Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene Extinction

In 2012, Cattle Decapitation released a monumental record for death metal: “Monolith of Inhumanity”. Even for someone such as myself, who rarely gets hyped over non-OSDM-sounding death metal, this album was incredible. Just a few years later, the band is back with a follow-up record, “The Anthropocene Extinction”, which attempts to live up to high expectations. While at times the band meets those expectations, they also fall short at other times. This album is not radically different from its predecessor. The only major change is the “clean” vocals that singer Travis Ryan previously employed are now present a lot more often. While some may criticize this as the band getting predictable or formulaic, it is a welcome move to me because it makes the songs a lot more distinctive. It helps that those vocals are also incredibly interesting because they’re a lot more nasally than most singers.

Both the major strength and major weakness of this record as a whole is that it doesn’t feel like the band developed too much from the last record. On the one hand, both albums are exemplary offerings of death metal, but on the other, “Monolith of Inhumanity” felt like such a step forward, that it makes this album feel a bit stagnant. Nevertheless, you can’t fault Cattle Decapitation for knowing what they do well. One of the only areas that is something pretty cool and different on this album comes from “Clandestine Ways (Krokodil Rot)”, where the band’s drummer, David McGraw, breaks into an AC/DC-esque rock and roll beat, and the rest of the band joins him with a similarly styled riff. This moment is a nice break from the barrage of hyperspeed blasting and double bass that is present on the rest of the record (to be fair to McGraw though, he doesn’t overdo those elements like most over death metal drummers, he’s just incredibly fast with both of them).

“The Anthropocene Extinction” is a monument to great performances in metal. The drumming has already been mentioned, but as always with Cattle Decapitation, Travis Ryan steals the show. Not only are his cleans great, but his death metal range is unparalleled. He can do it all and make anything sound fantastic. The guitar and bass playing both manage to keep up with the rest of the rhythm section, and the guitars are often able to add their own bits of melody, particularly in the chorus sections to complement the clean vocals. Though this album doesn’t have any riffs that rival the epic “Your Disposal” from the last record, it is still an impressive offering of death metal. If you loved what Cattle Decapitation did on their 2012 offer, “The Anthropocene Extinction” will be a perfect match for your tastes!

Be sure to check out and like Cattle Decapitation on Facebook!

Highlights

All of it

Final Rating

4.25/5 or 85%. 

Written by Scott 

   

Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity

Returning with their fifth album for Metal Blade Records are the mighty Cattle Decapitation. As the name implies, this music is beyond brutal. Blastbeats, disgusting vocals, and filthy riffs were all over their last release, and their new album continues that trend. As brutal as this style of music is, I’ve always felt that is its major flaw. The best death metal bands were able to write things that were both memorable and heavy. Unfortunately, way too much modern death metal is excessively technical and lacks the songwriting of their influences. On “Monolith of Inhumanity”, the band straddles the line between being monotonous and having a lasting impact.

The album kicks off with “The Carbon Stampede”, which features a number of guest vocalists. There’s no doubt that there are others singing, but Travis Ryan’s normal vocals are so insane and demented that it’s pretty difficult to discern which vocalist is really screaming at any one time.  Speaking of Ryan’s vocals, he’s added a lot of clean singing this time. Maybe clean isn’t the best word for it; it’s somewhat nasally (think Mark Shelton from Manilla Road). It’s exactly what you would expect would happen when a death metal vocalist tries to sing. This melodicism is no more apparent than on the lead single, “A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat”. This tune is far and away the best of the album. Another standout is the epic “Your Disposal”. The opening riff of this song is one of the more atmospheric moments of the album, and is a reminder of part of “The Gardeners of Eden” from the last album. It is the combination of epic riffing and clean vocals that make this album worth coming back to. There is definitely a lot brutality, and I have nothing against that, but it helps to mix things up once in a while. Cattle Decapitation seems to have found a good balance, and the aforementioned tracks are the best examples. Once again, the band used the title track as a proverbial “calm before the storm”. It’s pretty atmospheric but does an excellent job at setting up the closer, “Kingdom of Tyrants”.

While I did enjoy this album, I can’t help but feel that this band has a lot more potential. Some fans may feel shafted by the introduction of newer vocals, but those help to keep this album from being one giant blur. Still, old fans should enjoy this; the band didn’t take things easy at all, they just added a new element to their already potent formula. There’s still plenty of double bass, blastbeats, chugging, tremolo picking, and of course, the completely ridiculous and backwards styles of vocals that Travis Ryan somehow emits.

Be sure to check out and like Cattle Decapitation on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/cattledecapitation

Highlights:

“A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat”

“Lifestalker”
“Your Disposal”

Final Rating:

3.75/5 or 75%

Written by Scott