SIX FEET UNDER mainman Chris Barnes spoke to Inside Out Webzine recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Inside Out: This is album number eight for Six Feet Under, not counting the covers albums. After so many years of writing and recording, what were you hoping to achieve this time around?

Chris Barnes: "Just to continue on our path, doing things the way we do it and hoping that it would come together and we’d come up with some good songs and surprise ourselves. We always attack every song and the beginning of song-writing process for a new album like it’s our first album. I throw away everything I have done and I know the other guys are like that too and we let the music take us on a path that it wants to lead us on. I like to work that way and we let it flow that way and not think about it too much. I think that’s the only way to do it. If you start to think about the current vibe and what people are really digging, then you’re always going to be one step behind. You can’t please everybody, you have to write the best album that you can and the one that will make you feel good!"

Inside Out: Looking back on your time in Cannibal Corpse… when was the first time you knew you had a serious chance of making it?

Chris Barnes: Probably when we first started rehearsing, and writing songs. We had such a great following of friends and people that were around us in our home town in Buffalo when I was in Cannibal Corpse. Even before that, I was in a band called LEVIATHAN and we had a great following of fans at that point. By late 1985 – 86, I really felt that I had a possible solid career in music."

Inside Out: You have a great voice and have been singing this form of metal for years now. As you get older do you find it easier or more of a challenge to get onstage and belt it out!

Chris Barnes: "It’s easier and more difficult on certain levels. It’s easier for me to get up there and sing, I know what I can do and what I can’t do, where I can go with it, but the body just doesn’t recover as quick as it used to. I have to stay in better shape than I used to [laughs]. I have to watch what I do, pace myself a little more and stay in good shape!"