Artist: Cattle Decapitation
Country: Terrasite
Label: Metal Blade Records
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2023
Apart from maybe the very first outings (of which some were reissues on 2018’s ‘Medium Rarities’ compilation), Cattle Decapitation were never much of your regular Grindcore band. From quite early on their take on Grindcore was rather unique with an unorthodox approach to rhythm-changes and incorporating some hefty swinging dynamics between groove-ridden bangers and, dare I say, intelligent start-stop sort of musical wizardry – not to mention the synthesizers and electronics. With this 00’s Relapse take on extreme Death Metal/Grindcore they have plodded along and delivered quite an interesting slew of albums, but it was from 2009’s ‘The Harvest Floor’ things started to get really interesting, from that album they have rid themselves from that grittier sound and opted for a more devastation Death Metal production.
Yet, it took the band another three albums to get to 2019’s ‘Death Atlas’, which can easily be regarded as their magnum opus. All their genius and mind-blowing musical ingenuity cumulated into that album that showcased the wildest range of riffs, dizzying dysrhythmia and above all, vocalist Travis Ryan’s most compelling vocal delivery to date. Listening to ‘Death Atlas’ made me realize how much the band has distanced themselves from their abrasive formative years specifically and from 95% of the whole Grindcore scene in general. Without having rid themselves of the intensity and the frantic energy of the genre, it has so much more to offer.
With ‘Death Atlas’ probably being my favourite record of the last decade, it was of course a bit of an exciting idea that the band would try to again outdo themselves on a follow-up for ‘Death Atlas’. Spring of 2023 brought us this long awaited 10th studio album of Cattle Decapitation. Admittedly, the premiering singles didn’t leave the same thrill that any of the songs of ‘Death Atlas’ did, but, now I have played ‘Terrasite’ a good couple of times, it starts to grow on me. While it obviously is a “grower”, I am confident that the band did not outdo themselves, but I am far from disappointed. ‘Terrasite’ is yet again an excellent album that none of the bands in the current Death/Grindcore scene is able to top. The extreme bursts of violence are of such a vertiginous contrast to the more epic that I doubt that the dynamics could be any deeper. It is in those songs, in which that contrasting, almost schizophrenic beauty excels, those parts in which Travis Ryan’s vocals again do truly shine: gnarly, snapping and just otherworldly epically squeezy, Ryan is delivering it all. Listen to a song like ‘…And The World Will Go On Without You’ and you are presented with a stellar example of near-perfectness.
That great spacey theme of ‘Death Atlas’, which also translated to its musical content, made the album such an unique experience, truly better than any other album in the genre. None of that can be found on ‘Terrasite’, that felt a bit disappointing at first but the idea grew in me that it deserved the band extra credit for never repeating themselves and yet always remaining so recognisable. In might be needless to say, but although ‘Death Atlas’ is still my favourite Cattle Decapitation record, ‘Terrasite’ is a close second.
