[Cover photo credit to Stephanie Cabral]

Six Feet Under have unveiled their latest single and video, “Ascension.” The new track comes by way of the band‘s upcoming fourteenth studio album, Killing For Revenge, set for release on May 10th, 2024 through Metal Blade Records.

Killing For Revenge dishes up nightmare-inducing imagery courtesy of frontman Chris Barnes and the red-hued album cover by artist Vince Locke is very much in keeping with the contents.

Forged as a side project for Barnes during his final years with the band that he co-founded, Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under became the frontman‘s sole focus in 1995. The current lineup includes Barnes, guitarists Jack Owen (ex-Cannibal Corpse) and Ray Suhy, bassist Jeff Hughell, and drummer Marco Pitruzzella.

Killing For Revenge marks the second album that Barnes and Owen have created together since reuniting for 2020‘s Nightmares Of The Decomposed. Owen also Produced the record.

Barnes shares:

We all recorded it on our own, in different parts of the country since we’re all spread out. I think the most important thing is to put everybody in a comfortable space so that they get a great performance. That’s what you want to capture. It’s really hard nowadays to afford everyone being in the studio recording like we used to back in the ’90s. It can be done just as effectively this way.

Regarding the “Ascension” single, Owen says:

I wrote the music first, with no lyrical ideas in mind. I wanted a small musical phrase that linked the parts together throughout the song, so I wrote a little chord/drum fill thing to segue riffs from the start of the song, through to the end. It turned out sounding like early Possessed, according to listeners. I have an archive of riffs, so I dug for some fast-picking parts that would be easy to sing to.

I had recently found a vinyl box set of works by Shakespeare, and listened to Macbeth. It’s pretty violent! So while ’Ascension‘ isn’t a direct interpretation of the story, it’s my take on the classic tale of influence, revenge, and the fate you face. As with many of the songs, Chris lent his lyrical talents to make the song that much better.