Graveyard Classics 2

Chris Barnes what the fuck is the deal? You just couldn't resist trying to do a cover album that sounds so stupid it's laughable. Let's get something straight Six Feet Under is not a good band. The talent is there the players are great but the delivery sucks. I actually thought that some of the original Six Feet Under stuff was decent but this is stupid. Chris Barnes was a good death metal vocalist in Cannibal Corpse but the years have taken it's toll on him. There are some people who think he's one of the best singers in all of death metal. Honestly? Are you joking? He ain't no Craig Pillard no sir. Pillard is one of the top 5 greatest and most powerful death metal singers ever no doubt. Barnes was good but not even in the same league. Just go on YouTube and watch some videos of Chris Barnes recently and you'll see what I'm talking about. Just tired and done my friends.

So I guess this album was an idea that maybe Barnes had to cover an AC/DC record in it's entirety. And somehow they'd figure we'll just keep the music the same as the original or close to it. But just add death metal vocals. If I thought this was a joke and something they were doing just for a laugh, I'd of thought it was funny. But no my friends it's not a joke. And what makes it hard to understand is why the record company would release this crap? I'm willing to bet you if the AC/DC guys heard this they'd be like what the fuck???? I hope they didn't hear it at all.

So musically this is hardly different from the original 'Back In Black' lp. The band plays the songs pretty much like the original. But then Barnes comes in and does growls over it and it's pitiful. There are certain styles of music that will never sound good with death metal vocals. If it's done in a joking manner like I said that's one thing. But it's for real and it's just ridiculous beyond comprehension. I can salute the musicians who played the songs they're talented and the guitar player does a great job on the solos. But when Barnes growls over songs like 'You Shook Me...' and 'Have A Drink On Me' it's bad news. It's so cringeworthy that I can't even get through most of the songs to be honest.

Well that's all I can say about this abomination of a cover album. Avoid it at all costs and don't waste your time with this. It should of been a comedy album at least it would have been funny.

Who needs albums that contain only compositions from the last millenium? Why does a band record a masterpiece of another band anew? Who enjoys a festival of predictability and weakness, stupidity and lameness? Why are songs whose titles deal with the bright side of life ("Let Me Put My Love into You", "You Shook Me All Night Long" or "Have a Drink on Me") released under the title "Graveyard Classics"? So many questions, but sorry, I don't have an answer.

There can be no doubt that "Back in Black" is a true milestone, one of the greatest metal albums of all times (and I still do not understand why M-A does not have AC/DC in its portfolio, but someday I take revenge, haha). Given this situation, it goes without saying that the song material on this output is actually brilliant. But the death metal clowns of Six Feet Under are competent enough to ruin the spirit, the class and the liveliness with great ease. Almost admirable how they kill the entire vibrancy of once dynamic songs such as "Shoot to Thrill". The growling of Barnes is totally idiotic in the light of the original spirit of the songs, the dull guitar work delivers not even the smallest vibes and everything is doomed to failure. However, SFU do not rest until the job is completely done. This is not less than a desecration of sacrosanct, almost holy tracks which have stood the test of time - and they did not do so just to be killed by a bunch of hammerheads who rely on the principle "minimal effort, maximum effect" when it comes to earning money.

Despite the uninspired guitars and the comatose drums, Barnes is to blame for adding the worst element to this garbage. It is good to know that Brian Johnson has some problems with his ears. Hopefully, he will never hear these vocals. No charisma, no intonation, no irony, no expressiveness. SFU did not try to make the songs better by modifying them with some individual, amazing elements. Okay, this would have been almost impossible. Yet it would have deserved more respect than the slavish imitation with death metal guitars and bad vocals. But is it really a slavish imitation? I have the feeling that the SFU edition is twice as long as the original. In other words, I did not know that one can absorb the energy and the entertaining elements of brilliant songs in such a meticulous and successful manner.

Angus Young and his comrades have sold more than 50 millions copies of "Back in Black", but I hope that SFU are still waiting for the first misguided fool to buy a copy of this powerless document of infamy. There's a sucker born every minute, but even these guys should realize that their appendix is more valuable than this soulless product. Frankly speaking, I need an antidote quickly so allow me to come to the end. All that is somehow connected with the name AC/DC does not deserve a rating of zero percents, but this is the only reason why I do not give exactly this evaluation for this absolutely useless cash-in effort. Please bury me four, five or seven feet under when the time has come. I don't have a preference. Only six feet under is no longer acceptable.

You just couldn't help yourself, could you Chris? If you thought the first Graveyard Classics album was horrendous, get a load of this shit. Instead of going for a smorgasbord of rock and metal classics he digs, this time Chris Barnes and company just go all out and cover an entire fucking album - AC/DC's legendary Back In Black no less. Covering a full length in it's entirety is a risky endeavour that rarely pays off. Even if it's well done, it usually ends up being pointless. The most common examples of it working involve giving the tracks a different perspective and often a new genre to call home. The changes in this case are superficial - instrumentally not much is changed and the biggest difference is that Brian Johnson's whiskey-soaked wails are replaced by half baked growls.

Before I go any further I probably should disclose that Back In Black is one of my favourite rock albums of all time. The playing is incredibly tight, the solos and riffs are stellar and the singing is phenomenal. This cheap rehash takes everything that was good about the original and pisses all over it. It feels like some bad drunken idea they hobbled together over the course of a few nights. Although I would like to write this off as a cheap cash in to make money off 14 year olds just getting into metal who don't know any better, I have this sinking feeling that Chris loved every minute of making this.

Instrumentally, they don't really carry the tracks over into death metal. A vague metal element is added, most notably for the solos, but for the most part the instruments play a pale imitation of the original. Despite the slight added metal element, the original sounds much more heavy. This metal influence on the guitar is largely superficial, sure stylistically it's more metal, but it completely lacks the vigour one would expect from the genre.The riffwork is lazy, coming off as perpetually sloppy. The once mighty riffs are stripped of all power, with no doubt some help from the sterile guitar tone. The drumming on the original was really fucking tight. Here, not so much. On this shitty rehash, they are even more lacklustre than the guitar. They stick to the bare bones, haphazardly plodding along. The bass provides little more than an irritating distant rumble.

Chris's shortcomings in the vocal department have been well documented, but this really takes the cake. Here they are at their most accessible and you can hear all the lyrics. He honestly sounds like he's doing Back In Black: The Death Metal Karaoke Edition. It sounds like some severely drunk dude getting up to do karaoke to a badly rerecorded instrumental and doing a horrendous imitation of death metal vocals for a few laughs. His vocal phrasing is awful and regularly misses the mark. At the start of "Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" he does the death metal version of spoken word and sounds like a complete tool. Adding stuff like rock and roll "is good for you, motherfucker", only makes it more laughable.

Go home Chris, you're drunk. This bad joke that is the Graveyard Classics series had already gone too far after one volume. This is making a parody of both death metal and rock. Rock and roll ain't noise pollution, but this unforgivable drivel certainly is. Remaking a rock classic with death metal vocals really is one of the worst ideas ever conceived. This surely is the nadir of artistic integrity and creativity. Six Feet Under really need to stop moonlighting as a cover band. Honestly, Nickleback covering an entire Celine Dion album probably wouldn't be this bad.

I've already been over the absurdity of how a band like Six Feet Under is somehow allowed to create an entire 'sub-brand' of their career like the Graveyard Classics series, shitting out arbitrary and uninspired covers of their favorite rock and metal hymns of the 70s, 80s and 90s to a limited crowd that must be so goddamn high that they failed to recognize that the album they walked out of the shop with was NOT adorned with a Phish or Dave Matthews Band logo. But Graveyard Classics 2 is a particular atrocity, in that it no longer collects some random and admittedly interesting choices to rewrite into the Chris Barnes legacy (the first sucked, but they at least chose a couple interesting picks like Savatage's Holocaust).

No, in what must be the Monarch of All Misfires, Six Feet Under and Metal Blade Records have joined forces to provide a cover album of...an album. A specific album. AC/DC's seminal Back in Black (1980), the first upon which Brian Johnson had replaced the late Bon Scott, and the album responsible for hits like "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Hells Bells" and the title track itself. All ten songs are reproduced here, lavished in a subdued production that keeps as close to the originals as humanly possible with the obvious exception that Johnson's gnarled angst has been supplanted with Barnes' monotonous grunting. Once straight and enthusiastic rock anthems like "Shoot to Kill" and "Shake a Leg" are drained of all their liveliness through drudging doppelgängers that never even risk a death metal sound beyond Barnes himself. Had the Floridian thugs at least tried to put more of a spin on this classic record, then we might at least praise them for making honest fools out of themselves! There is simply nothing metal about this beyond the Australians' original attitude and influence.

But this is boring and pathetic, with the only sparks of anything coming in the admittedly simple leads that breech the familiar, plodding chords. Graveyard Classics 2 is nothing more than what might happen if the blue collar front man your local Angus Young cover band took ill for a set, and they invited the kid from the generic death metal band that rehearsed next door to fill in for a night. A grand convocation of irony! I cannot for the life of me figure out why this was chosen as a viable consumer product, but then the same could be said for nearly anything in Six Feet Under's entire career, which has at best produced lackluster fare ala Maximum Violence or Haunted, and at worst...a string of phoned in, half-baked abominations that will have even the most jaded, hopeful philanthropist stroking is neckbeard in consternation.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

If I was to die and go to hell, my punishment would be that this is the only album I could ever listen to. Every quality this album has is a bad one, from the terrible production to the vomit-endusing fart vocals of Chris Barnes, this is, no doubt, the worst album of all time.

Now, AC/DC was a talentless and overrated rock band by itself, but for one of metal's worst bands to return and cover another of metal's worst bands is just a shitty idea altogether. This is not death metal. This isn't even metal. It's hard rock with some of the worst death growls known to mankind. The guitar tone is fuzzy and shitty, but the riffs behind it are even worse. Uninspired, putrid, and retarded, Steve Swanson makes no attempt to personalize the songs, and all this comes across as is the same AC/DC cover band you'll see playing at a kid's birthday party, or playing without an audience at a carnival, exept lacking any emotion and instead of the 60 year old women who would be dancing for normal AC/DC cover band, groups of clueless nu-metal fans break it down to this new "brutal" version of the famous hard rock band.

You're probably wondering how Chris Barnes handles these tracks, no? Well, needless to say, he sounds worse than ever, and songs like "You Shook Me All Night Long" are far beyond anyone's predictions of how bad this record could be. One good thing however, Chris Barnes hardly uses any of his trademark cringe-worthy high-pitched shrieks. That fact should be comforting enough.

As for Terry Butler and Greg Gall, they are simply there to back up Steve Swanson, and do nothing special the entire duration. The snare and bass drum sound horrible, and the bass guitar is almost inaudible, making this perilous listen even more perilous. When you can hear the bass, like at the beginning of "Let Me Put My Love Into You", you realize that whoever mixed this album mixed the bass with too many bass frequencies, and since Terry appears to be playing with his fingers instead of with a pick, the bass sounds very subtle and weak. Greg Gall is another problum. His drumming is once again very boring and exists soley to be a rhythm instrument, but this time the most he ever does is hit his cymbal once every measure or two, maybe more, and bang on the toms before the chorus or weak solo begins. He is simply pathetic here. Of all the instruments, he is the worst, as he brings absolutly NOTHING to the table that wan't originally on the album.

The second worst song on this album is "Back In Black". Everything about this song is putrid and retarded. The most notable thing is Chris's vocals, which sound worse than ever, as he struggles to even keep his voice throught the song. The solo to the song, while very impressive, lacks emotion, and it sounds like the guitar is coming out of one of those stereos that allows you to plug up a guitar, or the guitar setting on a cheap Wal-Mart electric piano.

The real worst song, however, is "You Shook Me All Night Long". This is about as far from death metal as you can get, in fact, the original version was heavier than this. This literally sounds like Rod Stewart, just with a heavy guitar tone and some of the worst vocals of all time. The vocals here make Jorge Herrera from the Casualties or Ollie Sykes from Bring Me the Horizon sound like Mike Patton or Frank Sinatra. In fact, the vocals from those two bands would fit way better than Chris's terrible vocals. The solo for the song is pathetic, and makes me want to chop off my ears in a fit of rage.

Hopefully, you get the point. This album is lacking on any front that could possibly make it enjoyable. The only time I could ever imagine playing this again would be at a party just to annoy people, or to show the true extent of how bad music can be.

0/10. This is bad, even for SFU standards.

No one has ever taken their love for AC/DC's Back In Black like Chris Barnes and the members of the brutal death metal band Six Feet Under. Graveyard Classics 2 is basically a remake collection of the entire Back In Black album. The only differences between the two albums are for one, cookie monster death growls in place of the high pitch, raspy singing, and two, a lot more presence noticeable in every instrument. Although musically this album is pretty spot on, just the idea and the concept in which this album was made is nothing more then something to laugh (unless you're a die hard AC/DC fan, and you see this album as complete and total blasphemy).

One of the most amusing aspects about this compilation CD is not the fact that Chris Barns sounds like the Cookie Monster yelling 'Hey hey hey hey hey!' on the track titled Back In Black, but the fact of the lyrics which Chris Barnes sings on this record. As originally stated in Revolver Magazine (and I agree), after writing such tracks as ***ed With A Knife and Stripped, Raped, And Strangled, hearing the ex-Cannibal Corpse vocalist sing Let Me Put My Love Into You is a riot. Another fun fact about the album is that is was honest and truly made with serious intention of remaking AC/DC'?s Back In Black. With Chris Barnes comparing his vocals to that of Brian Johnson, in which he said to Revolver Magazine, In the 1980's, Johnson had the raspiest voice ever. People couldn't understand what he was singing either.' Chris Barnes also claims that his vocals were done totally in the spirit of Brian Johnson.

Highlights
The music is copied very well. Although the atmosphere is a lot thicker, the music still flows in the very same manner as AC/DC's. The music also brings more out of AC/DC for me, which each instrument having a slightly more distinguished sound. The tone of the album is, of course a lot heavier then AC/DC's even without some of the atrocious cookie monster vocals from Chris Barnes. Another highlight of this album is more of a fun factor. Being an absolutely ridiculous concept to begin with, unless you are a die hard AC/DC fan who worships the Back In Black album, you can't help but laugh at Chris Barnes' attempts to sing like Brian Johnson. Also, the utter catchiness of the tracks Hells Bells and Back In Black would give anyone a nice groove.

Downsides
Everything else. Especially the vocals. Although I do believe Chris Barnes is an exceptional death metal vocalist, he should really think about sticking to his own material from now on (even Six Feet Under haters would agree that their original music is better then this joke). Also, if the humor doesn't suddenly die when Chris Barnes tries to do the 'Hey hey hey hey hey' on Back In Black, then as a listener you would be laughing to hard to hear the music (and people will think you've gone crazy if you were listening to the song on headphones when this happens). Basically put, this CD is worth nothing more then a couple good laughs and a chance to show off how stupid you are to your hippy AC/DC loving fans.

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR SPUTNIKMUSIC.COM

Wow. I never thought I'd give anything a 0% rating, but Six Feet Under was really asking for it with this one. Despite the bad press, I picked this album up because I love AC/DC and I sort of like Six Feet Under, so I figured it couldn't possibly be as bad as everyone said. Well, for all you like-minded folks out there, let me just save you the trouble and say that yes, it is that bad.

There are absolutely no redeeming qualities to be found in this...travesty. Everything that was good about AC/DC's original version is gone and is replaced by everything that is bad about Six Feet Under (namely their sluggishness and the subpar vocals), while the sinister feel and the pseudo-catchy groove riffs that make that band worth listening to are nowhere to be found. All we get is an uninspired, boring, abrasive, and utterly obnoxious raping of what was an excellent rock album. I can't think of a single moment on the entire record that even approaches being enjoyable.

One review mentioned that this album is not meant to be taken seriously, and it certainly isn't, but not even giving it the benefit of the doubt and thinking of it as a joke can make it any more listenable. A bad joke is no less bad for being a joke.

So avoid this at all costs. I like both bands, I'm as open-minded as they come, and I STILL say this sucks. It was a bad idea done poorly and it is absolutely not worth your money, no matter how much you like SFU or AC/DC.

I actually applaud Six Feet Under for doing something with this much in the way of "balls". Few bands are fans of an album enough to cover the entire thing. Sadly...this album is overdone and the SFU treatment falls short of anything more than a momentary amusement that is not even close to being worth the fourteen dollars one might end up paying for it. The production is spot on, the music is a perfect duplicate and the vocals are well...Barnes. It's amusing at a base level - but hardly worth that Metal Blade put forth to have the record made.

I rather enjoyed hearing "Hell's Bells" done up in a death metal format as well as other numbers like "Shake a Leg" and "Back in Black". Sadly, the novelty doesn't work on considerably less metal moments of "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" and "Have a Drink on Me". Once again - it's all novelty and will wear off about three listens.

I can't think of saying much more about this release...the band are certainly too good at making sure they piss of metalheads to be insulted for trying this...at the same time it's utterly worthless outside of the shock value.

I hope this passes quickly and that Barnes and crew make another record on the level of "Warpath" so I can forget this atrocity.

I've never been a Six Feet Under fan. Honestly, I've only heard their most recent full-length "Bringer of Blood" and unfortunately I got a promo of this album also. I'm sure you know by now, that this is Six Feet Under covering AC/DC's classic album "Back In Black." And everything about this album is completely wrong.

First of all, just the idea of covering an entire album strikes me as dumb. In addition to that, SFU barely modifies the music. The bass/drums/guitar are very similar to the original versions of the songs, except with a generically thick distortion on the guitar tone and a couple songs sound downtuned, but I'm not sure. And the solos are a lot faster and blander than the original. Don't expect double bass drumming, the music isn't changed a whole hell of a lot. And then there's the vocals. I don't know what made Chris Barnes think growling the chorus of "You Shook Me All Night Long" would be a good idea, but it sounds atrocious and laughable.

Albums of just covers are rarely more than cash-in efforts, and this takes that concept to an all time low. Cover albums are sometimes fun, but this one is tiresome and painful. SFU already has a covers album and that makes this even less essential.

I gave it five points because I like playing a song or two for my non-metal friends to laugh at.

Are these guys for real? I’m actually tempted to stop with this review right now such is my disgust at SFU’s blatant attention grabbing exercise with Graveyard Classics II. This is all too painful.

Not content with contaminating the listening world with some horrendous cover versions on GYC I, Chris Barnes and his cronies thought it would be a good laugh to continue the exercise. But wait…rather than pick another selection of old individual classic, they’ve decided to record in its entirety, AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’. Yep, ‘Hells Bells’ through to ‘Noise Pollution’, SFU run through the whole 1980 classic in their own fucked up style. You think they’re going to catch some hell for this? Darn right they are!!

In my mind, there is no question that Chris Barnes knows exactly what he is doing with GYC II. He knows he’ll cop the wrath of 99% of the metal media for this exercise in stupidity, but true to form, Barnes doesn’t give a toss. He thinks it’s all a bit of a laugh. He’d ask us not to take it all so seriously, lighten up and listen to GYC II for what it is – four guys doing death metal versions of one of the all time classic heavy rock albums. At a stretch I can tolerate that. The thing I can’t fathom is the absolute arrogance SFU display in attempting this stunt (and that’s all it is, a stunt!) in the first place. Sure, a cover version tacked on the end of an original album is great for novelty value, but a whole version of ONE album? Moreover, not only asking their Metal Blade to financially back them on it, but also asking their fan base to fork out their hard earned further escalates the superciliousness of the scheme.

If you’ve never rated cover versions anything more than novelty value, GYC II won’t endear you any further. SFU are a bog standard, lowest common denominator death metal band – quite why they believe in their ability to pull off hard rock cover versions is beyond me. GYC 1 should have been the end of their little experiment. It wasn’t done well then, and it certainly hasn’t improved on GYC II. Furthermore, quite why anyone would actually BUY this disc in favor of actually pulling out the original copy of ‘Back in Black’ (cos’ everyone’s got it) is another perplexing question that has me quivering in fear.

GYC II is thoroughly pointless. It serves absolutely no purpose other than to amuse the band themselves. They have trashed one of the all time classic metal albums from start to finish on this disc basically for their own enjoyment. It’s dull and lifeless, displaying none of the energy and vigor of the original album. What’s more, with Barnes out front it is vocally desecrated. GYC II is a joke gone too far, a tasteless exercise in sheer arrogance and self-importance. SFU may hold AC/DC in high regard, but it has done nothing for their reputation. If they ever had one, it is now in absolute tatters. Shocking!

PS: Having read this, please do everything you can to hear some of this album. You need to know how bad it actually is. BUT PLEASE, DO NOT PAY A CENT IN THE PROCESS!!