Cattle Decapitation - To Serve Man
2002, Metal Blade Records
by Perkele
Banned in Germany and refused distribution by SPV due to the artwork is a good omen to expect some brutal death metal. And when you come to know it's happened to Cattle Decapitation, you can be sure there won`t be survivors left after listening their third album. The band started out more as a grindcore band but as time passed by they got nearer to brutal death metal, but one thing is for sure: you can feel their roots in the extreme speed they managed to produce on this album.
What I really like about bands like CD is that they make brutal but still melodic music. (Of course if your ears are not used to this kind of extreme music you can`t hear the melodies in it : ) ). Sick harmonies (or should I call them disharmonies?) and Josh Elmore's guitar work which tries to pull out the limits of the traditional death guitar playing, is what pushes CD above other bands in the genre. Listen carefully to `To Serve Man` and `Deadmeal` to hear Josh`s unique playing. Their music is not constant brutal blastings, and they haven`t tried to be too technical either. They just found the perfect balance to keep melodies but staying brutal in their aggressive musical world. It contains machine gun like drums, the above mentioned outstanding guitars and the fascinating vocals of Travis Ryan. He sounds like there are other vocalists with him. Sometimes he sounds like a zombie but next his boiling growlings gives me the vision of him, sitting in a kettle full of bubbling water - I can almost `see` the burning fire under him.
Making a contradiction with their names, their lyrics are not about slaughtering animals but to replace animals by humans in the food chain. So their album title To Serve Man gets a totally different meaning as you would firstly think. (You can even find animal rights related links on the site and they also support PETA - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.) Well-drafted lyrics about such themes are not typical. To quote from the last track `Chunk Blower`:
A gigantic grinder
Fused of steel and turbine
Blades flay muscle from bone
Nobody dies alone
As hundreds wait for death
The sound of engines grinding
Every tissue, organ and living
explode in a mulch of compost
Churning corkscrews of pain
Razor-sharp gears and cogs
For the creation of human sausage logs
I've an extreme fetish
for blood and meat
All over me
The body as canvas
The art of murder
upon blank skin
Fed into the grater
Exiting in chunks
Spattering the funk
The cover was made by Wes Benscoter and it must be said, he did a good job. The naturalism of it isn`t shocking for me (I guess I`ve seen too many extreme covers), it simply fits the concept of the album. I`m sure the shredded entrails will catch your eyes but raise your eyes a bit higher and look into the tormented, now empty eyes of the guy. Even on the back of the cd you can look into his eyes but be careful, they won`t let you go. They are so expressive pain, madness, emptiness, forced obedience
Choosing a favourite track from the album is difficult - I like every musical piece of it, and as I mentioned the lyrics are also great.
In short I could describe CD`s music as intelligent, melodic, brutal death metal, one of the finest.
Tracklist:
1. Testicular manslaughter
2. I eat your skin
3. Writhe in putressence
4. Land of the severed meatus
5. The regurgitation of corpses
6. Everyone deserves to die
7. To serve man
8. Colonic villus biopsy performed on the gastro-intestinally incapable
9. Pedeadstrians
10. Long-pig and the hairless goat
11. Hypogastric combustion by C-4 plastique
12. Deadmeal
13. Chunk blower
Length: 35:01
Official Cattle Decapitation Homepage
Metal Blade Records
2002, Metal Blade Records
by Perkele
Banned in Germany and refused distribution by SPV due to the artwork is a good omen to expect some brutal death metal. And when you come to know it's happened to Cattle Decapitation, you can be sure there won`t be survivors left after listening their third album. The band started out more as a grindcore band but as time passed by they got nearer to brutal death metal, but one thing is for sure: you can feel their roots in the extreme speed they managed to produce on this album.
What I really like about bands like CD is that they make brutal but still melodic music. (Of course if your ears are not used to this kind of extreme music you can`t hear the melodies in it : ) ). Sick harmonies (or should I call them disharmonies?) and Josh Elmore's guitar work which tries to pull out the limits of the traditional death guitar playing, is what pushes CD above other bands in the genre. Listen carefully to `To Serve Man` and `Deadmeal` to hear Josh`s unique playing. Their music is not constant brutal blastings, and they haven`t tried to be too technical either. They just found the perfect balance to keep melodies but staying brutal in their aggressive musical world. It contains machine gun like drums, the above mentioned outstanding guitars and the fascinating vocals of Travis Ryan. He sounds like there are other vocalists with him. Sometimes he sounds like a zombie but next his boiling growlings gives me the vision of him, sitting in a kettle full of bubbling water - I can almost `see` the burning fire under him.
Making a contradiction with their names, their lyrics are not about slaughtering animals but to replace animals by humans in the food chain. So their album title To Serve Man gets a totally different meaning as you would firstly think. (You can even find animal rights related links on the site and they also support PETA - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.) Well-drafted lyrics about such themes are not typical. To quote from the last track `Chunk Blower`:
A gigantic grinder
Fused of steel and turbine
Blades flay muscle from bone
Nobody dies alone
As hundreds wait for death
The sound of engines grinding
Every tissue, organ and living
explode in a mulch of compost
Churning corkscrews of pain
Razor-sharp gears and cogs
For the creation of human sausage logs
I've an extreme fetish
for blood and meat
All over me
The body as canvas
The art of murder
upon blank skin
Fed into the grater
Exiting in chunks
Spattering the funk
The cover was made by Wes Benscoter and it must be said, he did a good job. The naturalism of it isn`t shocking for me (I guess I`ve seen too many extreme covers), it simply fits the concept of the album. I`m sure the shredded entrails will catch your eyes but raise your eyes a bit higher and look into the tormented, now empty eyes of the guy. Even on the back of the cd you can look into his eyes but be careful, they won`t let you go. They are so expressive pain, madness, emptiness, forced obedience
Choosing a favourite track from the album is difficult - I like every musical piece of it, and as I mentioned the lyrics are also great.
In short I could describe CD`s music as intelligent, melodic, brutal death metal, one of the finest.
Tracklist:
1. Testicular manslaughter
2. I eat your skin
3. Writhe in putressence
4. Land of the severed meatus
5. The regurgitation of corpses
6. Everyone deserves to die
7. To serve man
8. Colonic villus biopsy performed on the gastro-intestinally incapable
9. Pedeadstrians
10. Long-pig and the hairless goat
11. Hypogastric combustion by C-4 plastique
12. Deadmeal
13. Chunk blower
Length: 35:01
Official Cattle Decapitation Homepage
Metal Blade Records
