Terrasite

"Terrasite" by death-grind legends Cattle Decapitation is a beautifully nasty album that whirls you through a tornado of brutality. Hearing other people's complaints about this album put my expectations lower than normal but Cattle blew my expectations out of the park with this one. Faster, more of the beautiful melodic sections Cattle has come to love, and technical instrumental work yet still mindbogglingly heavy, they managed to take everything great about their previous album "Death Atlas" and magnify it by 500. The structuring of this album is amazing with a beautiful opening, to insanely brutal and technical music in between, and then to a beautiful close with "Just Another Body".

This album is a beautifully written masterpiece with David McGraw's iconic supersonic gravity blast beats, Josh Elmore's insanely technical riffs, and Olivier Pinard's crushing bass tone. This brings me to my main issue with this album, the bass is usually un-heard until everything else goes quiet but when it does make its appearance it's always perfectly timed. And Travis Ryan's deep guttural lows and insane pterodactyl highs even dipping into some clean vocals in the closing track. Travis Ryan also did a wonderful job writing his lyrics and telling a story of the death of mankind to give way to a new species, derived from the humans emerging from their cocoons to literally eat the earth until it is nothing.

All around "Terrasite" is an achievement of Cattle Decapitations songwriting and a perfectly crafted album full of brutality, melody, and death to mankind.

Death Atlas describes the slow, but imminent demise of mankind. Humanity is extinct, but the desire to destroy is not. The bodies act as a nesting ground for the second phase of humanity. From the human cocoons rise insect-like humanoids, the terrasite. This is expressed through the first track Terrasitic Adaptation, opening with a slow build up before the song is fully unleashed with a piercing scream accompanied by a pounding blast beat. This brutal assault is continued throughout the rest of the song, relentlessly attacking you with blast beat upon blast beat, grinding riffs, and Travis’ inhuman growls. This track already sets the bar incredibly high for the rest of the album, but somehow manages to be beaten by almost every other track present on the LP.

This album is perfect in every sense of the word. From the drums, to the guitars, bass, vocals, production, everything is flawless. Not a single part of the album overstays its welcome, instead most sections leave you wanting more of it. No song ever gets boring or tiring, instead getting more enjoyable with every listen.

Just like its predecessor, Death Atlas, Terrasite is filled to the brim with pure hatred. The music is overflowing with anger directed towards the human race, wanting us dead just as much as they ever did. Death Atlas is more misanthropic than Terrasite, but Terrasite expresses the hatred in a more interesting way, not just through pure adulterated rage. This album is a natural continuation of Death Atlas, with the rebirth of mankind as the Terrasite, who has risen again to finish what we’ve started and finally destroy the Earth once and for all. This album perpetuates the sentiment that we’ve brought this all on ourselves, and deserve what’s coming, even more so than Death Atlas. The focus is much more on humanity’s collective suicide more than it is on the Earth itself taking us out. This theme is expressed in every single track on the album, sometimes even implying that humanity wants to die.

The sheer musicianship of Cattle is spectacular, and this album really shows the best of the band. The guitars can be described as nothing but immaculate, as a wide range of riffing is present. The riffs can be slow and crushing, like the intro to The Storm Upstairs, or inhumanly fast and pummeling. This type of riff is present on every single track. They can also be more melodic and melancholic, the intro riff to Solalstalgia being a great example. Sometimes this is taken a step further, with huge amounts of tremolo picking being implemented into these types of riffs, giving them a much more atmospheric feel, here the whole latter half of Solastalgia comes to mind.

The bass mostly follows the guitars, except for a few notable times on the album, the most noteworthy being the breakdown in the middle of Solalstalgia. The bass is also very audible during the entire album, which makes the music more hard-hitting than it would be otherwise. The tone of the bass fits the album perfectly too. The first time I heard it clearly, I immediately thought it sounded like how it feels to crush a cockroach or some other large insect.

You shouldn’t even have to say the drums are impeccable when David McGraw is the one behind them. The drums are loud, but just loud enough as to not drown out other instruments, which makes every blast beat feel like an all out attack on your eardrums. The bass drums are triggered, but only the actual sound of the drums; nowhere on the album are the triggers used to play faster than McGraw is able to, but I wouldn’t blame someone for thinking that, considering the sheer speed at which he plays. The snare is hard hitting, and the toms are just perfect, making every fill sound incredibly brutal, one of the best examples being the fills a little over a minute into We Eat Our Young. The cymbals are crystal clear, completing what might be the best sounding drums I’ve ever heard.

Cattle’s crowning jewel is of course Travis Ryan with his absolutely inhuman vocal performance. I can not give this man enough praise when it comes to the vocals on any of Cattle’s albums, but he just keeps raising the bar every time they release new music. His growls are animalistic and harsh as always, but what really sets him apart from the rest of metal vocalists is his range. He can belt out a howling scream one second, to a stomach churning guttural growl the next. His ability to perform Cattle’s signature melodic growls is what puts him at the very top for me. They are so ingrained in their sound, that I can’t imagine them releasing an album where they aren’t used to some extent. I often see Cattle criticized for the overuse of these vocals, but I think they are used a perfect amount. They are mostly used during atmospheric and melodic parts, which sometimes even feel melancholic, and regular harsh vocals simply don’t do these sections enough justice. Here the ‘goblin vocals’ are a way better fit, as they enhance the emotional aspect more than could’ve been done with yet another guttural.

Everyone in the band comes together to form what I would consider the best album ever released so far, as the music is so unrelentingly misanthropic all the way through. This record is like its predecessor somehow able to convey emotion and sound human, even though technical death metal usually sounds so soulless and robotic.

This aspect is most prominent in the final two tracks of the album. Solastalgia starts off with a riff similar to the opening riff of Death Atlas, which already gives it a melancholic feel, before suddenly shifting into hateful death metal. The entire first half of the song is just pure technical death metal, and this is the most hateful and angry they sound on the entire record. This changes quite drastically at around the midpoint of the album, where a melancholic and atmospheric riff now dominates the track, shortly before we hear clean vocals on this album for the first time. This atmosphere keeps building and building, until it finally breaks into the last minute of the song, where we hear the best use of melodic growls so far in the band’s entire career. This song is so hopeless, telling us we’re over and the only left to do is lament the death of our species.

Just Another Body is the album’s closing track, and being more than 10 minutes long, is even longer than the closing and title track of Death Atlas. One thing that distinguishes Terrasite from its predecessors, is the lack of interludes, especially the one before the closing track. The band most likely wanted to scale back the use of these calmer tracks as it was one the major criticisms Death Atlas faced. Instead here, they incorporate it into the final track, instead of having something before it. Just Another Body opens with a slow piano part, which, along with droning notes in the background, builds tension before the rest of the instruments kick in. Most of the song is the same death metal found on the rest of the album, just with a bit more of a melancholic atmosphere. This assault culminates in a sorrowful section with clean vocals. This part is filled with so much hopelessness and despair, even more so than the latter half of the track Death Atlas. The album ends on a melancholic note with a slow 2 minute fade-out. This is the perfect conclusion to a perfect album, if you had any shred of hope left before, it is definitely gone now.

Terrasite is in my opinion the best album ever released, and every aspect of this record shows this. I might say it is the best album that will ever be released, but I won’t make such a mistake again, as I used to say the same about Death Atlas. Who knows? Maybe Cattle will outdo themselves for the 8th time in a row and release an album even better than this. If you somehow haven’t heard this album yet, do yourself a massive favor and listen to it.

Loud, blasphemous, and never letting up, Cattle Decapitation's "Terrasite" is in my opinion one of the best metal releases this year. Let me explain. The vocals take on one aspect of the album one screaming and one hoarse throat. The music, the drums, and the production quality is immaculate. You find the vocals always fluctuating, the music brutal, and this whole release from start to finish is neverending death metal. The only thing that took me a little bit of time accepting were the screaming voice. But I like how they take it back and forth. The tempos are everchanging, the intense drums and the original sounding guitar riffs are enticingly invigorating.

This is the first album that I've heard from the band and they have quite a discography. I couldn't pick a better way to find them being listed in MetalInjection.net's best of 2023. I felt that way as previously mentioned. And well, actually this release has vocals in 3 different types: screaming, hoarse, and clean. Hence, the progressive death metal diagnoses. They cover it all in almost an hour in length. For most of this release, it is intense. The closing song entitled "Just Another Body" is where the progressive sound in the vocals/music takes on. Most of this album does fluctuate. But most of it in retrospect is death metal. I mean fast and ferocious death metal.

The intro gets you pumped in what you're about to hear: ferocious riffs/music. I mean, ear piercing. Every part of this album is filled with intensity and where they want to slow it up in the outro song is fine because most of it never lets up. The lead guitar, rhythm, and every aspect of vocals that you can imagine is well received. But get ready for some extreme intensity. One of my outstanding monuments you can imagine. Coming from death metal turning into progressive death metal. But most of this release is blistering and uncompromising. These guys do well on the songwriting aspect. What an original and talented act of whom knows how to blare in your eardrums with this unimaginable and ferocious extreme metal!

2023 has proven to be an amazing year for the death metal scene. Tons of legacy and legendary bands have been putting out great material. For example, the new Dying Fetus, Cannibal Corpse, Incantation, and Cryptopsy to name a few. But there is one album out of all of them that I would consider the absolute best metal album of 2023. And that would be Cattle Decapitation with their latest album “Terrasite”. This band needs no introduction, they’re one of the best and top extreme metal bands to have ever graced this planet. Ever since their 2012 album “Monolith or Inhuamity” they’ve been on an absolutely insane winning streak over the past 3 albums. With “Death Atlas” being the best for me out of the previous 3 records. But when this album dropped holy shit, it is close to overtaking “Death Atlas”. It’s not going to overtake it for me, but it’s easily my second favorite album this band has put out.

“Terrasitic Adaptation” is a masterful album opener. It kicks off with a beautiful intro as the guitars kick in, building up slowly and conveying a great atmosphere. Before suddenly snapping to a blast-beat barrage along with one of Travis Ryan’s classic high shrieks. It’s only the first song in and I already had chills running down my spine when I listened to this album for the first time. The solo on here reminds me of something you would hear in “Monolith of Inhumanity”. And of course, the song wouldn’t be complete without Travis’s iconic harsh, clean, and melodic vocals. Which will always be my favorite part about this band. It’s not as prominent here as “Death Atlas” but it’s still there. Throughout this whole album, those melodic vocals are littered within almost every song except for “We Eat Our Young” which is the most straightforward song on the album. Travis Ryan’s vocal performance and flow once again is perfect, he can hit the highest of highs and the most guttural growls. His enunciation is also great, you can generally follow along with the lyrics throughout this entire album.

Dave Otero's production here fucking fantastic. The guitars are punchy and crisp, and the bass is so rumbly and heavy. You can hear every instrument clearly throughout every track. Josh Elmore and Belisaro Dimuzio are both incredible musicians. Their syncopated grooves and songwriting abilities are incredible, they also splice in some very slammy riffs here and there. Specifically on “The Storm Upstairs” and “The Insignificants”. “The Insignificants” in particular shows Travis Ryan actually doing clean vocals at the end-way segment of the song. It’s so sinister and hate-filled that it’s a perfect continuation of that “Death Atlas” flare and sound.

This album seems to combine all the best charms of the previous 3 studio albums, as the band throws them all together for a 53-minute beat down. It’s got the barbaric feeling of “Monolith Of Inhumanity”, the chunky grooves of “The Anthropocene Extinction”, and the blackened dismal approach of “Death Atlas”. When it comes to the drum performance Dave McGraw beats the hell out of the drums. His double bass work and gravity blasts completely run you over for the entire album. As I stated songwriting on here is incredible, every single song has a memorable moment or hooky section. There are also parts that sound like other songs on previous albums, for example, the intro chords to “Dead End Residents” remind me of the song “Absolute Destitute” from the last album.

Every song here is perfect, but the song I return to the most frequently is “Scourge of the Offspring”. For the beginning portions, it grooves away. Displaying a mid-paced chugging beat down, which then shifts to the chorus. It’s easily the best moment of this album, the word beautiful isn’t a word you would associate with an extreme metal band. Yet Cattle Decapitation pulls it off perfectly, and Travis Ryan’s vocals are at their absolute best here. Displaying a very gorgeous chorus, it almost sounds hopeful considering this album's lyrical content is as anti-human and environmental as ever. it’s such a perfect and powerful hook which makes this song my favorite Cattle Decapitation song by far. “…And the World Will Go on Without You” is another excellent example of Travis’s cleans used perfectly.

Now it’s time to talk about the closing track entitled “Just Another Body”, A 10-minute masterpiece of a song. It begins with one of the most beautiful piano intros I’ve ever heard, before slowly building up to when the guitars and drums kick in. The ambiance this early segment gives is truly breathtaking, this ambiance will continue to be in the background even when the song truly speeds up. Travis Ryan’s vocals are at their most barbaric and pissed off, along with the other instruments. One thing about this song that truly made chills run down my spine is Travis’s high shriek around the 2-minute mark. But as this song progresses it fades away for a portion as we get more of Travis’s actual cleans, the instruments then shift back into the mix as the final portion of the song commences. It’s such a perfect blend of Travis’s clean vocals and his melodic raspy vocals, along with the ambiance and instruments. And then it slowly fades away little by little, proving once again why this band never fails to make me tear up.

As I’ve stated with “Death Atlas” I have absolutely no gripes with this album. They’ve once again created a masterpiece that will stand the rest of time. This band continues to evolve and improve, meaning with this trajectory it’s only going to get better and better. I’ve listened to this album thousands of times since its release and I haven’t gotten sick of it. Check it out if you haven’t. A fucking masterpiece.

The last material I heard outta famously vegan death-grinding doomsday preachers Cattle Decapitation is from 2012's "Monolith of Inhumanity" album, since its release widely considered the band's magnum opus, if any. But the consensus also seems to be that they've largely kept up to par with themselves since then, if not more. And for all I know, with their 10th album, "Terrasite", they've just done that again – if not more.

In a nutshell, we're dealing with one of the most impressive bands in a genre that's technically impressive by default. Especially drummer David McGraw excels with near-supersonic grind blasts and one of death metal's fastest double kicks. But Travis Ryan puts himself ahead of pretty much every one of his colleagues here with one of the most varied vocals I've ever heard, ranging from a frighteningly deep and guttural growl over icy black metal screaming to a vulgar goblin sneer. You can actually hear the lyrics (well, some of the time anyway). And also the urgency of their apocalyptic message sets the band apart from many of contemporary death metal's other cookie-cutter cookie monsters out there – as one of sadly few groups in the genre, these guys actually have something important to say.

The band members' technical variety permeates the music as well. CD's strength lies in more aspects than their technicality, with song structures often being complex, not following an ABABCB template, but sometimes rather ABCDEFGH, like in "The Storm Upstairs". And the individual sections often alternate between dissonant, chromatic death riffing hailing back to Morbid Angel, and big black metal minor chord cadences not unlike those of Immortal or Darkthrone. Also, the drums often alternate between heavy half-times and intimidating blast assaults. I mean, these drums, you guys... Holy shit, these drums.

Opener "Terrasitic Adaptation" contains everything that's awesome about the band and the entire genre, its gigantic introductory chord slabs paving the way for violent grind and profane vocals. Both brutality and technicality are at 100% here, and this is exactly what only the finest purveyors of tech-death do. "Scourge of the Offspring" introduces some wicked time meter changes along with some of the album's tonally sickest riffing. In fact, only "The Insignificants" could be said to be somewhat unoriginal, being reminiscent of older standard-death metal like Deicide or Cannibal Corpse.

But even then, the creative vocal arrangements as the track progresses still showcase a goddamn sense of musicality that you can't necessarily take for granted even in a demanding genre like death metal. Although it probably also helps that the producer, once again, is neo-death maestro Dave Otero, the man behind several albums by CD's death grind colleagues Cephalic Carnage and Archspire. Seriously, the bass drum sound here might be the perfect bass drum sound. (I mean, it's either this one or the last Decapitated album.)

There are those who will probably scorn some of the half-time sections here and compare them to those of unimaginative jock metal bands – none mentioned, too few forgotten. And using the same comparison, those same people might also scorn the melodic aspects of "Terrasite". But none of these elements resemble those lame panderings to the baggy pants segment that blemished a lot of new metal 20 years ago. The half-times are few and justified. And the clean vocals often apply a filter of seemingly echo and flanger, giving them a pseudo-human, almost insect-like quality, perhaps not unlike the imagined vocal sounds of the album cover's post-apocalyptic human/cockroach hybrid creation. And with all its dissonant layers, the entire album retains a disturbing edge throughout – again, as fittingly illustrated by aforementioned cover.

In fact, the only imaginably justified point of critique here is that it's hard to not become a bit exhausted toward the end of "Terrasite". Even with all its variation – and, shit, also because of it – this is just plain demanding music no matter how you look at it. But it's demanding because it's blindingly professional, and that's the way it should be. Shit, even at those points when CD aren't messing around with any stand-out elements, they're still kicking the asses of 9 out of 10 other bands in not just death grind, but in the entire world of death metal. And in a world where death metal has become so wonderfully complex as is the case, that says a lot.


Originally posted at https://www.GlobalMetalBlog.com

It has been quite the joy to see Cattle Decapitation evolve over time, from their humble beginning as a pretty straightforward death/grind band with an interesting message to now, a progressive death metal powerhouse that redefines the genre. They had a pretty steady evolution, from one album to the other, but I think things started to change with 2012 Monolith of Inhumanity, where the band really started to embrace their progressive side. We are now in 2023 and the band had the massive job of following their 2019 masterpiece, Death Atlas. So, in this review, I’ll try to explain why Terrasite fulfils every expectation and is the worthy successor to Death Atlas!

First, I need to put you in context a bit. In Terrasite, we are in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has transformed into disgusting, cockroaches looking creatures that are only moved by one thing, their hunger. But the twist is, they remember their humanity, still feel the guilt of having destroyed the planet and yet are unable to control themselves: ”And you... you're just a body, Flesh-lined tragedy, Dead but alive, Remembering a time within our lives... in our history, Life in our prime, A fiction of the mind, Lying to ourselves, blind”. It’s in this wonderfully dark setting that Terrasite takes place and it might just be Cattle Decapitation’s best work to date. The band has the same lineup since 2018: Josh Elmore and Belisario Dimuzio on guitars (lead and rhythm respectfully), David McGraw on drums, fellow Québecois and member of Cryptopsy and Neuraxix, Olivier Pinard on bass and last but certainly not least, Travis Ryan, one of the best voices in death metal period.

The album starts strong with Terrasitic Adaptation. The first few seconds are a bunch ambient noises and what sounds like an infestation of creatures in a dark cave until the first lead guitar chords are played with a slow drum beat. All of this is accompanied by a slow, ominous sounding backtrack that builds the tension until the full fury of blastbeats and long, demonic scream of Travis Ryan hits you in the face. I think this is, without a doubt, one of the best album intros of the year so far! It perfectly sets the mood for the rest of the album and instantly transports you in this hellish, future parallel universe. This song already showcases the full might of Travis’s voice. He has super high-pitched, screechy screams, extremely deep and low guttural growls and his unique blend of harsh vocals that basically sounds like a goblin. He uses those three voices, switching between them effortlessly, to fit perfectly with the story that’s told, making the song (and the whole album) feeling really dynamic. The song ends by becoming progressively slower and ultimately stops in a fade out that is the perfect transition to the next song: We Eat Our Young.

The song immediately starts in a chaotic death/grind assault, with every instrument and Travis’s long high-pitched scream and switches pretty rapidly to a more traditional death metal riff. This is a shorter song, clocking in just under four minutes, but they managed to put a lot of ideas within that time. The song goes into traditional meat and potato death metal chugging riffs but still finds the time to put pauses, where the atmosphere is put in the forefront. By far the best part of the song is the ending, a simple, repeated riff that goes on for almost a minute with Travis repeating “we eat our young” over and over. I guarantee you will make that face, you know the one, that nasty face when the riff is so disgustingly good that you can’t help but headbang. In, ...And the World Will Go On Without You, Cattle shows us that they are not only able create brutal music, they can also do it with incredible musicianship and intelligent song structures. From the introduction, with the complex drum patterns accompanied by a growl so low it’s hard to believe in human can produce this sound, to the complex and technical riff accompanied by fast blastbeats, to the chunky brutal death metal part, for everything to ultimately slow down, build atmosphere and, dare I say, add a little bit of melody with Travis’s goblins singing!

In a genre that usually has rigid parameters, this album is filled with out-of-the-box surprises. Like mentioned earlier, there are a few parts that I like to call, the emotional goblin singing, that adds a melodic component that is welcome in this sea of brutality. Speaking of melody, the intro of the last song, Just Another Body, is a beautiful piano piece that conveys emotions of grandiose beauty but at the same time, a complete sense of despair. Clean singing parts are also present on this song and others (Solastalgia, The Insignificants). It gives this wonderful feeling of doom and despair that is present all over the lyrics as well: “We brought this all on ourselves We'd be going to hell If it existed outside this life”. They seem to blame humanity as a whole for the planet’s destruction: “I'm just a body, 8 billion like me, Burning our hive, Scorched alive”. That may be partially true, but I don’t think we are all individually responsible, it’s more of a systemic problem. We desperately need a change, getting rid of this capitalist monster, where growth and profit is the only thing that matters, even if it destroys the planet! I see the Terrasite monsters as the metaphorical representation of our violent system. I love when metal bands tackle political issues like that.

I’m trying to find flaws to Terrasite but cannot for the life of me find anything. All this taking in account that I’m not the biggest fan of grindcore but, sprinkled here and there, it really adds a rawness to the music that I find myself enjoying quite a lot! Terrasite might be the band most diverse and mature offering to date and, already a worthy contender for my album of the year list. Since the previous album was released in 2019 and had a song called, We Need a New Plague, let’s just hope this album doesn’t accurately predicts the future again!

Terrasite is a wrecking ball of an album. In every sense of the word, Cattle Decapitation have honed their craft to perfection.

First, are my initial impressions of the album. Right off the bat, this album comes off as faster, more aggressive, and more technical than “Death Atlas”. Not that “Atlas” was a slouch by any means, it is just that this album torques all the qualities of the band into high gear, and I, of course, love it. At the same time, the melodies that we have grown to love of the band in recent years, are present and quite great. So, this album strikes a perfect balance of aggression and melody.

The 2nd thing that stands out to me on this album is the musicianship for the band as a whole. The band has continued to evolve as musicians and it really shows on this release. The guitar work is memorable and technical at the same time, the drum work is blistering and intricate, and the vocals are aggressive, terrifying, and mournful all at the same time. My only gripe with the entire album is that, while the bass guitar does show brilliance, it cannot be heard much, other than the typical crushing backbone it supplies. This is a minor gripe, as the album is truly superb when it comes to musicianship.

Onto the most important point about the album is the songwriting. Here is where Cattle Decapitation continues to excel, album after album, and Terrasite is no exception. This album remains one of their best records and I will stand by this statement. From the doom laden riffing and chorus-like vocals of the opening track, to the bombastic ending mantra of “We Eat Our Young”, this album continues to deliver memorable song after memorable song, all the way to the end - culminating with the absolutely emotionally crushing “Just Another Body”. This album is a joy to listen to over and over again. Despite it following a typical, but finely honed Cattle Decapitation formula, the album manages to stay fresh and memorable. Travis even managed to showcase his actual singing vocals on the ending track to contrast with his “dirty cleans”, much to the naysay of critics who argue that his “dirty cleans” are just “cleans”. More importantly though, the clean vocals on this track are well done and emotionally impactful: A perfect ending sequence for the album.

Overall, I am in love with this album and have it on repeat ever since release. It is memorable, impactful, technical, brutal, and addictive - truly worthy of high praise. I question if it is their best album, but it comes damn near close for me. Death metal fans will love this album. But, while the album has plenty of sing-along moments, posers are going to hate this album due to its sheer brutality. I can’t recommend this album enough for fans of true death metal or extreme metal, but might be best for others to stay away from this album. I consider this to be even more of a compelling quality to the album, however. Kudos to Cattle Decap for another amazing album!

Environmental issues concern me since childhood for reasons of elementary common sense, associated with mankind's survival, the species surrounding it, and, ultimately, the planet I have grown to know and love throughout my life. While I'm neither obsessed with the subject nor a supporter of any form of eco-extremism, which hides a dangerous political agenda, turning a blind eye to such a serious and real problem with a profound impact on our lives is not only socially irresponsible but also blatantly idiotic. There is no plan B or alternate world to migrate to if we screw this up. It doesn't take a PhD in biology or sociology nor is it necessary to be a vegan, vegetarian, or staunch advocate of Greta Thunberg to recognize that we have a responsibility to preserve the planet and its resources for future generations. American deathgrind squad Cattle Decapitation have been exploring this topic for almost thirty years in a passionate advocacy for animal rights and environmentalism, warning of the dangers of climate change, pollution, and ecosystem destruction, thus exposing the devastating impact of human activity on the planet. Regardless of my omnivorous diet and non-radical stance on the subject, I'm glad the heavy metal ecosystem has someone championing these causes rather than the usual (pseudo)demonic themes or other odysseys surrounding dragons, fire, and medieval swords. Not for the sake of credibility, as there are clichés on both sides, but for thematic diversity and consequent musical impact. In a hybrid style like that of Cattle Decapitation, which mostly blends grind with death and black metal, this takes on particular relevance for it gives them a distinctive personality while opening up the visual and musical spectrum, pushing their boundaries further into more melodic and unpredictable soundscapes. A journey towards greater sophistication and variety fully embraced since Monolith of Inhumanity, their pivotal album and one of the most relevant extreme metal releases of the past decade. Despite preferring its successor, The Anthropocene Extinction, the impact it had on the scene was undeniable, catapulting the Californian collective to the very top of the food chain alongside behemoths like Dying Fetus, while also redesigning the band's style to this day.

With a title spawned from Travis Ryan's eco-mind that brings together 'Terra-' meaning earth and '-site' derived from the Greek word '-sites' meaning 'food', Cattle Decapitation's new chapter, Terrasite (earth-eater), is once again a metaphor for humanity's role in the destruction of the planet and its parasitic nature. Following the obliteration of the human species in Death Atlas, former humans are now reborn as grotesque cockroach-like creatures destined to roam a new post-apocalyptic world. A new stage of evolution (Humanity 2.0) that embodies the concept of rebirth in a familiar narrative, lyrically and musically, following the trajectory of previous albums towards more accessible soundscapes. Death Atlas' diversity and more melodic character carry over to Terrasite yet in a slightly less polished mix, giving it a more massive look and feel despite its synth layers and slow passages. Lead single, 'We Eat Our Young', is the pinnacle of the band's new incarnation, featuring an ending section that ranks among the finest moments the lads have ever recorded. This track and the three that follow it, 'Scourge of the Offspring', 'The Insignificants', and 'The Storm Upstairs', are a terrific sequence that mirrors the album's most interesting cluster and the best the collective has to offer in 2023. Interestingly, this four-piece segment ends with two of Terrasite's slowest songs, showing that the band feels increasingly at home in catchy slow-paced territory. The groovy section that erupts after the opening crescendo and subsequent midway Opeth-esque melodeath moment on 'The Storm Upstairs' are among the album's most engaging textures, along with the catchy 'Solastalgia' and the melodramatic goth(ish) finale of 'Just Another Body' that places the synthesizer center stage, ending the record on a melancholy tone reminiscent of Death Atlas. The many melodic parts, which feature Travis Ryan's trademark high-pitched Udo Dirkschneider(ish) shrieks, also emphasize this more accessible side while bringing interesting contrasts and dynamics to the music, even if they are overly familiar and predictable. This foreseeability, although stylistically coherent, is Terrasite's weakest side as it generates some deja-vu and sameness. Ryan's hybrid style, seamlessly switching between various extreme metal vocal techniques, would allow for an even bolder approach to songwriting, which currently lacks freshness and innovation; an element of surprise, if you will; some disruption that could bring newness to the mix. A downside that is nevertheless offset by Terrasite's consistency and the collective's savoir-faire, which has built a unique identity over the years, operating within a formula that remains thrilling, lethal, and most importantly, distinctive. Frequent changes in tempo and unconventional time signatures, which swing between fast, intense sections and slower, more atmospheric passages, continue to shape soundscapes, creating a sense of complexity and variety while remaining catchy and somewhat accessible. 'Solastalgia', with its dynamics and colorful multi-layered approach, is one of the tracks that best embodies this catchy recipe, mirroring the luminous hues that thrive in Terrasite.

Musically consistent and conceptually coherent with its (100% organic) legacy, Terrasite is yet another successful new chapter in one of the most interesting and distinctive plots in extreme metal today. A post-apocalyptic narrative rooted in an eco-friendly, accessible deathgrind that, while not venturing into uncharted territory nor breaking with the past, remains creatively exciting and thematically relevant, as it encapsulates one of the greatest challenges of our era: that of our survival.

Originally written for www.sputnikmusic.com

So, another Cattle Decapitation album has released and all of the problems that made it's predecessor an unworthy followup to the albums preceeding it are back with full force. I understand that the band gets a lot of positive feedback for their newer, more tame and restrained sound, but the truth is that this shift in tone is anything but good. The band hit a healthy balance with 2012's Monolith of Inhumanity, a terrific display of brutal concepts mixed with maniacal howling vocals that really gave the album a unique feel. Every album since then, however, has felt like a diet version of whatever came before it - the end result being Terrasite, an overblown, melodramatic bore that repeats itself constantly, interrupts itself endlessly, and refuses to commit to anything of worth.

Yes, I will explain what I mean by that, but first lets talk about the production. I hate the way this record sounds. Every instrument sounds polished and perfect, the mix as a whole is heavily processed and sounds artificial at almost every turn. Death Metal should be rough around the edges, but this is as fake as any other lame deathcore album.

Now, to go back to the points I made earlier, I want to start by saying there are some decent ideas in here. The occasional riff will induce some involuntary head movements, certain riffs will impress, and of course the vocals are (usually) pretty good. The problem arrives when almost every song on the album feels the need to force in these painful, monotonous, melodramatic choruses sung with clean vocals. And yes, they ARE clean vocals. I don't care if Travis Ryan explained in an interview that they aren't clean. Am I supposed to believe that my ears are lying to me? That he isn't very obviously singing melodically? Come on.

Back to the point though, almost every song follows a similar structure: brutal riffs and growls for either the verses or the first 2/3 of the song, then lame "atmospheric" clean vocal sections for the choruses or the last 1/3 of the song respectively. The result is not only an experience that is incredibly monotonous and predictable, but also an experience that misleads the listener constantly. Not once on this album does Cattle Decapitation commit to anything unsafe for the standards set by fans of Death Atlas, which suffered from very similar inconsistencies.

So the main problem is the inconsistency and predictability, but another issue I have and can't help but be disappointed by, is the fact that this band has seriously mellowed out in recent years. Not a single moment on Terrasite even comes close to matching even the tamest moments from Monolith of Inhumanity. Cattle Decapitation has lost their teeth, or at the very least had them filed and dulled to the point of only kiiiind of being able to bite and break skin. Terrasite is the culmination of nearly 10 years of this band taking the wrong lessons from fan reactions to their work, and for that reason I can say with complete honesty that I saw this inevitable downfall coming from miles away. Unfortunately the occasional good riff and decent vocals aren't enough to save this album from being a disappointment. Even on tracks like "... And The World Will Go On Without You", which starts admittedly pretty strong, the tried and true formula of snapping every bit of tension the band has managed to build up for the sake of some lame melodramatic clean vocals makes its appearance and damn near neuters the entire song. I swear, I could almost hear Travis seething with rage in the background of "We Eat Our Young" at the thought of not arbitrarily slapping his shrill clean vocals into the mix. I actually applaud the band for showing a LITTLE bit of restraint there, even though the song itself is nothing really special.

So, to sum it up briefly, Terrasite is a lame, inconsistent, yet somehow entirely predictable mess that fails to match the band's previous releases, and confirms that this band is destined for mall-core stardom. At this rate we'll have a fully acoustic Catte Decapitation album by 2030. I just wonder when/if other fans of the band will stop blindly supporting every mediocre record this band pathetically sighs into existence. How this is somehow being considered one of their best albums is a mystery to me.

Cattle Decapitation is one of the best bands of the entire spectrum, and their work goes way further than being just a metal band. In fact, they use their work to raise awareness to problems that concern everyone - mainly environmental issues.

Usually, the "environmental issues" topic they lean on functions in a somewhat bleak perspective - that is to say that they explore it in order to present us the nasty result of the harm we do to the planet and to ourselves, for that matter. "Death Atlas", the band's 2019 output, was the work where the way they address such problems reached its peak, bringing us a godless, relentless and unforgiving vision of what the end of the world might be like if we continue forging a self-destructive path.

After presenting us such a dark concept on Death Atlas, perhaps the band decided it was time to go for a different perspective while working on the same topic. And while the blame placed upon us for our wrongdoings is still there (and that shall be for the entirety of their discography), we get to relish on the thin remnants of light that still remain. "Terrasite" acts as the perfect counterpart to what the somber template of Death Atlas was, and that's because it feels more versatile and melodic than the predecessor.

On Terrasite, you'll get everything: Songs that build in intensity, some tasty solos, some alternative metal riffing and a closing track as tasty as the self-titled masterpiece that closed Death Atlas. But the thing about Terrasite is that the band shifts the focus a bit, going from general into specific perspectives and talking about matters that are present more of a social concern to the Homo Sapiens species, such as the overpopulation of the planet ("We Eat Our Young", "Scourge Of The Offspring"), and even the constant need for judgement or criticism ("The Insignificants"). All of these elements make Terrasite a versatile, complete and diverse work, something that will certainly please the new-school fans of Cattle Decap that are looking for a first reference to look upon.

In short, the fact that the album presents a somewhat "lighter" concept when compared to its predecessor doesn't mean it has lost its dark essence. Once again, Cattle Decap accomplishes the mission of releasing another collective piece of heavy activism. The thing about this new album is that, while Death Atlas presented us a vision of the future with more enphasis on chaos, Terrasite presents us a look at the present with focus on melody, all while projecting a hopeless ray of light that reminds us that each one of us is a Terrasite in himself.

I'll admit I was a bit worried going into this album since Death Atlas started to show some worrying trends; most notably, the repeated spamming of Travis Ryan's melodic goblin "singing" that became used in a pop chorus fashion rather than the exciting new addition that it was when it first came into use on The Harvest Floor. Furthermore, it seemed like the band had completely ditched Deathgrind in favour of a sort of Blackened Tech Death style that ended up sounding rather thin even if there were impressive and entertaining moments. Luckily, it seems the band has taken these criticisms to heart in the studio and what we have in Terrasite is almost like a more polished sequel to Death Atlas that incorporates a whole host of new ideas mixed together with some fun call-backs to the old days wrapped in the established sound rather than a radical shift in sound. And for that, I am more than pleased with what they've dropped here.

As is tradition at this point, Travis kills it on both the vocal and lyrical front, providing an assertive and clear delivery on tracks like "We Eat Our Young" that make some tracks strangely fit for a lyrical read-along while the track rages through. Of course, there are also the high-pitched black metal reminiscent harsh vocals all throughout the album, from the first scream of the album on "Terrasitic Adaptation", a track that features the style prominently all across, to the fantastically in-your-face "LIFE IS TORTURE" repetition on "Solastalgia". As for the goblin singing, it's use on Terrasite is much more tasteful thankfully, and this can be attributed to a much better grip on the general structure of the tracks, almost entirely ditching the concept of choruses save for "Scourge of the Offspring", where Travis belts out an anthem of pure misanthropy. And credit where credit is due, some of these goblin parts really are pretty damn catchy even in songs where they'll show up only in a single instance, such as near the end of "A Photic Doom" or on the aforementioned opening track.

The return to a more Deathgrind structure is an aid on all fronts, allowing for tracks to blow past in a barrage of riffs, blackened melodies, pummeling drums, and even a few short bass solos on tracks like "The Storm Upstairs" and "Solastalgia", the latter being a contender for favorite on the album with its passionately hopeless finale to shatter any reactionary dreams of returning to a sinless past. What you get when you put it all together, in combination with Dave Otero returning to produce, is an album that crushes the listener in a sonic earthquake that perfectly captures the intensity and horror of the band's "We're All Fucked" message that has only gotten more poignant as our planet continues towards a desolate future. Some may find the concept a bit tired, but as any climate scientist will tell you, things aren't getting any better... but at least we have a band dedicated to giving us a killer soundtrack to our demise.

The Green Peace of deathgrind have finally returned 4 years after the Earth (both the real one and the one on Death’s back on the album cover) staggered at the release of their second-best album, "Death Atlas" with a new portion of powerful soundtrack to humanity’s demise. While this album is nearly equivalent to the previous one sound-wise, it manages to deliver quite a few epic melodies and shows a sufficient diversity representative of the band’s reluctance to merely recycle "Monolith of Inhumanity" riffs.

The opening song, "Terrastic Adaptation", starts off with a sinister, slow-paced intro riff followed by Travis Ryan’s infernal scream that unkindly reminds you the guy is still one of the best modern death metal vocalists. Nearly as legendary as the most memorable scream in the band’s history (the 3:03 one of "Bring Back the Plague") this scream instantly sets the atmosphere of the end of time. Upon having grinded you with a series of gut-wrenching riffs and passages of all humanely possible tempos, the album spits at your terrasited body with yet another song opened by Ryan’s visceral scream (also the album’s main single), "We Eat Our Young". With the infant-eating out of the way, the album collapses at you with a series of consistent, brutal yet desperate riffs and ferocious drumming. The only unenjoyable song on it is the mediocre "The Insignificants", which, while not being bad, feels like "yet another Cattle Decapitation song" due not containing any particularly remarkable elements. The rest are fine at worst and excellent at best.

Generally, the band’s approach hasn’t changed much. All the beloved elements such as Josh Elmore’s monstruous riffing and David McGraw’s crushing drumming are here. The only major change would be the unexpected reduction of (carbon levels, haha) the amount of Ryan’s "goblin" vocals. While I love them and never viewed them as a problem, unlike some other fans, I always encourage experimentation and Travis’s decision to employ this style of singing in fewer songs, but more effectively (for instance, the melodic shrieking he offers on "...and the World Will Go On Without You" is as stunning as that on "Kingdom of Tyrants" and almost as stunning as that on "Manufactured Extinct") should be given credit. All of his shrieking passages have been fantastic and none felt excessive apart from the one of "Dead End Residents", which is a major success. The songwriting generally doesn’t rely on catchy choruses that much, focusing on multiple elements working nicely in tandem instead, a perfect example being "We Eat Our Young", a killer track that doesn’t feature a chorus in the first place, yet still impresses the listener with the beastly beauty of its flow.

The album’s riffs are as impressive as always, yet even more creative and less uniform in terms of their style. For instance, my personal favorite on the album, "Scourge of the Offspring" contains a very Convulsing/late Decapitated-kind of riff, while the beginning and the 2:43 part of "A Photic Doom" remind me a lot of Inferi. However, the album also possesses several awesome songs on which the band stayed loyal to their style, such as "The Storm Upstairs" with an immensely catchy chorus riff and "Solastalgia" with an excellent use of choir and Olivier Pinard’s great buzzy bass. The band even managed to write a decent sequel to the closing masterpiece of their previous work, a 10-minute-long symphony of pain and destruction with a quite bleak name "Just Another Body". While not as brilliant as "Death Atlas", the song conveys the feeling of hopelessness through the use of powerful synths combined with the constant tempo changes and does not get boring thanks to its unpredictable structure possessing, among other things, a short yet cool breakdown and an excellent passage with Ryan’s speech and screaming combined alongside very beautiful synths (a re-make, as any fan will guess, of the "TO BE ALIVE IS TO SQUANDER EVERYTHING" part of "Death Atlas").

So, aside from its bad joke of a cover, "Terrasite" is a killer death metal album that any fan of late Cattle Decapitation is likely to enjoy. Definitely one of the best releases this year and one of the most solid records in the band’s discography.

Originally written for metalbite.com.

The years are stretching a bit longer between new releases from this band. One can be forgiven for getting concerned. We as fans so rarely remember that life just gets in the way sometimes and we also take for granted that the band really does know what they are doing. This can be applied to practically any band out there, but if there's one thing that Cattle has proven on it's last several albums it's that they are consistent, but not content to stay in their current state, whatever that might be. They are not afraid to push the needle just enough to keep things interesting for themselves, while still giving their a spine-tingling journey every new release. So where does this new record stand? Well...

A current favorite cut indicative of an increasingly-present element is the mind-blowing "Scourge of the Offspring," which sees the band invoking a melodic sensibility that is on another level. Even for a band like this that hasn't really been shy about incorporating these elements in MANY years, this is about as flat-out catchy as they have ever been. For a band that clearly was rooted in about as filthy death/grind as it got back in the day, they've managed to creep ever closer into a sort of symphonic black metal territory with these little bridge sections. Arpeggios, orchestration, and the kind of hooks you can't deny the power of. And these elements honestly creep up all over the record and are never ineffective. As for the rest of the riffage, Josh in recent years has become something of a master of the simple-yet-effective riffs. You listen to a lot of this stuff and as a guitarist you feel that this is easily attainable with a bit of practice to make everything precise. Precision picking, power chords, inversions, and little flicks of atmosphere from well-placed arpeggios, octaves, and what-have-you. And the fact that he and second-guitarist Belisario are in absolute lockstep is even more impressive!

Sonically, there's just something special about each new Cattle Decap record with Dave Otero at the helm. I think at this point, I can't really imagine this band recording with anyone else as he just creates this MASSIVE wall of sound that is kinda unique to this band, really! I mean, big rock chords just fill the space completely, and yet those drums and the melody lines just cut through! You really wouldn't think there'd be any way for it to happen, and yet Dave manages to carve this out just perfectly for everything to have its own space. Travis vocals are all over the place, so in that alone you would think Dave has his work cut out for him. But every grunt, growl, squeal, higher squeal, and higher-still squeal - and that cool, Bowie-esque bridge in album closer "Just Another Body" - takes center-stage even amidst the massive amount of EVERYTHING. It's literally a perfect mix!

To be perfectly fair, one doesn't go into a Cattle Decapitation record expecting your garden variety death and grind. This band is evolving in a way we wish other bands would. It totally sounds like a Cattle Decapitation record every single time, and yet with something different about it. Even more so for those of us who have been along for the ride for a while now. What we have here is another step forward for a band that is doing it right, and for that we thank them.