Cattle Decapitation’s new album, Death Atlas, releases on November 29th from Metal Blade Records. Watch this hilarious commercial with vocalist Travis Ryan extolling the virtues of using Amazon Music with Alexa to follow the band. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Travis Ryan
Cattle Decapitation Shares New Album Teaser and Details
Confirming the news of last week, Cattle Decapitation has announced their new album, Death Atlas will release via Metal Blade Records on November 29th. Produced at Denver’s Flatline Audio with their frequent collaborator producer Dave Otero, he commented “I am completely exhausted but incredibly proud of the album we put together. I can assure you that no corners were cut, no details were overlooked, and that hard work was poured into every second of the record from start to finish. I can’t wait to share it with the world.” Watch the album teaser trailer below. The band will perform new songs on the 2019 Summer Slaughter tour, kicking off next week. Ghost Cult will bring you further details for the album as soon as we have them. Continue reading
Cattle Decapitation Completes New Album
In a post to Instagram by frontman Travis Ryan, Cattle Decapitation has concluded the production of their new album. The record is due later in 2019 or early in 2020 via Metal Blade Records and was recorded by their frequent collaborator, David Otero at Westminster Studios in Denver, Colorado. It will be their first new full-length album since 2015’s incredible Anthropocene Extinction. The album is also their first with new bassist Oliver Pinnard, also of Cryptopsy. We’re looking forward to the new album since the band is one of the leading lights of Death Metal genre today. Catch the band all summer as one fo the three headliners of Summer Slaughter Tour. Continue reading
Cattle Decapitation – Medium Rarities
It almost seems fitting that we now get to delve back into the archives for this latest release from Death/Grind legends Cattle Decapitation. This is a band that has always looked to blend their eco-friendly message with some of the most horrible and gloriously grimy, putrid Death Metal ever committed to tape: they want to you not only listen but feel what they want to say. Continue reading
Igorrr Releases A New Video Featuring Travis Ryan Of Cattle Decapitation
Igorrr will be unleashing Savage Sinusoid on June 16th via Metal Blade Records, and as you’ve already heard in the ‘ieuD’ and ‘Opus Brain’ singles, this is going to be one of the most brilliant releases of 2017. Gautier Serre‘s method of mixing black metal, death metal, baroque music, opera, and electronica is simply amazing, and we have another video for your viewing and listening pleasure today. Continue reading
Lubricant – Swallow This
For any fan of old Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Entombed and the first two Cattle Decapitation albums, this is for you. Originally found on as a demo entitled Swallow The Symmetric Swab and a mini-album Nookleptia (Morbid Records), the songs on the 11 track compilation Swallow This (Svart) are remastered for this release to show the bands fully formed ideas of how the songs were supposed to sound on the original tape and vinyl pressings in 1993.Continue reading
Anal Trump Is Streaming That Makes Me Smart! Online
Now THIS is amazing. Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation and Rob Crow of Pinback and Goblin Cock have come together to create one of the best grindcore albums of 2016, and it comes at a perfect time. Continue reading
Aborted – Retrogore
Belgian death metal outfit, Aborted, are back in a big way with their ninth full length entitled, Retrogore (Century Media). All of the typical elements are there from previous albums like the movie samples at either beginning or endings of songs, thunderous drum work, Sven (De Caulwe) being Sven, etc. Based off of the album title and some of the samples used, it appears they wanted to stick to some old classics (one of my favorite samples coming from ‘Re-Animator’; see tack ‘Forged for Decreptude’). Being a huge horror fan, this only scores more points for me.
Outside of the samples, there were quite a few guests on Retrogore as well. The first is on the track called ‘Divine Impediment’ and features guest vocals from Cattle Decapitation‘s own Travis Ryan. The mixture of Sven’s deep growls and high-pitched screeches with what seems like only Travis can do vocally makes for one of the more memorable tracks on the album. The very next track, ‘Coven of Ignorance’ also features guest vocals from Dave Davidson of Revocation fame. Again, the contrast of the two vocal patterns tossed over some chugging and riffing is simply pleasant. Towards the end of the track, we also get a quick sample from a ‘House M.D.’ episode from Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) himself. If you simply cannot get enough guest vocalists, then you will find ‘The Mephitic Conundrum’ to be a great track as well. Jason Keyser from Origin/ex-Skinless hops on the mic for sections throughout the song. Literally, three songs in a row have guest vocalists and it may be the best stretch on the album.
As a whole, I found that I could listen to Retrogore from front to back without even thinking of pressing the skip button. There were certainly tracks I may have liked more than others, but even my least favorite track was still a solid track. Each track told its own story and stood out in its own way which helped keep the album fresh which is not the easiest to do in the death metal world nowadays. While previous releases from Aborted kind of fall into a dark void after a handful of listens, I find that this latest record will be hanging around for quite some time.
8.0/10
TIM LEDIN
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Cattle Decapitation – King Parrot – Dark Sermon: Live at Brighton Music Hall
At the beginning of autumn where the world around us dies, it was only fitting on an early October night to see Cattle Decapitation headline at Brighton Music Hall in Allston, MA. Personally, I had never seen the four piece play a headlining gig so I knew this was a show I could not afford to miss. There was some worry early on as their tour van did have some issues earlier in the day which delayed their arrival a bit. Fortunately, there were other bands to start off the night.
Dark Sermon hit the stage to get the Boston’s crowd attention on the music and not the missing headliner. The crowd was only warming up at this point so most were by the bar or merch tables. I thought the overall sound of the band was interesting with a nice mix of doom and black metal.
Easily the biggest surprise to me on this night was Australia’s own King Parrot. The energy that was created by both the band and the fans was truly electric. The odd, self-deprecating humor brought on in between songs gave almost a relaxed feeling knowing this band does not take itself, or metal, too seriously. Lead singer Matt Young had the crowd in stitches with his moments during songs where he would decide to moon the crowd. After the set, I quickly made my way to the merch table to purchase a patch and a copy of their latest record, Dead Set (Housecore Records), before preparing myself for the headlining act.
It was finally time to witness the San Diego natives close out the night with some of their best material off of their latest album, The Anthropocene Extinction (Metal Blade Records). In fact, the majority of the set list was off of said album including: ‘Manufactured Extinct’, ‘The Prophets of Loss’, and ‘Pacific Grim’. There was also a small selection of Monolith of Inhumanity tracks such as ‘Your Disposal’ and closer, ‘Kingdom of Tyrants’. The Allston crowd also got some classic tunes from Cattle Decapitation in ‘Total Gore?’ as well as ‘Testicular Manslaughter’. The crowd was fully behind each song as the crowd surfers were a plenty and the pits remained busy throughout the set. This band is arguably at their very best with the core that is vocalist, Travis Ryan, and guitarist, Josh Elmore. These guys were so good this time around that I may go and catch them again on their tour with Cannibal Corpse just to experience this band live again.
WORDS BY TIM LEDIN
Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene Extinction
It’s hardly an original observation, but genre labels can be something of a two-edged sword, especially when the band in question fall outside of such strict definitions. I came to The Anthropocene Extinction (Metal Blade) without having a heard a note of Cattle Decapitation’s music, but their reputation as a brutal Death/Grind band gave me strong expectations – expectations which utterly failed to capture the reality.
The grind influences which the band are largely known for are present here, but combined with a number of other reference points and styles in a way that transforms them quite beyond the ordinary. The base-line style throughout is a crunchy, Grind-touched Death Metal that’s as comfortable with punishing grooves and sinister melodies as it is with blasting, but they expand their palette further with quasi-“industrial” effects, atmospheric passages and creepily-effective clean vocal sections. The vocals are probably the key touch-stone for the genuine fluidity of the music on The Anthropocene Extinction, switching from cavernous DM growls, pig-squeals and high-end shrieks to near-operatic, oddly paralysed singing which is hard to describe positively on paper but fits with the music perfectly. This breadth of styles throws up some genuinely surprising reference-points, calling to mind Anaal Nathrakh or unsigned Bandcamp heroes Slugdge as often as Carcass.
Drawing on such a broad range of Metal influences runs the risk of collapsing into a formless mess, but Cattle Decapitation have the strength of song-writing and sense of individuality to hold it together. The album is structured well throughout, with a sense of progression that maintains interest across a collection of songs which could easily have outstayed its welcome. The production does them a number of favours too, giving a sense not only of power and genuine heaviness but also of professionalism and authority – this is a “serious” album, not some arm-flailing Grindcore tantrum.
The Anthropocene Extinction is not likely to break any boundaries or transform the way you think about music, but it is likely to be one of the standout albums of big production values, genre-blind Heavy Metal in 2015.
8.0/10
RICHIE HR