Metal Assault recently caught up with SIX FEET UNDER frontman Chris Barnes. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

MA: Last year you did the Summer Slaughter tour across North America, and you toured with a bunch of bands who play new styles of extreme metal these days. Some of them headlined over you. Was it a challenge to go out there and win new fans on every night of that tour?

Barnes: "Well, it was a challenge but it was pretty awesome. Because yeah, as you said, there were a lot of new fans who had probably never heard of us and never gave us much thought. But I think once they saw us, they enjoyed it and I think we gained some new fans, and some fans of those other bands crossed over to us a little bit after seeing what we were doing on that tour. I enjoyed the hell out of that tour. It was one of the greatest tours I’ve been involved with."

MA: Six Feet Under has invariably played a slower, more groovy style of death metal. Do you think that separates you from the other bands that started out around the same time as when Six Feet Under did?

Barnes: "Yeah, probably. We’ve always been kind of different in how we approached things. We’ve not really tried to write a new style of music. We just write what sounds cool, for us anyway. I work closely with the other guys in the band and write what makes most sense to me as far as the lyrics and the vocals go. So, the guys that I have writing music for me in myband have always laid the foundation of it all."

MA: Right, and because of the brutality of the music, does that put pressure on you as a lyricist, to come up with stuff that is as intense as the music itself?

Barnes: "Well, I won’t call it pressure at all. I really never stress about it, and I never worry about it. It’s more like excitement to me. To me it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be fucking badass!’ It’s challenging to me, but it’s never any kind of pressure or anything. But as a writer and as a vocalist, I just tend to run with emotions. I’m not the kind of guy to sit and do the same things that I’ve always done for every single album. I mean, it’s so predictable and so boring to do it that way. I like to keep myself guessing and searching for something that satisfies me, and being surrounded by guys like Rob Arnold and Steve has really helped me to get to that place. All I want to be, really, is in this inner state of pushing myself and try to match the great fucking talent that I have around me. I have to do the best I can, because they are 110 per cent on top of it. So I enjoy pushing myself to the limit. When you’re writing and singing based on the strength of the kind of catalyst that’s provided by such great writing partners, it really makes you focus."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Six Feet Under recently unveiled the first single from their forthcoming studio offering, Undead. Slated for North American release on May 22nd through Metal Blade Records, the 12-track recording was produced by Mark Lewis (DEICIDE, DEVILDRIVER) and mixed by Jason Suecof (WHITECHAPEL, JOB FOR A COWBOY), at Audio Hammer Studios in Sanford, Florida.

Led by the inimitable Chris Barnes, possessor of one of the most dominant and instantly recognizable voices of the death metal genre, Undead offers up an overhauled lineup. Now featuring Barnes alongside new guitarist Rob Arnold (ex-CHIMAIRA), longtime guitarist Steve Swanson, new bassist Jeff Hughell, and drummer Kevin Talley, whose history blasting for DYING FETUS, MISERY INDEX and Chimaira speaks for itself, Six Feet Under 2012 finds the band reinvigorated and churning out some of the most visceral, in-your-face, and downright horrifying tunes in their renowned discography of brutality both, lyrically and musically.

Comments vocalist/death metal ambassador Chris Barnes of the recording: "I'm in pretty much the best headspace I've been in since myself and [former guitarist] Allen West started this band in 1993. I'm super excited about the new record. It's a rejuvenation; it's a rebirth of Six Feet Under, and fans will definitely latch on to my excitement and how focused I am in the lyrics I've written… The hypocrisies of daily life, things that affect us that spawn aggression, loneliness, sadness, there's a lot of emotions going on across the record, and I guess that the dark horror that humans cause is my niche."

Gore your ears to the violent sounds of 'Formaldehyde' below:

Undead tracklisting:

'Frozen At The Moment Of Death'

'Formaldehyde'

'18 Days'

'Molest Dead'

'Blood On My Hands'

'Missing Victims'

'Reckless'

'Near Death Experience'

'The Scar'

'Delayed Combustion Device'

'Vampire Apocalypse'

'The Depths Of Depravity'

Six Feet Under recently announced a bout of US live rituals this June. Dubbed the 18 Nights Of Blood Tour, the bestial invasion will begin in Atlanta, Georgia on June 8th and ravage its way across the country before coming to a close on June 29th in Tampa, Florida. Support will be provided by DYING FETUS and REVOCATION.

Comments Chris Barnes of the tour: “I'm proud and honored to be kicking off our first US tour for the release of our new album, Undead, with our good friends Dying Fetus and new killers Revocation! This tour is gonna be SICK! June will be murdered! 18 Nights Of Blood! Do not miss this tour!”

Tour dates:

June

8 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
9 - Empire - Springfield, VA
10 - Palladium - Worcester, MA
11 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
12 - Alrosa Villa - Columbus, OH
13 - Reggie's - Chicago, IL
14 - Peabody's - Cleveland, OH
15 - Harpo's - Detroit, MI
16 - People's Court - Des Moines, IA *
18 - The Gothic Theater - Denver, CO *
20 - Studio Seven - Seattle, WA
21 - Hawthorne Theater - Portland, OR
23 - The Metro - Oakland, CA
24 - The Whisky - Los Angeles, CA
25 - TBA – Tempe, AZ
26 - House Of Rock - El Paso, TX
27 - Scout Bar - Houston, TX
29 - Brass Mug - Tampa, FL *

* - No Dying Fetus