Groovy death metal monsters SIX FEET UNDER mark their return after their quite extraordinary 13 album back in 2005, and try to remain at the edge of freshly juiced out brain liquid from their all favourite zombified carbonized cadavers. In the 34 minutes and 26 seconds of this album all the necessary elements - which made them really popular - are found here once again, yet this time with less intensity and newly incorporated ideas.
Well, what we get here is another slice of death, doom and destruction all packed up with the growling guts of SIX FEET UNDER main man Chris Barnes, who remains obsessed with what he does and what he feels about the philosophy of death and death metal in particular. However, on the whole there seems to be less death metal intuition here, the compositions even though they remain tight and groovy they kind of luck character and sometimes special intensity. Even though DEATH/MASSACRE bass legend Terry Butler is once again embodied here the fact that this album sounds less experimental than its previous efforts, I get a sense that something - a unique identity, which was easily marked up into their previous efforts - is missing here.
Anyway Commandment contains many cool metal ideas and passages - don't forget that Chris is often quoted as the godfather of death metal, but the band's seventh full-length could somehow be more open-minded and powerful in my way of death metal thinking. Lyrically speaking, there are quite many interesting remarks to be made . Certainly lyrics point out the idea of death in many different ways, whether it is a fictional story of the human race being overtaken by the living dead and using that as a type of symbolism for other things in life as Chris states himself. In addition Chris likes to search out about the darker side of life and human existence and questions of our own demise as human beings. The production is really tight and heavy - something which is commonly found in such mega death metal bands.
To sum it up - my dear 'hatchet in the head' friends - in my opinion Commandment is not as good as its predecessor 13 - still it can kill and groove and offer you death metal pleasure, however I think that Chris Barnes and his living dead friends can do much better, as composers. Anyway, highlights of this album can be considered - amongst the other - the following ones: Doomsday, The Edge Of The Hatchet, Resurrection Of The Rotten and  The Evil Eye.