Review by Elijah on April 28, 2020.

Matt Kilner is definitely one of my favorite drummers. His work primarily consists of brutal death metal, with him filling in for Putridity live one time, being the current drummer for Gorgasm, and is in another great ass band Iniquitous Deeds. The man clearly has a specific type of taste in metal, and it's easy to notice it. He's a fantastic drummer, if you've seen his playing on YouTube you can easily tell he's a unit of sheer brutality. But he doesn't play just drums, he's also a guitarist. If he's that good of a drummer, he's gotta be a good guitarist too, right? Well yes, he is indeed. He does everything on this EP, and it's fucking fabulous!

I never really acknowledged/noticed that he also played guitar aside from drumming, which is his primary instrument, and as this EP displays, he's just as good at everything else as he is with drums. This EP truly does sound like a full band, but nope! It's a one-man effort, this is some excellent material.

I've been a fan of Matt's work for about a little under a year, because last year was THE YEAR that I established my love for brutal death metal and started getting introduced to more bands and subgenres. I found his channel on YouTube around last summer and I loved it, it's beautiful. I knew that he's currently in Gorgasm and is also in Iniquitous Deeds, but I never knew about this solo project of his until last night. And I figured if I've already liked everything he's done in the first place, this'll probably be just as good, right? Well yes, I was 100% right.

Fetid Reek of Interminable Existence has 4 crushing tracks that total out to 11 minutes, and it's honestly a lot to offer, and the fact that this is a one-man effort makes it even better. First off we have to start with the drums. I can't describe exactly how I like my drums to sound any better than this. Clanky-yet-solid snare that has a nice foundation, loud and present toms, and ear-thumping kick drums that also have a "hollow" and clicky feel/sound to it. I love this drum sound, absolute perfection. This sound is often common in a lot of technical/experimental brutal death metal, and it's the peak sound in my opinion; these fits best with that exact sound and style. As expected, he delivers fabulously on the drums here. Compare it to his covers and other videos on his channel; the man is flawless, on time, and doesn't hold back. This EP has drumming that features blast beats with consistency, swift patterns, punishing double kicking, it can't get any better than this. The drums are an absolute eargasm in every way shape and form. The guitars are great as well. They have a "loose" and "hollow" type of feel to it, like the drums. This certain guitar sound is also another common thing in this exact type of brutal death metal. It just sounds so great. I love that raw-esque experimental but also brutal and punishing sound. The playing ability and riffs are good as you'd expect, they're not dull, too much, or overdone; they're fast, follow the speed and style the drums do, and scatter out a bit everywhere and does its own thing. The guitar work is fabulous and very enjoyable, good work put into it for sure. The vocal work is great as well. They're burpy and dry, but also remaining guttural and juicy, pretty much identical to the vocals on Cerebral Effusion's album "Impulsive Psychopathic Acts". I absolutely LOVE these types of vocals, they complement the music in the greatest way possible, especially since the music has a technical/experimental sound, if you know what I'm saying. Everything just fits together perfectly.

It's 11 minutes in total, but it honestly does feel a little longer than that. I like that despite this not being that long, the length is a good amount and it fills the listener's ears with wonderful music and leaves them feeling good. All the songs are magnificent and greatly written, it's not boring or bland. This album has a distinct and certain sound, and that's one of the reasons why I like it a lot. This certain type of brutal death metal is so amazing and always brings a kickass punch. The production is awesome, and the overall execution of this release is perfect.

I checked this out earlier today and listened to it about 4 times throughout the rest of the day. I had a strong feeling last night that this would be good, and it is! I wasn't sure I'd like this that much, but I do. This is wonderful, this is perfect. Absolutely ideal and flawless. This EP has a technical, experimental, and nasty brutal sound. Definitely one of my new favorite EP releases ever, thank you for the great music, Matt. Keep it up! I highly recommend this.

FFO: Wormed, Molested Divinity, 7 H. Target, Iniquitous Deeds, Enmity, Colonize the Rotting, Hymenotomy, Cerebral Effusion, Gorgasm, Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy, Putridity.

Rating: 9.6 out of 10

Review by Michael on September 28, 2022.

Sagas guitarist Ian Crichton, Saxons drummer Nigel Glockler and vocalist Robert Berry (ex-"3") have formed a new group called Six By Six. This sounds pretty confusing because each of them has their own style of music in their original bands so the question about their actual style of music is pretty much justified. But as justified as it is, it is also quite tricky to answer that. But let's start from the beginning. First of all I have to state that these three musicians did an amazing job on their instruments. Of course we all do know Nigel Glocklers superb drumming in Saxon which he proved last year on “Carpe Diem” but also Ian Crichton did a fantastic job on guitar and Robert Berrys vocals sound as if a 30-year old guy would be singing there. No sign of age in sight!

'Yearning To Fly' is the opener of the album with a total running time of more than 45 minutes and a very proggy and calm rock song with a lot of (early) Rush-reminiscences when you take the guitar work and the synthies. It spreads a calming and positive atmosphere and with its very melodic and catchy bridge it is a heart-warming and perfect opener for the self-titled album. The same goes for 'Skyfall' which is a little bit heavier and because of the vocal / guitar patterns in the verses slightly more dramatic. There are some other calmer tracks to find but I will go more into detail about them a little bit later.
The heavier facet of the album starts with 'China' which is the heaviest track on the album and where the crimes of the Chinese government against the Uyghurs and other people are subject. I guess (I just wrote about a song by Asphyx in the past) Six By Six don't have China as prior sales market in focus. The song is pretty heavy and is what you can call a classic hard rock / heavy metal song with a very catchy chorus and some really cool breaks and guitar riffs. Nigels drums sound pretty much powerful here and underline the heaviness of the track. 'Casino' has a nice tropical atmosphere with the guitar solo (which is often repeated) and some other proggy influences that may be originated in the late 70s. Of course that is no surprise when you consider the background of the three musicians. Coming back to some Rush-tunes, 'The Last Words On Earth' is a wonderful arranged heavy song that isn't too difficult to follow even though it has some fantastic twists and turns in its 4:37 minutes. It creates a very thoughtful atmosphere, may it be because of its title, its lyrics or the melancholic parts scattered here and there.

Although there aren't any weak or boring tracks on the album, at least I do have some more favorite ones. And for this I do come back now to one of the calmer tracks. In 'Reason To Feel Calm Again' it is absolutely amazing what the band has performed. Starting with some bagpipe-like tunes that let appear Mel Gibson playing William Wallace in Braveheart before my eyes, the track has this what you could call a classical drama in literature: exposition, rising action with some guitar riffs, the climax with the verses and some really dramatic twists and after that the falling action where bagpipes are played again. 'Battle Of A Lifetime' may be the most melancholic track on Six By Six. The acoustic guitar brings you back into some ballads of the 70s and the rest of the track is also back to these days. It is another very catchy song the guys have written and again the lyrics are also very thoughtful.

So, maybe you got some interest in Six By Six with this review – I just can highly recommend it to you when you like some more progressive sounds combined with heavy metal. For me, this is a very big surprise and I am glad that I didn't miss this release.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 dinosaurs (Nigel, you know what I mean!)