By Dig Dirkler
If your taste runs from Hank Williams Sr. to death metal, you’re not alone. Jack Owen grew up on classic country but built his career on crushing riffs—and somewhere in between, those worlds unexpectedly collide.
You’re a big fan of Hank and other music similar to Hank.
Yeah, my dad listened to Hank Williams Sr., and now I listen to Junior and the third. I ran into Hank Williams III, and he was like, “I love Cannibal Corpse.” It’s like, okay, this is too weird—way too weird.
Now, is there any kind of music that you’ve been unable to get into?
Man, I got some opera on vinyl just to see if I could comprehend it. It was kind of a box set with lyrics and everything, and it was in Italian, so it had translations in English. But man, I just can’t get into that. My uncle loved opera—he went to the Met all the time—but nope. I listen to pretty much anything.
Me too. I tried new country—I can’t get into it.
Yeah, I don’t try to force it. I just move on to other things. My country goes up until about 1980, because I start around 1940. Hank Sr., George Jones, Johnny Cash—like all the classic stuff. Waylon Jennings. After 1980, it was over.
Was there a time in your life when you were focused on just one kind of music and couldn’t listen to anything else?
Maybe in my early 20s, when I was into thrash metal and death metal. Pink Floyd would come up a lot, and I’d be like, “Pink Floyd? I’m not listening to Pink Floyd.” Now it’s like—they’re probably one of my favorite bands.
Of course. Who created death metal?
Are we going Jeff Becerra or Chuck Schuldiner? I don’t know. Let’s go with Chris Reifert from Autopsy, since he did drums on the first Death record. Let’s go with that.
And drums are obviously a key component of death metal.
Yeah, but so are the vocals. So you’re right—we’ve got to go with Chuck.
And ultimately, those guys were playing thrash at the time. It could be considered thrash, just without the blast beats of the Florida/UK scene.
It was thrash with death metal vocals. Then you’ve got Dark Angel—the music was borderline death metal, but the vocals weren’t. You could go around and around on the history of death metal for sure. Maybe Venom, too.
Who are your big four of thrash and death metal?
For thrash and death, I’m going with the German side: Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, and Celtic Frost—if you count Celtic Frost as German. They’re from the German part of Switzerland, so close enough. There are albums from those bands I never put away. Early Kreator, early Sodom—Celtic Frost is just classic.
If Cannibal Corpse were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, would you and Chris perform a song with them?
Yeah, I think we would. Chris Akin was talking about that on his cast—you’d almost have to start a new wing of the building. You’d need to include bands that influenced Cannibal Corpse like Exodus, Morbid Angel, Possessed, Death, Napalm Death.
You’ve been part of death metal since its early explosion in the late ’80s and ’90s. What do newer bands get right, and what might they be missing?
That’s a tough one. On our last couple albums, we’ve steered away from a completely digital sound. The guitars have more continuity instead of being choppy and pasted. Same with drums—even though it’s recorded digitally, we’re trying to capture that analog spirit. Chris uses no effects on his vocals. Some bands are just so modern it’s almost not listenable. Everything’s Pro Tools and computerized. I hate to sound like an old guy, but it just sounds like a computer.
After writing riffs for decades, what makes a great death metal riff?
It’s got to be memorability. I have an archive of riffs—just patterns of notes in a notebook. They can go with any beat. But you’ve got to put them over a cool rhythm. That’s what brings them to life.
“Next to Die” is the upcoming Six Feet Under record, with two distinct sides—one straight death metal, one groove-based. Was that planned from the start?
No, it evolved. I wrote a full death metal album, but some songs didn’t cut it. We scrapped those, and Chris suggested doing one side death metal, one side groove—which I’ve always wanted to do. I went back to early Six Feet Under tempos, plugged them into EZ Drummer, and started pulling from my riff archive.
How did revisiting those classic tempos influence your writing?
Those early albums didn’t use a click, so the tempos were a little loose. But I figured out approximate BPMs—maybe around 130—and slowed my death metal patterns down to match. Then I built riffs around that. It came out pretty good.
When you revisit old riffs, what makes one feel right for a new record?
I don’t play through them often, so they stay fresh. I just match them to a beat and see what works. If it doesn’t, I move on.
When writing without lyrics, what mood are you aiming for?
It depends. Sometimes I write music first, then lyrics. Other times I have lyrics in mind and write riffs around them. Every song is different.
You worked with the late Ralph Santolla during your time in Deicide. What was it like collaborating with him, and do you have any fond memories of the two of you just trading solos or jamming together?
Oh yeah, it’s like we were from the same school of guitar. We liked all those old-school players like Gary Moore, and I liked Frank Marino and Robin Trower and stuff like that. We would always kind of battle during soundcheck—I’d be playing Frank Marino or Trower riffs, and he’d be playing Gary Moore-style bluesy stuff. We loved Thin Lizzy too. Yeah, trading off with Ralph was great—you never knew what you might hear. Sometimes even some Allman Brothers. We’d be playing “Jessica” at soundcheck for Deicide, and it was like, what the heck is going on here?
Do you write still write mostly by jamming on a guitar or has technology changed your writing process over the years?
Yeah, I’m always playing guitar—even just running through setlists.
What’s the last thing you learned by another artist?
I was playing some Obituary and Unleashed stuff, then switched it up—learned “Barracuda” by Heart and “Surrender” by Cheap Trick.
Did you ever imagine death metal would still be this strong?
Not at all. But there’s so much music coming out every year—it keeps the genre alive.
This is the third album you and Chris have made together since reconnecting in 2017. How has your creative dynamic evolved during this current era of the band?
Yeah, on Nightmares, I wasn’t sure what I could send Chris as far as demos. I didn’t have much studio equipment back then, so it was like sending him a guitar riff with no drums and just hoping he liked it. But over time, it’s really been about building trust. I know I don’t have to write all the lyrics—he’s really good at that. I trust his opinion. If I send him something and he says no, I’m like, “Okay,” and I scrap it and start over.So yeah, stuff like that—and technology, of course.
You co-produced Next to Die with Chris and brought in Mark Lewis to mix and master. Jason Suecof also plays a lead on one of the songs. What did producing the record yourselves allow you to do differently?
Kind of what we were saying before—it let us oversee the overall sound so it didn’t get too processed. My guitar tracks are my guitar tracks. On a lot of modern albums, guitars get redone digitally—you record a clean track and then reamp it later for a different sound. We didn’t do that on this album.
Ry handles the lead work in the band. When you’re putting together demos, how much direction do you give him?
That’s his spot to do whatever he wants with. When I demo a song, I’ll put a rough lead in there just to hold the place—maybe to entertain him a little bit. It’ll be something totally off, like a Robin Trower-style blues lead soaked in Univibe, which obviously isn’t going to work. So yeah, he’s way better than that. Total free rein. Everybody gets that freedom—Marco on drums, Jeff on bass, Chris. The demo is basically just, “Do whatever you want.”
What does your current guitar and amp rig look like in the studio and on the road?
For recording, I do guitars at Audiohammer. Jason has a bunch of Kiesel guitars, so I just use one of those. Not sure what pickups are in them, but they sound great. We used a Metal Zone pedal into an old Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, mic’d through an old Marshall cab with multiple speakers—we just picked the one that sounded best. Live, I’m using Solar guitars. I hooked back up with EMG pickups, but I’m not currently tied to any amp or cabinet companies.
You’ve always been more of a Strat-style player, right?
Yeah, but I’ll play almost anything—Strats, single-cut Les Paul-style guitars. I used to have some pointy guitars, but I got rid of those.
What about SGs?
They’re kind of strange, but I like the upper neck access. They’re just really light.
The band is heading out on a North American tour this summer with Kataklysm and Wormhole. What are you most excited about?
Getting people’s reactions. We only have one single out so far, so we’ll see how it goes live. There’s still time to figure out what songs we’ll play. This is our 15th album, so building a setlist from that many songs—we leave that up to Chris.
What Cannibal Corpse songs might make it into the set?
“Hammer Smashed Face” and “Stripped” are always there. We’ve done “Decency Defied” before since I wrote that one. Maybe something like that. I also worked on “Festering in the Crypt.” We’d love to do something from The Bleeding, especially the title track, but we never seem to have time to fit it in.
After so many albums and years in extreme metal, what still excites you about writing new music?
It’s the feeling of starting something fresh. By the time an album comes out, it already feels old to me since it started years earlier. So it’s about getting something new going—groove, death metal, whatever.
Any final thoughts?
Thanks for all the years of support. We’ll see you out there.
In a genre often defined by intensity and extremity, it’s refreshing to hear a grounded perspective rooted in feel, instinct, and musical history. Whether rejecting over-polished production or revisiting decades-old riff ideas, the core philosophy remains unchanged: authenticity and memorability matter most. As death metal continues to evolve, it’s clear that its foundation—built on passion, experimentation, and a love for heavy music—is as strong as ever. Six Feet Under will unleash their Next To Die full-length on April 24th through Metal Blade Records.
Categories: Interviews, News, six feet under
Leave a Reply