocals, and a great ear for tunes and grooves. Ive been a CC fan a long time, but never got got SFU; not for any particular reason, I just never listened to any of their albums. I knew the more popular songs like "Murdered in the Basement" from Bringer of Blood (Warpath is a much better record in my opinion), but I decided to give them a real listen, and I was pleasantly surprised. The most appealing thing about "Warpath" is that it never tried to be something it isn't- this is very basic hard rock/heavy metal music with the guttural master Chris Barnes adding that element to it.

I really thing every track on this album is pretty damn strong; this is a very consistent album. If I had to pick 3 favorites, I'd pick "War is Coming", "Burning Blood", and a cover of Holocaust's "Death or Glory". Overall, I think this is a very consistent and good album. It has an old school feel to it, and is pretty damn heavy ( although its never very fast or technical), but brings the heaviness and lays it on THICK with heavy, slow to mid paced riffs and churning bass and drums with Barnes guttural (while not nearly as guttural as "Tomb of the Mutilated", more like "The Bleeding") voice. I really don't get why this is so hated, it's pretty damn bad ass to me.

Bore Obsessed - 30%

lonerider, July 5th, 2012

Regardless of how “Warpath” stacks up against Six Feet Under’s other albums – it is apparently considered to be one of their best –, it is safe to say that this long-standing Florida outfit’s second full-length studio output is not very good. First of all, it is very hard to categorize the actual music on “Warpath”, and while genre-defying may otherwise be a largely positive attribute, it seems difficult to find anything particularly positive about this disturbingly insipid effort.

Six Feet Under supposedly are, or at least were considered at that point in their career, an old-school death metal band, though one would be hard-pressed to call “Warpath” old school or even proper death metal, for that matter. All silly “trooness” debates aside, the fact remains that it takes more to earn the death metal label than just growled vocals delivered by the former frontman of Cannibal Corpse (Chris Barnes), some other big-name band members that used to play in various well-known death metal combos (Allen West, Terry Butler), the use of down-tuned guitars and some heavily clichéd gore-inspired vocals.

As far as overall songwriting is concerned, Six Feet Under mostly take a very simplistic approach, completely eschewing complexity while basing each song on only two or three rather straightforward guitar riffs. There aren’t many tempo changes as most of the tracks just keep plodding along slowly and predictably, with only very few tunes providing some much-needed variation by speeding things up a little or coming up with a rare guitar solo (“As I Die”). To put it bluntly, this formula works for approximately one song before the album goes downhill fast: the first track, “War Is Coming”, passes as a pretty effective opener and features a crushing main riff and infectious chorus, but by the time tracks number two and three roll around, the increasingly impatient listener likely finds himself wondering if this is in fact all that’s on offer here. Sadly, it is. Save for the aforementioned faster tracks, the entire remainder of the album is more of the same – slow, plodding, simplistic pseudo-death metal with very few redeeming qualities outside of the occasional decent riff or otherwise catchy moment.

Well, if nothing else, at least the musicianship seems to be fairly competent, although it has to be mentioned that technically speaking, the music on hand probably isn’t the most demanding to play. There is one blemish though, and it is a major one at that, one that drags the album down even more and proves to be its ultimate downfall: the vocals courtesy of Chris Barnes are downright horrible. It’s hard to listen to the guy straining through his weak, forced growls, and it’s even more painful hearing him try to actually sing – his almost comical attempts to infuse some melody into his vocals in tracks like “Burning Blood”, “4:20” and “Night Visions” are nothing short of pitiful and cringe-inducing. It’s difficult to tell what happened to his voice since he became notorious (in a good way) for his work with Cannibal Corpse. It could be that he just ruined it by smoking too much pot, or perhaps he deliberately tried to change his vocal style. Either way, the deterioration is obvious and the sad result cannot be ignored.

Somewhere in the midst of all this desolation, the are some surprisingly enjoyable songs, such as the catchy and promising “War Is Coming”, the delightful “Revenge of the Zombie”, which sees the tempo finally picking up, “Caged and Disgraced”, which boasts some meaty riffs but drags on far too long in the end, and the melodic “Death or Glory”, which is probably the best song on here and, sadly and tellingly enough, is a cover version. Suffice it to say that it’s never a good sign when the best song on an album is a cover version. In the end, however, these few bright spots are not nearly enough to save this album from being what it ultimately is: a plodding, boring, uninspired mess.

Choicest cuts: “War Is Coming”, “Death or Glory” and “Revenge of the Zombie”

I SHOULD just puncture my ears - 25%

autothrall, May 6th, 2011

While in no way, shape or form could I consider Haunted a success, or a 'good' album, it at least had that nudge in its favor of Obituary-styled riffing and a blunt and angry Barnes. It was a control group, from which quality material might have sprung had the members of Six Feet Under been able to place two and two together, writing towards catchier vocal lines and more intricate rhythm guitars. Alas, Warpath would put an end to such possibility, a hideous slab of sun 'baked' excrement that does nothing to further their case. This is but a vapid array of re-arranged Obituary rhythms shat forth alongside some of the most effortless rock riffs I've ever beheld, an astounding failure of pedestrian LCD lyrics and worthless music, proving once and for all where all the talent went after Barnes split with Corpse.

Pathetic in all ways, the straggling audience members are subject to boring ass political lyrics which show not even the strength of the first thrash bands in the 80s to adopt its positions. I've always found it unusual when a band alternates lyrics about serial murder with flexing their first amendment rights, which is precisely what Chris Barnes is doing here. Just read the chorus of "Manipulation" and revel in his wondrous chorus ability: Don't speak to me about freedom, don't speak to me about being free (and refrain). Are you fucking kidding me? You probably could have improved something better than that. Then, of course, there is the mighty marijuana hymn "4:20", Six Feet Under taking up the bandwagon alongside the other amusing pothead manifestos of the 90s like Cypress Hill. Sadly enough, this is the most poetic of the lot, though the music and vocals suck, Barnes adopting a more emotional canter to abominable that you wonder how he got through it without breaking into laughter. In addition, there are a number of tracks in which he issues a raspier vocal tone which is unintentionally hilarious.

At its very best, which is to say almost NEVER, Warpath sounds exactly like a derivative of World Demise or Back from the Dead sans the good vocals. Where Obituary were steering to a more hardcore/groove influence, SFU (which also might serve as an acronym for SHUT THE FUCK UP) were inserting straight rock & roll ("4:20" or the punky "Revenge of the Zombie") beyond the drumming. About the only remotely acceptable song is "Death or Glory", but that's a Holocaust cover from The Nightcomers (1981), and adding Barnes bludgeoning drawl does nothing for it, much like his mediocre rendition of "Grinder" on the Alive and Dead EP. The mix is not a lot different than Haunted, but manages to render the material even more boring. It's true that a few tunes like "War is Coming" and "Animal Instinct" fall short of offensive, but Allen West had already done these riffs far better in his other band. Coincidentally, this is his last studio effort with the project. Who could blame him? After suffering through Warpath, all of us.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

it gets really awful from here out - 32%

Noktorn, December 5th, 2009

The operative word I would use to describe this album would be 'penisy'. It's like a big, floppy, flaccid penis. I mean, it's big- if it could get hard it might be able to satisfy, but unfortunately Six Feet Under suffers from musical erectile dysfunction and can't do anything but try and pack their big soft member into a hole that demands some rigidity. No matter how many times they claim that this is the first time such a thing has ever happened, we all know the truth: the band is in a permanent state of flop, and even if they managed to somehow get their way through 'Haunted' with a good amount of fingering and dirty talk, they only get softer from here.

I guess the production of 'Warpath' fits the music; it's very flat, plain, unheavy, and rockish. The guitar tone reminds me of Obituary's horrible abortion of a comeback 'Xecutioner's Return' in that they're flabby, soft, and without any sort of bite. Barnes' progressively decaying vocal performance and the very unimaginative rhythm section fair no better; everything kind of sounds played with the amps turned up to like 4 instead of 10, but as I said, it fits the music, which is on this album more than any other Six Feet Under release I've heard piteously rockish and shy, like the musicians know how mediocre everything is even while they're playing it. It suffers from the same general issues that every Six Feet Under album does; the band gets all their good ideas out of the way in the first third of the album and has absolutely nothing left for the rest of the tracks, resulting in an array of alternately plain or very bizarre songs that can't be designed to appeal to anyone but the most stoned-out listener.

Like most Six Feet Under work after the debut, this album suffers from a horrible sense of stillness. The music is entirely unmotivated-sounding, though thankfully there aren't quite as many cringe-inducing moments as 'Maximum Violence' (though '4:20' does come very near making up for it). The music isn't even really competent; the songs are completely arbitrary arrangements of riffs without even the basic structural methodology of 'Haunted', and few of the riffs even stand up by themselves. I mean, if the music is boring enough that the boredom seems to be creeping into the individual musical performances of the members, isn't there an issue with the music you're writing? Even the most Obituary-aping moments on this release (and there are many) are unable to wring any sort of life out from this album.

If you're a Six Feet Under fan (re: pothead) you probably already own this, so everyone else can just get 'Haunted' for the sum total of Six Feet Under's worthwhile musical output and ignore the rest. It really only gets worse from here.

War is leaving, hopefully - 15%

TheSunOfNothing, May 11th, 2009

Six Feet Under are one of those bands that suck. Always have, always will. This is because the band insists on playing either ultra slow or mid paced, so-called "Death metal". Well guys, this is not death metal. It sounds a bit like blues metal in the vein of Danzig, just record Danzig taking a shit instead of singing.

There are almost no good qualities of this release, everywhere from the boring and horrid riffs to the shitty vocals. Songs like "Non-existance" and "Night Visions" would sound much better if Chris would just cleanly sing, whereas songs like "Burning Blood" and "A Journey Into Darkness" could never be good. I mean seriously, not only does his voice suck, it doesn't fit the music at all. You'd think he'd have the sense to change it up in order for the music to be enjoyable? It literally sounds like Danzig with death grunts, and the only place where that could be good is if the death grunts actually sounded good, which they don't, but I've already said that.

The problum lies in that the majority of the songs are really REALLY slow and unenergetic. The sole track to break this trend is "Revenge of the Zombie", which sounds like old school death metal, just with REALLY hollow production. "Animal Instinct" includes faster drums in the beginning, but even there, the guitars are playing fucking southern rock riffs. When the song slows down, you can hear Chris blowing into the fucking mic. Even Waking The Cadaver are less pathetic than this. The whole "southern death metal" thing works well in the song "War Is Coming", although that is far from a good song. We've also got the song "Death or Glory", which could be medium quality death metal if one was to speed it up and make it energetic. The riffs are less southern than the other songs, which is definatly a plus, but that plus is taken away by the next track, "Burning Blood". In fact, this song is so bad it takes away all previous pluses, excluding the one for "Revenge of the Zombie". "Burning Blood" is a terrible name for a song, and a terrible excuse for one. It's the epitome of slow, boring, hollow southern death metal. My favourite part is where Chris's voice cracks at 1:08, and when he does his laughable scream at 2:03, also when he starts to do clean vocals...no comment.

The song "4:20" is actually very enjoyable, but only because it's so bad. The song's horrible lyrics and laugh-enducing opening high pitch shreik are bad enough to make the listener wonder why they wasted their money on this garbage. Chris uses clean vocals again, and they actually sound pretty good, but why do them so rarely? Idiot. As previously mentioned, "Revenge of the Zombie", while still not very good, is the only energetic song here. It's a mixture of thrash metal and death metal, although is missing the blastbeats it needs to sound kickass. "As I Die" is an emo song. Enough said. "Nightvisions" is unique lyrically, singing about a man who cannot sleep and has visions that tell him to kill. Unlike 99% of death metal bands, the man DOESN'T end up killing anyone. However, musically, it's bland and boring (although the chorus is okay). Chris's performance here is unexcusable. Possibly the worst death vocals ever. "Caged & Disgraced" isn't so southern in influence, and rather, just slow death metal. Speed this up, it'd be better. Also, Chris's voice is a little better here and he doesn't lose his voice so easily.

I don't get how there are people who like this. So many better bands exist. It may be unique, but being unique can be as much of a weakness as a strength. You just have to use it right, and apparantly SFU didn't realize that.

Fun groovy death - 75%

DustyFox, January 16th, 2008

Ah, Six Feet Under. They seem to garner a hilarious - though rather justified - amount of hatred whatever they do. While this band unfortunately is best remembered for doing horrible cover versions of songs that no death metal band should cover, ever, this release isn't that bad and shouldn't be ignored right off the bat.

The first thing that one notices upon listening to Warpath is the massive quantities of groove saturating the entire thing. While it isn't nearly as relentlessly brutal as Chris' previous band was, this release makes up for it in hooks and catchy riffs which unfortunately are often hidden by the overbearing vocals at the fore. It isn't complex, technical or lightning fast but it is indeed fun. My only gripe is that there isn't a heck of a lot of variation and some of the tracks are obvious filler, blending into eachother seamlessly to create moments of boredom. Notable exceptions to this include Death or Glory, the crushing War is Coming, and the relentless Revenge of the Zombie.

Chris Barnes' vocals have totally gone down the shitter, but to be honest, they don't sound totally bad here. His high shrieks sometimes sound totally mallcore and he seems to struggle maintaining his mid-range growls, with his voice momentarily breaking into cleaner territory once in a while unintentionally like a teenager hitting puberty. But in what is essentially is a death-lite album this is not a horrible flaw, and it adds to the unconventional style that Six Feet Under has built their reputation on. They're far too loud in the mix, however, and drown out the other instruments. If they were quieter it would be far more enjoyable vocally.

Lyrically, the album is pretty standard fare. Before Chris tried to write horrible political lyrics, he used to write fun, often gory lyrics that didn't mean a heck of a lot. But that's why I like them. A couple of the tracks have messages attached, usually just "Stand up for what you believe in" style messages, but it's the tongue-in-cheek style gory lyrics such as those for Revenge of the Zombie that are the best here.

While Six Feet Under may deserve their hate for their later releases, this is one that shouldn't simply be ignored on the merits of their exploits, but should be evaluated on the merits of the music. You never know, you might find it enjoyable. I know I did.

A strange and lost classic.... - 83%

Snxke, July 7th, 2004

"Warpath" is the one CD by Six Feet Under to strike an interesting and unique identiy that could have brought them into the mainstream public. The band is found breaking away from death metal into more of a "death-rock" here that resembles nothing of what later Entombed turned out to be. Judas Priest and early-80's hardcore rear their heads here and it works to the bands huge benefit. The hooks have tons of hooks, the drumming isn't as static as it would become on later albums and the guitars do a lot of good (despite being simple) work that shape a sound that few bands have managed to work with since the best days of Celtic Frost. This would be the only album that worked this well, but just to have one like this can make all the difference in one's recorded legacy...

The best songs on this include the catchy riff-monsters "War is Coming"/"Revenge of the Zombie" along with the grinding "Nonexistence" matched next to the near Judas Priest styled riffwork of "Death or Glory". THe other songs have great riffs/hooks as well and deserve a good listen. This may not be the typical composition for death metal...but at the time it was considerably more interesting than the cliches that became near musical law after the early 90's upsurge of American and European death metal. Allen West and Chris Barnes put together some catchy and obscurely influenced tunes that work in the context of the Six Feet Under death metal sound in a way they never managed to repeat.

Six Feet Under may be a heavily controversial band for thier choices and the typical hatred of Chris Barnes, but here they bring to life an original vision that mixes the old world of Celtic Frost with the meat and muscle of modern death metal. Love it or hate it, you can't deny that the band put in the work they needed to become one of the bigger bands in death metal on this record.

This is an adapted taste I know...but I suggest trying it out if you like slow and brutish death metal with strong chorus hooks and a strange sense of lyrical entertainment.

I dig it....

http://www.sfu420.com

not the best - 68%

SkeetorKiller, April 11th, 2004

This album has some good riffs on it, but the vocals often overshadow the rest of the music. The very low growls also start to get annoying after listening to a few songs, sounding pretty much the same in every song, just with different lyrics. The fact that the songs are semi-repetitive doesnt help either. Also, the drumming is a bit weak for a death metal band.
The album starts out with the song "war is coming", which introduces the theme of the album (if for some reason you can't figure it out from the title of ths album, it is war and death). The best song on the album is "As i Die." It starts out with a good riff and has a good solo towards the middle. The vocals probably sound the best on this song, but still start to bother me by the end of the song. The worst song is "Revenge of the Zombie". The balance of the vocals jumps from the left speaker to right one while the chorus is repeated. This is a good effect to use with guitars, but it sounds bad when used with a repetitive chorus.
Overall this is an ok death metal album, but just ok. It is probably Six Feet Under's best. If you like the vocals or if you liked Cannibal Corpse while Barnes was with them you will probably like this album much more than i did.