Death Atlas

Cattle Decapitation has been one of my favorite bands since "The Anthropocene Extinction". I may have not been following them for long, but the impact that album had on me can't go unmentioned. I basically started backwards with their discography and because I loved Anthropocene so much, I decided to give "Monolith of Inhumanity" a listen as well. Loving every minute of that album, I listened to "Harvest Floor". I kept going back until I realized that pure grind Cattle Decapitation is not the reason why I love this band. I love this band because of their way they balance grind and melody. I think it completely peaked on Monolith, but the song writing on Anthropocene is on another level. I was really looking forward to "Death Atlas" because I feel like Cattle was only going to improve from their previous efforts. What I received wasn't a terrible album by any means, but not something I was really expecting.

This album is disappointing to me because of two major reasons. One being the lyrical approach and other being the use of melodic vocals (which from here on out I will refer to Travis' goblin vocals because it's just awesome that way). Without talking too much about their previous efforts, I want to say as a whole: Harvest, Monolith and Anthropocene were written almost perfectly. Look up the lyrics to "A Body Farm", "A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat", or "Circo Inhumanitas". Now, compare those lyrics to anything written on "Death Atlas". I feel like the lyrics we received on this album are just so much simpler and to the point. I'm not saying Cattle Decapitation is anything but blunt, but they had way more creative ways of what they were trying to say then, than they do now. There are a few examples of cool lyrics on "Death Atlas", but they are few and far between. Some of my favorites being,

"Everything that’s now living will one day meet its demise
Out of breath, out of time - a species out of its mind"

"The density of the populace intensifies and modernized
The wrath of God bleeds from their eyes
And like the raven, this contagion keeps repeating, ever eating
Humanity to nevermore"

Those lyrics are the reason I listen to Cattle Decapitation. They are written very well and just get better on repeated listens. However, for every great lyric, there is Travis repeating, "Fuck the future" over and over. It's so blunt that it ruins what they are trying to say. It's obviously a cool head banging section, but doesn't feel like classic Cattle Decapitation to me. Maybe this album was made to be more blunt. Maybe Travis is trying to say that they can't beat around the bush any longer. Musically though, it's hard to appreciate.

My other reasoning for disappointment is the melodic goblin vocals. Now, I absolutely loved them on their past efforts. Harvest Floor utilized them in a perfect amount, sprikling them throughout the album. Travis wasn't sure if that kind of range would fly and used them sparingly. With Monolith and Anthropocene, they are in full force. I love the amount they are used in those two albums because I love groove in songs. It pulls me in and helps me sing the lyrics and understand what they are trying to say. "Death Atlas" uses way too much of it. I think there is only one song, besides the three narration sections, that don't have them. I feel like every song is structured around those goblin vocals. As much as I loved them on past albums, I am absolutely begging for grind sections on Death Atlas. You know those little areas of the past three albums where Travis' vocals go very deep and you don't know what the fuck he is saying unless you read the lyrics. Those made them great modern day grind records. You know Travis can go high with the goblin vocals or super low with the grind at any minute and it was unexpected. Now, most of the songs have a simple structure where you know the chorus will be pure goblin vocals and now incorporating even clean singing.

I still consider Travis Ryan to be one of the best vocalists in metal. He is seriously amazing on this album showing off everything he has to offer. It's odd because on some songs, like: "One Day Closer to the End of the World", "Bring Back the Plague", and "Time's Cruel Curtain", the slowed down super melodic approach totally works. "Bring Back the Plague" has an absolute amazing chorus that I still keep going back to. If they would have made the goblin vocals start and end there, then this album would be almost perfect. They incorporate that vocal range into every song when it's obvious those songs would be better without them.

I think I shit on this album enough, so what do I like about it? Well, as I said before, Travis crushes the vocals. His range is absolutely crazy and that's accompanied by the great instrumentals overall. David McGraw on drums is an absolute beast and is playing his heart out. The rest of the guys do a great job, but I don't think it's any better than on previous efforts. These guys are all super talented musicians playing the best they possibly can. However, I'm not too sure why Olivier Pinard was added to the mix. The dude has played in very technical bands, but is pretty underutilized here. Sure, he's great on "Time's Cruel Curtain", but that's all I can really notice.

I still love what Cattle Decapitation is trying to say. The lyrics are simple, sure, but still feel angry and real. These guys can not put out a completely shitty album. As much as I bashed this above, I still enjoyed it enough to listen to it so much. I just feel that if I am introducing Cattle Decapitation to someone for the first time, I would go with something from their three past efforts. There are a couple bangers on here like the songs I mentioned above, but with the narration sections and other songs blending into one another, I can't get over how much filler is on this record. I'm sorry, but the title track does NOT need to be over nine minutes. Also, those narration sections are perfect for cattle, but I feel like it interrupts the album a bit.

Overall, I think this will split the fan base a bit. People that grew up with Cattle being strictly grind still talk shit about Harvest Floor, Monolith and Anthropocene. I have seen "sell out" being thrown around here and there. I appreciate the earlier albums, but you can't top those three. I just feel that there is too much goblin singing on here and feel like it's unnecessary in a lot of areas. I'm still glad I bought the collector's edition and got that badass map and if I could go back, I'd do the exact same thing. I'll always support these guys, but I'm also not going to be blinded for my love of Cattle and ignore what negatives I have about "Death Atlas"

Song recs: "Bring Back the Plague", "One Day Closer to the End of the World", "Time's Cruel Curtain" and "Vulturous"