The Finnish counterpart of Six Feet Under strikes back, this time with a 3-track EP released on both CD and 12″ vinyl (with the same tracks on each side). Originally founded as a Six Feet Under-cover band, this ‘Dead Inside’ is their seventh release already. And they celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, quite an achievement as Six Feet Under, to begin with, isn’t the most adventurous or musically sophisticated inspiration.
The EP kicks off with the title-track, which starts like a school band of 14-year olds, utterly simple riffs and even more standard drums – I even felt embarrassed listening to this. During the track they manage to shake off this very clumsy start and they just manage to save the song from certain doom. The second song, ‘The Omen’, is an unnecessary instrumental that consists of soft guitar and piano pinging. The third, and final, track is actually the strongest and fits well into the Torture Killer tradition, harkening back to the ‘Maximum Violence’-period of Six Feet Under, slow grooving riffs and the typical hoarse sounding Chris Barnes-like barking vocals. However, this one is also more melodic than the average Torture Killer material, which still provides some surprise and makes it all a bit more digestible. However, it is the chugging riff, halfway through the song, that claims the highlight of this EP.
Needless to say, ‘Dead Inside’ is not an earth-shattering EP. In the end, the two tracks have very little to offer and hardly provide any reason to actually purchase this EP – or it should be because of the great artwork. However, it’s not a huge punishment to listen to it either, but it still feels like a set of rejected Six Feet Under/Obituary riffs. The most striking thing for me, then, was the realization that Torture Killer has been around for 20 years…
