In a recent interview with Scott Penfold from Loaded Radio, Alex Webster, the bassist for CANNIBAL CORPSE, was asked about his thoughts on SIX FEET UNDER frontman Chris Barnes‘s critique of the current state of the death metal scene. Barnes, a former vocalist for CANNIBAL CORPSE, expressed strong dislike for the direction the genre has taken.
“I don’t really put too much emphasis on any of that stuff,” Alex responded. “I think people should be able to say whatever they want. And if people have an opinion about music, why should they keep it hidden, I guess. If Chris doesn’t like something, he’s absolutely free to say he doesn’t like it. And then people are free to say they don’t like his opinion. So I don’t really care about that. I think everybody’s entitled to their own opinion, and it’s fine.”
“We all love music so much, especially… I’ve found metal fans, we’re all so passionate about it, we’re just prone to debate and argue,” he continued. “And I think it reflects how much we all care about this music. It’s not just background music to us. If you go into McDonald’s and you can hear a song in the background, then it just seems to me, it’s probably not interesting enough to have dedicated fans; it’s just sort of background music.
“But metal and other kinds of music that really require your attention and get you engaged… It’s not in the background for us literally or figuratively — it’s something very important to all of us. It’s our hobby in many ways, it’s what we’re into, and, yeah, we’re gonna argue about it sometimes because we care about it. So I think it’s fine.”
When asked about the current standing between CANNIBAL CORPSE and Barnes, or if it’s more of a case of “‘you do your thing and we’re doing our thing’,” Alex responded: “Pretty much. Yeah, he can do his thing; we do ours. If I see him, it’s always friendly. But I haven’t seen him in a few years. But, yeah, to each their own, and it’s all cool at this point. We don’t really run into each other, though. They [SIX FEET UNDER] haven’t toured in a while. Normally when you see everybody and you reconnect with people is at festivals, mainly the European ones, I should say, ’cause that’s where the majority of the festivals are. And we reconnect with a lot of people there — bands we’ve toured with, friends, crew members that we know, working with other bands. So that’s where I would run into him. And they haven’t been doing that stuff in a little while. So maybe we’ll see him next year or something, though. Who knows?”
Webster also faced questions regarding if fans have expressed a desire to see CANNIBAL CORPSE and SIX FEET UNDER perform together on tour, particularly now that SIX FEET UNDER includes another former CANNIBAL CORPSE member, guitarist Jack Owen.
Alex responded: “People have asked, but I think, again, SIX FEET just doesn’t really tour that much. And we probably wouldn’t do it. It’s, yeah, like you said, sort of everything’s cool, but it’s sort of like, you do your thing, we’ll do our thing. And it’s fine.”