Cattle Decapitation – Monolith Of Inhumanity

Music had been for a lot of people a platform for expressing their beliefs, ideas and propagandas and in many cases it had been a revolutionary stepping stone. Here is the case of the US Cattle Decapitation whom death/grind metal gave them the opportunity to protest for animal rights. Yes that’s right; this is vegetarian grindcore. That shouldn’t sound bad, but in my ears this isn’t sound right. This tag, I am giving myself to Cattle Decapitation and I know it is wrong. It is a tag that could make someone stop listening to death metal. Probably the most appropriate one would be misanthropic death metal. It is death metal after all.

So I managed to overcome my stupid taboos and pushed play to my CD player. And this is something that made me truly glad. I am really blissful and proud to let these US deathsters introduce me to themselves and their music once again with “Monolith Of Inhumanity”. I had heard some songs a few years ago and I thought that this band is not something new. Still they are not. Their previous albums were raw death metal without many technical elements. But “Monolith Of Inhumanity” is a nigh on perfection album for technical death metal/grindcore. This CD shows the improvement of them as a band through the years. Cattle Decapitation is more mature than ever and thankfully the production is clear and clean to show us.

To get started, “The Carbon Stampede” is just an introduction of what is awaiting you for the next 43 minutes. Surely when you are listening to such a clean production and such a genius played death metal, you should not stampede. The difference between what I remember of Cattle Decapitation is obvious. Almost immediately my head started banging in their great groove rhythms. The drumming of Mr. McGraw is an absolute lesson to those who claim playing progressive music. The rapid rhythms didn’t stand an obstacle for great technical drumming.

The guitars of Josh Elmore are so skillful and clear played that made me wonder where this great guitarist was before. His solos are so virtuosic that could make any progressive fan delighted. And then I must speak of the foundation of this band. Mr. Travis Ryan and his vocals in this CD is something out of this world. He is a monolith for this band and he can scream as no one could. His vocal skills are unfolding through all 43 minutes. From great artistic spoken parts to beautiful brutal growls and to high pitched screams that can make your ears bleed. He truly sings and not just spit the words above music.

Last but not least to mention is the former (?) bassist of Unmerciful. Derek Engemann produces bass lines listenable to the average audience. And again thanks to the clean sound engineering you can hear the bass and what it plays. Excluding the parts where the bass is playing alone. Highlight songs are too many that I lost counting. Give special attention to “Gristle Licker”, “Kingdom Of Tyrants”, “Projectile Ovulation” and the supersonics “Dead Set On Suicide” and “A Living, Breathing Piece Of Defecating Meat” with the catchy chorus. Let Cattle Decapitation raise the “Monolith Of Inhumanity”.