JACK OWEN has a hard time listening to CANNIBAL CORPSE's 'Butchered At Birth'
30-03-2026
In a new interview with Spain’s Made In Metal, former CANNIBAL CORPSE and current SIX FEET UNDER guitarist Jack Owen was asked if there is one album from his catalog that he is not happy with that he would like to possibly re-record. He responded: “Hmm. Yeah. Maybe the CANNIBAL CORPSE album ‘Butchered At Birth’ that came out in 1991. The production could be a lot better and the writing process was a little more stress filled, I think. We were trying to make up for sounding simple on the first album, so we overwrote a little bit. So, yeah, I think that’s the only one that’s hard for me to listen to, to this day… Of the first four (CANNIBAL CORPSE) albums, it’s the one that’s probably number four out of those four — for me, anyway.”
Owen also talked about his creative chemistry with his former CANNIBAL CORPSE and current SIX FEET UNDER bandmate, vocalist Chris Barnes. He said: “Oh, (it’s) very simple. I write a song, I demo it, I record it and send it to him. And it’s usually, ‘Yes, let’s go with that.’ Or, ‘Eh, maybe not,’ and I just move on to the next song. I’ve known him so long, we’re just kind of family and we’re brothers, really. So, we can always talk to each other about anything, musically or really anything about life… I can just e-mail him songs as I finish them. So (during the songwriting process for SIX FEET UNDER‘s upcoming album ‘Next To Die’) we ended up with a lot of extra songs that weren’t very good on my part. So maybe we will retool those and they’ll end up on the next album.”
Earlier this month SIX FEET UNDER will release their new album, “Next To Die”, on April 24 via Metal Blade Records. In celebration of the announcement, the band now release “The Unmistakable Smell Of Death”, including a lyric video.
Stream “The Unmistakable Smell Of Death” below.
“Next To Die”, produced by SIX FEET UNDER guitarist Jack Owen and singer Chris Barnes and mixed and mastered by Mark Lewis of MRL Studios in Nashville, follows 2024’s “Killing For Revenge”. It’s the third record that Barnes and Owen — both former members of CANNIBAL CORPSE — have created together since reuniting in 2017.
“Next To Die” track listing:
01. Approach Your Grave
02. Destroyed Remains
03. Mister Blood And Guts
04. Mutilated Corpse In The Woods
05. Unmistakable Smell Of Death
06. Wrath And Terror Takes Command
07. Skin Coffins
08. Mind Hell
09. Naked And Dismembered
10. Grasped From Beyond
11. Next To Die
12. Ill Wishes
“Next To Die” is a new creative high for SIX FEET UNDER, marking the band’s fifteenth album since 1995’s “Haunted”.
“It started out as an album full of death metal songs with speed and aggression,” says Owen. “Then Chris had the brilliant idea to keep half of those death metal songs and add some groovier songs in the vein of the early SIX FEET UNDER material. Chris emphasized tempo, so keeping with the beats per minute for early SFU classics, I wrote a side of tasty groove-laden music with Chris doing all the lyrics.”
The creative collaborative approach sees “Next To Die” essentially broken down into two different sides, Death and Groove, resulting in an aural masterwork that satisfies SIX FEET UNDER as artists, while also offering something for every fan.
“We don’t discuss lyrical themes, we each write what we’re feeling,” explains Barnes. “We each just write what we find interesting.”
SIX FEET UNDER was initially formed as a side project for Barnes during his final years with the band that he co-founded, CANNIBAL CORPSE. It became the frontman’s sole focus in 1995, coinciding with the release of their debut, “Haunted”. The current tour-honed lineup of Barnes, Owen, lead guitarist Ray Suhy, bassist Jeff Hughell, and drummer Marco Pitruzzella make for a devastating unit.
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