Six Feet Deep - "The Road Less Traveled"

When majority of people think of Cleveland hardcore the first few things that hit your mind is dark, heavy, and a evil sounding hardcore and majority of bands that came out of Clevo since the late 80's and early 90's where just mind blowing. Cleveland, OH has produced some legendary yet underrated bands for years and one of those finest and very over looked was Six Feet Deep.I think they were from the city of Elyria, Ohio but did majority of their time in Cleveland. They never released anything on Victory or any other strong label in the 90's and I'm sure being a Christian band didn't help them either at the time, since they where practically one of the first spirit filled heavy bands to come from the hardcore scene alone with Unshamed, Overcome, The Cruicified, Focused, Strongarm, and a few others. Now was I think about it's a little shocking this band came from the Cleveland hardcore scene which always has been a city that is known for it's very outspoken anti-god bands.

Six Feet Deep played my city of Evansville, IN back in 1996 or 1997 at an amazing old venue called The Rev which was in the basement of a old church that was built in the 1800's in the downtown area, hopefully I'll get the time to do a story on that venue at some point. I missed the show but the next day I saw a few of my friends running around high school with their t-shirts and hyping the band up like they were the next big thing all this talk really caught my attention for this band. So I Finally picked this great album up at the used cd store a few months later and was blown away. If you are person that can look past the religious side of this band then I think you will be impressed, "The Road Less Traveled" really stands the test of time as one solid 90's hardcore album. The recording is very evil, powerful, and dark sounding well at least for a christian band I guess. "The Road Less Traveled" was their second and final full-length for R.E.X. Records, released in 1996 right around the time the label apparently went out of business, thus kicking off the unfortunate dissolution of the band. While their early work was more "chugga" oriented, and thier work on "The Road Less Traveled" is melodic, developed, and darker. It really brings a strong match up with one of my favorite Integrity albums "System Overload". The vocals are intense and the song writing as your usual early heavy 90's hardcore vibe, it a little less metal and stick to more of a slighlty melodic feel at times. It's got plenty of slow head jolting riffs and a serious penchant for hooks. And the hoarse vocals carry enough power to dishevel the head of even the most fastidiously coiffed screamo nerd, hell even listening to the instrumental track on the album gave me chills when I was younger. This is one of the hardest christian hardcore and just straight up hardcore albums I've ever heard when I was younger so give it a shot.

I've been trying to get a post up on this band for years and I finally rememberd and had the time to do it so please give this album a listen. You can't find their music in print anywhere but checking amazon.com and ebay their are still tons of the CD format of this record around. Six Feet Deep does have a tribute myspace page with further information about the band: www.myspace.com/whatyouembraceiswhatyoubecome



Six Feet Deep - "The Road Less Traveled"
(R.E.X Records / 1996)
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1. Congruent
2. Purify
3. Slip
4. Apathetic
5. Narrow
6. More In Sorrow...
7. Steadfast
8. Meaningless
9. Broken Tree
10. Quick Time
11. (untitled) (hidden track)