Chris Barnes (musician)

Chris Barnes (born December 29, 1967) is an American death metal vocalist, lyricist and producer who currently serves as the frontman of Six Feet Under. Artistically, he is noted for his low guttural vocals and explicitly violent lyrics.

Barnes was the co-founder and original lead vocalist and lyricist of Cannibal Corpse, staying with the band from 1988 to 1995. He later founded the Florida death metal band Six Feet Under, for whom he also provided lead vocals. In addition, he has also appeared on Torture Killer's second album ''Swarm!'' Barnes designed the original Cannibal Corpse logo, the Six Feet Under logo and the artwork for the band's 1997 album '' Warpath''.

Early life and education

Barnes first met bandmate Paul Mazurkiewicz when the former moved to the neighborhood with his mother. According to Barnes, the two were not friends at first. Barnes recalled being struck in the groin by Mazurkeiwicz while playing street football during an altercation between the two. The two began smoking marijuana and listening to heavy metal together soon thereafter.

Barnes graduated high school in 1986.

Musical career

Cannibal Corpse

Barnes started his career at the age of 19. His first band was a death/thrash band called Tirant Sin, which was formed in 1986 in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Other members of Tirant Sin included Paul Mazurkiewicz (drums), Bob Rusay, Cam V and Joe Morelli (guitars) and Rich Ziegler (bass guitar). In 1986, Barnes left Tirant Sin to join another New York-based death/thrash metal band named Leviathan that recorded the four-track demo "Legions of the Undead" in 1987, re-released on the 2005 Six Feet Under box set '' A Decade in the Grave''.

Tirant Sin recorded three demos, all privately released: "Desecration of the Graves" in February 1987, "Chaotic Destruction" in fall 1987 with Dennis John on vocals, and "Mutant Supremacy" in 1988. Barnes appeared only on the third demo, when he re-joined Tirant Sin in January 1988.

After Tirant Sin, Barnes co-founded Cannibal Corpse. Barnes wrote all of the lyrics on the albums '' Butchered at Birth'', '' Tomb of the Mutilated'', and '' The Bleeding'' and wrote the lyrics on '' Eaten Back to Life'' with the rest of the band helping. The band relocated to Tampa, Florida in 1995. Barnes stated in a 2025 interview that the move was ratified without his knowledge, and he was not given a say in the decision.

Barnes became notorious for his explicitly violent lyrics. He said, "I was always interested in horror and stuff like that, and gore, and I read a lot of the stuff on serial killings."

Barnes left Cannibal Corpse in 1995 during the recording sessions for '' Vile'' due to creative and personal differences with the rest of the band. He said, "I just didn't like being around them, because I was being ridiculed, and I just didn't feel comfortable being in the same room with people that weren't very nice to me personally. And I was part of that too, so we had all of our own type of differences, personally, and I don't think it was gonna be able to be worked out. You know, mutual respect goes a far way when it comes to being in close quarters with people." His final vocal recordings with the band were for the "Created to Kill" sessions which were later re-recorded by his replacement George Fisher for the Vile album. The "Created to Kill" demo featuring Barnes was eventually released as part of the 15 Year Killing Spree box set released in 2003.

Barnes commented, "I'm very proud of everything I did. I stand by it, and it's really held the test of time as far as good death metal goes. I think that it will continue to be thought of as one of the purest moments of death metal history, those first annibal Corpserecords I was involved with." He later said, "being booted out of Cannibal Corpse was pretty memorable but in a good way. I didn't feel I was able to write the way I wanted to so it was a good transition for me."

In response to questions from fans regarding a possible reunion between Barnes and Cannibal Corpse, Alex Webster ruled out the possibility, saying "we have no plans to do anything with Chris Barnes ever again. It's not something any of us are interested in doing." "It's nothing against him, but we prefer to move forward rather than live in the past." Webster also said in 2013: "Doing songs where Chris was onstage with us and George wasn’t would be too much. George is the singer of Cannibal Corpse, and has been since 1995. That’s a tremendous history in its own right. We’re quite a veteran band at this point. How many years is that now that’s been with us? I’m thinking of the maths right now... It’s like... what? 18 years?”

Webster also stated that although he and Barnes had been cordial when the two have encountered each other at festivals, Cannibal Corpse would also not likely participate in a tour with Six Feet Under either, saying "you do your thing, we'll do ours." Barnes himself commented: "I don't have any animosity towards those guys at all, and I don't think they do towards me. It's just that… It would be too confusing for things f we were to tour together I think, from their perspective." However, Jack Owen has stated his belief that Barnes would be capable of cordiality towards George Fisher should the two bands ever tour together. Barnes recalled that he had invited Webster to play guest bass on Six Feet Under's renditions of " Hammer Smashed Face" and "Stripped Raped and Strangled" during the band's 2025 US tour, but Webster declined. Barnes said: "We knew he wasn't going to do it, but I told him 'those songs are so important to us all, I thought you might want to.' But I don't know what grudge they're holding against me, but they just don't like me, so it's okay."

Six Feet Under

Barnes' departure from Cannibal Corpse allowed him to devote his full attention to the band Six Feet Under, which had been his side project since 1993. The group initially featured members from Obituary. The group's first album ''Haunted'' was released in 1995. The group's second album '' Warpath'' was released in 1997. The group's third album '' Maximum Violence'' was released in 1999. The group's fourth album '' Graveyard Classics'' was released in 2000. They released ''True Carnage'' in 2001. They released ''Double Dead'' in 2002. '' Bringer of Blood'' was released in 2003. In 2005, Six Feet Under released '' 13'', their sixth full-length album, produced by Barnes. In the same year, Six Feet Under released '' A Decade in the Grave'', a box set highlighting the previous ten years of Six Feet Under.

Barnes joined the Finnish death metal band Torture Killer in fall 2005. Barnes appeared on the band's second album ''Swarm!'', which was released on February 24, 2006. However, he left the band in January 2008.

Six Feet Under released the album '' Commandment'' on April 17, 2007.

On November 11, 2008, Six Feet Under released another album, '' Death Rituals''. It saw the band returning to Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida, with Chris Carroll producing and mixing by Toby Wright (Slayer, Korn, In Flames, Fear Factory, etc.) and the return of old friend Bill Metoyer, who recorded the band's album '' Warpath'', who helped out with recording of the drums.

On January 16, 2009, a message appeared on Six Feet Under's website saying "Just wanted to let all of our fans know that we are currently in the studio working on Graveyard Classics 3. We are about 60% finished with tracking. Everything is going great and we are having a lot of fun laying these new songs down. more info and track listing to come!!"

In November 2011, Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries posted statements saying they had left Chimaira to play in Six Feet Under full-time. However, in 2012, DeVries moved on to Fear Factory, replacing longtime bass guitarist Byron Stroud. The vacant position was subsequently filled by the ex- Brain Drill 7-string bass guitarist, Jeff Hughell.

The band's ninth studio album, ''Undead'', was released on May 22, 2012. Rob Arnold was later replaced by Ola Englund. The band stated that Arnold would remain a central writing partner and collaborator on future Six Feet Under releases.

Six Feet Under's tenth album '' Unborn'' was released on March 19, 2013, and their eleventh record '' Crypt of the Devil'' was released May 5, 2015. '' Nightmares of the Decomposed'' followed in 2020. '' Killing for Revenge'' followed in 2024.

Artistry

Vocals

Will Hodgkinson of The Times said that Barnes "took metal vocals from the scary to the ridiculous," and his tone has been favorably described as "hideous." On early Cannibal Corpse releases, he employed a thrash metal vocal style, which Alex Webster called "a different type of death metal singing," and compared to the likes of Kreator and The Accused. By the band's second album Butchered at Birth, his vocals were drastically lower. Barnes has stated that he developed his guttural vocal style as an attempt to blend into the music, or "become another instrument", as the band composed increasingly darker and more aggressive songs. Many within the death metal scene believe Barnes to be among the first to employ the deeper guttural style in their growls, along with Chuck Schuldiner.

Though his vocals on ''Butchered'' and '' Tomb of the Mutilated'' were characterized as an indecipherable " gurgle," beginning with '' The Bleeding'', publications noted an increase in clarity in his enunciation. He said, "It just felt right to enunciate and pronounce the lyrics more clearly n ''The Bleeding''because I felt the music was more clearly pronounced. ..I think that at that point in time I wanted to prove to myself that I could still sing really heavy ..but people could understand my lyrics more, because the lyrics nd storylinesare very important to me ..it’s an artwork to me ..and I want my art to be heard." Following his tenure with Cannibal Corpse, Barnes became widely known for his " eee" squeal on Six Feet Under releases, which would become his trademark. According to Will Hodgkinson of The Times, Barnes' squeal "brings to mind pigs in slaughterhouses awaiting their fate."

Although his vocal performances on later Six Feet Under releases have been called "a shell of his Corpse glory," Barnes has defended the evolution in vocal styles throughout his career as simply due to stylistic choice and personal preference. He assessed, "I'm not a death metal singer that sings one style or one tone throughout an entire album or sings the same way on every album. I really take it song by song and I try to adjust my vocal approach to the nuances of the music and how it feels to me and what I want to accommodate to kind of offset those things that I hear in the music to make it more closer to what I feel its related to vocal tone wise. ..The guttural thing started for me when I heard certain things in the riff You know, the nowiki/>syncopation">syncopation.html" ;"title="nowiki/>syncopation">nowiki/>syncopation ..So I wanted to really bring my vocals into that. You know, so [they were] like melted together with [the music]." He added, "I just think that it gets really, really boring doing the same vocal approach ..and not really feel the music in a new fresh way each time. I don't fear that. ..I want to explore something new." He also elaborated: "It would be like a famous actor you love or something that you really like a role that he plays, but that actor isn't going to into his next movie with that same technique or feeling towards the role he's approaching. So for me, representing the music with lyrics and a vocal tone and a vocal structure comes from the work itself that is presented to me to accommodate. ..I understand when people say, "Oh he doesn't sound like he did on that album or song." Well yeah, that's how it's always been on every album. I've had a different vocal sound and that is purposeful. I wouldn't want it any other way."

Lyrics

Publications have called Barnes a " deranged lyrical genius," and Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan has credited Barnes as one of the "progenitors of the gore style." Graham Hartmann of Loudwire said, "lyrically, he was a deranged, murderous savage with a vivid imagination for extinguishing life, possessing an unquenchable bloodlust." Barnes' lyrics generally follow a fictional, narrative format, heavily drawing influence from horror fiction and true crime. On his lyrical content on the first four Cannibal Corpse albums, he said: "It wasn't meaningless jargon written down to fast music. I've always taken pride in writing a storyline. It is brutally sickening, but there's always a story in my lyrics."

Barnes assessed his emotional approach to writing lyrics that pertain to the topic of death. He explained: "We force ourselves not to think about death because it's the most horrifying experience in life and forces us to do more with our lives. It makes it easier to ignore death. Two or three people have asked me, 'Are these metaphors, the lyrics that you write? I find this to be about lifestyle, more than it is about death.' And I applauded those guys when they said that because I was like, 'It's exactly what it is.' When you sit in the darkness by yourself, alone at night, and you think about that last minute that you're gonna be alive, and what that will be like right when that happens, that last second, right there is where I live and breath, as far as where I write from."

On shock value, he said, "I really wasn't doing it to shock people. I just thought it was exciting and interesting and it went along with what I gained from listening to the music. When those guys wrote, it presented such a violent image to me, I felt like I had to match it with the lyrics. And I was able to pull from my imagination some sick qualities of mankind and put it down to paper." He is also quoted saying, "To just shock someone doesn't really work, but trying to write something that vokesan emotion, like fear, is what interests me. I put it out there raw. I felt it complemented the music, 'cause it was so far out there on so many levels." "Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt" from '' Tomb of the Mutilated'' is considered one of his more extreme lyrical pieces, with publications calling the line "mutilated with a machete" one of the song's "more upbeat, uplifting moments." Joe Davita of Loudwire joked, "We never claimed that Chris Barnes was a well-adjusted man."

Barnes said the controversy surrounding his lyrics on early Cannibal Corpse releases nearly got him shot and killed when gang members stormed the band's tour bus before a 1994 concert in Los Angeles. He recalled, "Some gang members came on the bus and told me they didn't like my lyrics. One of them had just got out of San Quentin, and he had a .38 aliberstuffed into his belt lining. He said, "We're gonna kill you if you keep writing about this stuff." I just tried to talk to him calmly and say, "Hey, I respect your opinion," but it was pretty scary. Luckily, we had a really good tour manager, who somehow got those guys off the bus."

Legacy

Barnes is recognized by some as "one of the first real guttural death metal vocalists." Will Hodgkinson of The Times named Barnes as one of the best voices in heavy metal, and noted that there exist "entire YouTube compilations dedicated to issignature “eee” squeal."

Personal politics and views

Barnes is a proponent of marijuana legalization. Barnes' father grew and sold the substance, and he recalled feeling like his "world opened up" upon smoking marijuana for the first time, smoking roach clips lifted from his father's ash trays. He recalled, "I was lucky to grow up in a house where my dad and his wife were very, kind of, progressive, and he grew cannabis and sold it. So I remember the original Acapulco Gold strains, and Panama Red, the real Red, that were eradicated." Barnes elaborated on his views in a 2012 interview, where he was quoted saying: "I believe nowiki/>cannabis">cannabis.html" ;"title="nowiki/> nowiki/>cannabiswas placed here on earth by a higher power, or another being, or an Extraterrestrial life">''alien'' being, or Destiny">something that has a plan for us. ..It's scientific knowledge that our systems are built around the cannabinoidal system. We need cannabinoid">Cannabinoid receptor">cannabinoidal system. We need cannabinoids ingested into our bodies to build our immune systems. ..This plant was actually put here for us to find. And we are actually Medical cannabis, benefitting from it. ..What we don't need in our systems is ..beer -- alcohol. We don't need cigarettes. We don't need tobacco. But for some reason, these things are legal to us and shoved down our throats, advertised on the Super Bowl, and we're supposed to consume these things. And they are the deadliest">Health_effects_of_tobacco.html" ;"title="nowiki/> deadliestthings that we consume as human beings in our daily lives and they Preventable causes of death#Worldwide">kill more people on the face of this planet than anything else that we use Recreational drug use">recreationally."

Barnes has openly expressed his belief in the supernatural and Afterlife, life after death. He told ''Noisecreep'' in 2012: "I know for a fact that there is an afterlife – a FACT. I've communicated with the dead. I've seen it happen. Sounds silly and people might laugh at me for saying it, but I've seen things happen that have to do with spirituality and the afterlife, that no one can take from me. And that is brought out in what I write because I believe it to be fact and truthful, about the soul, the spirit. And the ugly things I see in life remind me about all the beautiful things that we forget about and how precious and short those things are to our experience."

Barnes has been openly critical about the current state of modern death metal, going as far to say he "despises" what the genre has become. This was met with backlash from within the death metal scene. At a Cannibal Corpse show in Reading, Pennsylvania, the crowd was heard chanting "fuck Chris Barnes" for nearly 20 second, to which George Fisher responded, "you said it, not me." However, Six Feet Under bandmate Jack Owen stated in a 2024 interview that Barnes has since adopted a more amicable stance on the genre's development. It was erroneously reported that Barnes wrote "every death metal singer sucks except for me" in a Facebook post. In actuality, this was posted by a troll account.

Barnes has called some of the survivors of the 2018 Parkland school shooting "crisis actors" and the coronavirus a "false flag".

Controversies

Seth Putnam controversy

There was controversy surrounding Barnes and late Anal Cunt vocalist Seth Putnam. According to Putnam, he heckled Barnes during a Six Feet Under set, which lead to an altercation between the two. Ultimately, Six Feet Under's roadies ganged up on Putnam while Barnes fled to his tour bus. Putnam released the song " Chris Barnes Is a Pussy" as retaliation to the incident. Despite the feud, Putnam stated that " Murdered in the Basement" was his favorite song by Six Feet Under.

Cattle Decapitation controversy

On November 7, 2012, while on tour with Metal Blade labelmates Cattle Decapitation on the Autumn Apocalypse Tour, Barnes reportedly "sucker punched" Cattle Decapitation frontman Travis Ryan during a verbal altercation, resulting in Cattle Decapitation dropping off the tour. Ryan stated that Barnes had been making unsavory remarks about Cattle Decapitation onstage the night prior, and that he punched him mid-sentence when confronted about it. Travis said that Barnes performed a "Rocky dance" and retreated after punching him. Travis took to Facebook after the incident, where he called Barnes a "fucking hack". He said: "I've personally passed on at least 5 six feet tours over the last 8 or so years because he pulls so much nonsense on the support bands because his ego is astronomical. ..He couldn't handle the fact that we were destroying him nightly on merch and talked shit about us on stage last night. I went to confront him about that and he sucker punched me as I was talking. He immediately RAN out the door and fled to his bus like he does every night when the two fans that are left for their show are trying to get him to sign something." In response, Barnes apparently mocked the band's vegetarianism in a since-deleted Twitter post, where he said: "If you eat tofu you'll get you're ass kicked in a fight. #knocked out". Barnes later stated that Ryan "broke into" Six Feet Under's backstage lounge and "start dcalling names" and " otin isface," while denying sucker punching him.

One day later, Barnes implied that that he struck Ryan because he felt threatened. He stated that Ryan had been talking badly about Barnes behind his back for days amongst the tour's crew and musicians. In response, Barnes stated that he had made quips about veggie burgers on stage in an attempt to "lighten the mood". He stated that the tension originated from a dispute relating to merchandise on the tour. He is quoted as follows: "All that was settled. The night after we had that problem ..we were on stage, and at the end of the set I said 'I'm glad we all got our things figured out and got that behind us. I really want to just have a great tour and enjoy the tour. I want to thank all the opening bands on the tour and let's move on and have some fun.' Two days later, I find out this kid is calling me an asshole around the tour and to everybody involved with the tour. .. yangot all bent out of shape and waited for me to get off stage and broke into my backstage room, got in my face, stepped up to me, three inches from my face. He had his finger pointing at my face, yelling at me, calling me an asshole, and, to me those are fighting words. I just reacted and, uh, I did not sucker punch him, number 1, I didn't even punch him. He did not get punched, he did not get sucker punched. I did not run out of the room. I walked out of the room because I did not feel it was necessary to pursue violence anymore, while the guy was laying on the floor. My crew guy was with me, he didn't run out of the room with me, he walked out of the room with me. I walked up the stairs. I did not hide in my tour bus. I did not do a Rocky dance. I walked off my tour bus probably a half an hour later and walked right past their crew and van on my way to the hotel with my girlfriend. They didn't say one word to me."

In response, Ryan said: "Because of all the horror stories we heard about Chris Barnes from friends who toured with him, we just were never interested in taking part of tour with Six Feet Under Recently when we agreed to do the tour, it was only on the basis that we didn't have any merch restrictions. No price matching, no limits on designs. Because of the Shockwave tour we were forced to miss, we were fully stocked and had a ton of stuff and now have a huge bill for it. After the first night of the tour, Chris freaked out because of all the merch we had. They tried limiting our designs, but we had in many emails to and from booking agents and documents, that there were to be no merch restrictions. Period. After a bunch of back and forth with their tour manager, the label and between ourselves, we finally agreed to do 4 designs in hopes to just eliminate any drama. We have minded our own business with limited drama ever since. Well, according to our merch guy we did better than them again and this is where it gets lame... Since Chris mostly hides in his tour bus, they set up a meet and greet at their merch booth, we figure to help generate merch sales. Chris came in and did it right as we hit the stage. Fine, do what you need to do dude. Twice while they were on stage Chris made some typical veggie wisecracks, one was a commentary on the crowd walkout, and one was just dumb and it was apparent to all of us standing there that they were jabs against us, the band following his ass, supporting his band nightly. Ridiculous. So, i confronted him after he left the stage about it. Just words (I will admit i was speaking loudly and with an amount of anger and cursing), just asking if that was really necessary to do to his support band but according to some "industry" peeps that know him well, nobody stands up to barnes. He basically just says "well then how about just having some respect then?", I assume because he's Chris Barnes from Cannibal Corpse or something, that he felt he deserved a mountain of respect and that i should just lay down and take it. I proceed to explain that he lost my respect years ago simply from the kinds of things he did to our friends' bands just trying to tour and SUPPORT his band and the way he treats his fans first and foremost. THESE actions over the years have forced me to see him as unrespectable, even with those first 3 bad ass CC albums under his belt. He got up off the sofa, approaches me, hit the side edge of my jaw right in the middle of my words and i spilled my beer all over their drum tech (sorry Dave). He immediately quickly left the scene and out to his bus. In fact, he was in motion on his way out as he hit me. The only people in the room as far as i could tell was his band members and/or road crew.

No charges were filed against Barnes in relation to the incident.

Personal life

At some point, Barnes relocated from Florida to Seattle, Washington. He explained: "I've just been digging it up here for years. My mom lived up here in the '70s, and I just heard all these cool stories. And when I started touring, coming up here, I always felt comfortable up here." He also stated that the legality of cannabis in the state strongly influenced his choice of destination.

Barnes had been widely known for his marijuana use, which he would use for meditative and artistic purposes. In a 2017 interview, he said: "Cannabis has been my best friend for my entire life, pretty much. So, everything I create and do is with the use of medicinal and spiritual use of Cannabis. So, I tend to keep a pretty even nature, unless someone pokes the bear. You know? aughs ..I've been know to have some pretty nasty bites. But, yeah, I try to keep it pretty cool." In 2024, Barnes stated that he had quit smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol due to personal choice.

Barnes has owned several dogs throughout his life.

Discography

Six Feet Under
* '' Haunted'' (1995)
* '' Alive and Dead'' (1996)
* '' Warpath'' (1997)
*'' Maximum Violence'' (1999)
*'' Graveyard Classics'' (2000)
*''True Carnage'' (2001)
*''Double Dead Redux'' (live) (2003)
*'' Bringer of Blood'' (2003)
*'' Graveyard Classics 2'' (2004)
*'' 13'' (2005)
*''A Decade in the Grave'' (box set) (2005)
*'' Commandment'' (2007)
*'' Death Rituals'' (2008)
*'' Graveyard Classics 3'' (2010)
*''Undead'' (2012)
*'' Unborn'' (2013)
*'' Crypt of the Devil'' (2015)
*'' Graveyard Classics IV: The Number of the Priest'' (2016)
*'' Torment'' (2017)
* ''Unburied'' (2018)
*'' Nightmares of the Decomposed'' (2020)
*'' Killing for Revenge'' (2024)

Cannibal Corpse
*''Cannibal Corpse'' demo (1989)
*'' Eaten Back to Life'' (1990)
*'' Butchered at Birth'' (1991)
*'' Tomb of the Mutilated'' (1992)
*'' Hammer Smashed Face'' EP (1993)
*'' The Bleeding'' (1994)
*''Created to Kill'' ( Vile demo) (1995)
*'' 15 Year Killing Spree'' box set (2003)
*'' Centuries of Torment: The First 20 Years'' video (2008)

Torture Killer
*''Swarm!'' (2006)
*''Phobia'' (2013) Backing vocals on "Written in Blood"

IHATE
*''IHATE'' (2014)

Cannabis Corpse
*''From Wisdom to Baked'' (2014) Backing vocals on "Individual Pot Patterns"

Gorguts
*'' Considered Dead'' (1991) Backing vocals on "Bodily Corrupted", "Rottenatomy" & "Hematological Allergy"

Skribbal
*'' Black Eyed Children'' (2021)
Opening introduction on "The Retribution"

Incite
* '' Built to Destroy'' (2019) Backing vocals on "Poisoned by Power"

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Chris
American male singers
American heavy metal singers
1967 births
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Living people
American death metal musicians
Musicians from Buffalo, New York
Cannibal Corpse members
Six Feet Under (band) members