As previously reported, former CANNIBAL CORPSE and current SIX FEET UNDER singer Chris Barnes said that death metal bands nowadays made him “physically ill.”
On January 19, Knotfest livestreamed “A Death Metal Round Table” hosted by Staypuft Mallow and featuring appearances by George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, Trevor Strnad from THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, Chase Mason from GATECREEPER and Alex Jones from UNDEATH.
In the video, the singers discussed “their early influences, the accessibility of the genre, inspiration from the weirdest places, live show between-song patter, their upcoming releases and tours and much, much more.”
Barnes wrote on Twitter regarding the video: “I just watched a ‘death metal’ podcast on YouTube that was done about a week ago with the ‘top’ death metal vocalists .. it made me physically ill. I despise what this genre has become.”
Later on, HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta, who co-produced Fisher‘s upcoming debut solo album, responded to Barnes: “come on the podcast & discuss.”
Chris responded: “No thanks brother. I have no need to jump on that bandwagon you guys got that”.
Jasta fired back with “Weak,” to which Barnes said: “Ain’t here to play that game. You have fun tho bro.”
Jasta then wrote: “you’re the one playing games, you ‘hate what the genre has become’ but do you ever promote or discuss new bands or try & help build anything in the genre?” This prompted Chris to respond: “Lol promote lol hahahahaha”. Jasta then countered: “Oh right that’s beneath you lol”, to which Barnes said: “Nah I’m just not a shill…”
Now, in a new interview with Little Punk People, current CANNIBAL CORPSE singer Corpsegrinder has responded saying modern death metal is pretty great.
“GATECREEPER‘s pretty cool. I saw a band FROZEN SOUL, I saw them. There’s a bunch of bands going out here now. The scene is just as healthy as it’s ever been,” he said. “It’s just as great as it’s ever been. It’s not dead, it’s not terrible, I’m proud of the death metal scene today. I’m so proud of it, I think it’s amazing. I think there’s so many great bands. Look, we’re going out on tour with REVOCATION and WHITECHAPEL, and you know — two awesome, great bands.”
“The scene couldn’t be better. And anyone who thinks otherwise, you know — kiss rocks. Because I’m so proud of the death metal scene. I encourage everyone to go out and you know, listen. Listen to the old bands. Of course. The old way paved the way. Go listen to POSSESSED. They’re the first death metal band, okay? Go listen to them and listen to everything between. Listen to KREATOR, who I think are kind of the bridge between death and thrash that, without KREATOR there would be no CANNIBAL CORPSE. Listen to those bands and listen to obviously the old, classic bands like CANNIBAL, DEATH, OBITUARY, DEICIDE, MORBID ANGEL.
“Then you have AEON, you have BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and DYING FETUS — like I said, newer bands. Like GATECREEPER‘s been around for a while, but you know… dude there’s so much great death metal going around. The scene has never been better and anyone who thinks otherwise, you know… just, you know, I don’t know what to tell you.”
