UMUR "Cattle Decapitation / Caninus" is a split release by US, California based deathgrind/death metal act Cattle Decapitation and US, New York based grindcore act Caninus. The split was released through War Torn Records in October 2005. Cattle Decapitation are known to most fans of extreme metal but Caninus are a bit more obscure...and rightly so, as their two lead singers are two pitbulls called Basil and Budgie (yes...their vocalists are two dogs...).

Cattle Decapitation takes us through six short and violent deathgrind tracks, which are pretty much in character with their other contemporary releases. So this is before they added more death metal elements to their music, the odd gnarly clean vocals, and became slighly more accessible. It´s good quality deathgrind, but that´s about it.

The Caninus tracks are downright bizarre. The instrumental part of the tracks are pretty standard grindcore, but it´s impossible not to crack a smile when the two dogs growl, snarl, and bark their way through the ten Caninus tracks featured on the split (they even perform a cover of Agnostic Front). A novelty act they may be, but this is damn funny and a crazy idea...I´m entertained.

This kind of split is a bit hard to rate as on one side you have some pretty standard quality material from Cattle Decapitation, and then you have this complete craziness from Caninus. I´ll go with a 3 star (60%) rating because of the entertainment level.

UMUR "Terrasite" is the ninth full-length studio album by US, San Diego, California based death metal/deathgrind act Cattle Decapitation. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in May 2023. It´s the successor to "Death Atlas" from November 2019 and the quintet lineup who recorded the predecessor is still intact. "Terrasite" is dedicated to former Cattle Decapiation drummer Gabriel Serbian (also of The Locust among other acts) who died from a fentanyl overdose in April 2022.

Stylistically the material on "Terrasite" is a continuation of the technical death metal/deathgrind of the previous couple of releases. Cattle Decapitation have added some black metal elements to their sound (some of the tremolo riffs and blasting parts), but other than that, they sound unmistakably like they´ve done since "Monolith Of Inhumanity" (2012) or at the very least since "The Anthropocene Extinction" (2015). So this is still frenetic, energetic, brutal, and sharp sounding deathgrind featuring loads of tempo changes, riff and rhythm styles, experimental songwriting ideas, and of course the versatile voice and varied vocal delivery of Travis Ryan in front. He screams, snarls, growls, and performs his gnarly clean vocals when that is called for (this time around he even sings "real" clean vocals on the closing track "Just Another Body"), and nothing sounds like it doesn´t fit or as if it has been forced to fit a song. No clean vocal parts are for example added for mainstream appeal. They are there because they fit the song, and only if they fit the song. Something a lot of more formulaic contemporary artists could learn from.

The lyrical themes are still all sunshine and flowers, describing end of the world scenarios (particularly the end of human life), extreme misanthropy (the lyric line: "There's so many of us that need to die, Like a swarm of flies, there's too many of us" from "Scourge of the Offspring", describes it pretty well), and the need for environmental change. Cattle Decapitation were always a politically charged act and Ryan successfully treads the line between giving up/delivering black hole despair and fiercely fighting for the changes he thinks are necessary for both human and animal life to survive and exist in harmony.

As every Cattle Decapitation album before it, "Terrasite" is not an easy listening experience. Although the sound production values are clear, powerful, and detailed, and you can easily hear every instrument and vocal part in the mix, the tracks are generally pretty complex and requires some spins to sink in. When they do it´s incredible how many details and interesting songwriting ideas Cattle Decapitation are able to cram into their songs, and as a result there is a longivity to their music, which extents beyond just listening to the album a few times. As far as development of their sound I hear several new elements, but most prominently on the 10:15 minutes long album closer "Just Another Body", which is partially a pretty slow and almost doomy track, featuring dominant use of keyboards, which provide the track with an occasional symphonic edge. The clean vocal part on the track is also something new for Cattle Decapitation and shows that Ryan is not done surprising the fans. Thankfully he is still able to keep things authentic and he doesn´t deliver anything too anthemic and mainstream oriented... so fear not clean vocal haters, this is still very extreme metal.

Upon conclusion "Terrasite" is another triumphant death metal/deathgrind release by Cattle Decapitation, which stays true to the style of music they introduced on "Monolith Of Inhumanity" (2012), but follows the natural development of said style from "The Anthropocene Extinction" (2015) to "Death Atlas" (2019) to now this more diverse and varied take on that style. These guys are at the forefront of the contemporary extreme metal music scene and they deserve every bit of hype and recognition they´ve received over the years. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.

Kev Rowland I must admit, it has been a few years since I last came across an album by Cattle Decapitation, and to say I was surprised when I played this is something of an understatement. This is their eighth studio album, their second with the five-piece line-up of Travis Ryan (vocals), Josh Elmore (guitar), Dave McGraw (drums), Belisario Dimuzio (guitar) and Olivier Pinard (bass), and is way more polished than anything I ever expected from them. They may have started in the grindcore movement, but they are now much more in progressive death, never satisfied and always moving. Ryan has been there pretty much since the beginning and has long had a reputation as one of the more varied singers in the scene, but here he seems to reach into deeper lows, truly guttural, while also providing solid black metal stylings while also able to move into the melodic. At the back is McGraw, long regarded as one of the finest blast beat drummers in the business and here he demonstrates he is far more than just vicious speed, providing a real groove and switching styles and tempos to provide an ever-moving platform for those in front of him.

May people view ‘Death Atlas’, their 2019 album, as the pinnacle of their career to date, right up to the release of this one as the consensus is they have pushed ahead and created something that is just more, in every way. Certainly, there is a power and drama within this which is visceral and will appear to those who want their music to be brutal and uncompromising but there is far more going on than just heads down and meet you at the end as there is a huge amount of complexity within this, with styles changing and complicated arrangements which demonstrate there is far more to this band than just playing riffs quickly. The use of space and different tempos means that when they decide to hit hard there really is an impact as it is not being lost among all the noise but instead there is plenty of contrast to give the dramatic effect it deserves. If you ever felt that Cattle Decapitation were somewhat one-dimensional then this album proves otherwise.

UMUR "Death Atlas" is the 8th full-length studio album by US, San Diego, California based death metal/deathgrind act Cattle Decapitation. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in November 2019. It´s the successor to "The Anthropocene Extinction" from 2015 and features two lineup changes since the predecessor as bassist Derek Engemann has been replaced by Olivier Pinard and Belisario Dimuzio has been added to the lineup as a second guitarist, effectively making Cattle Decapitation a quintet on "Death Atlas".

Stylistically Cattle Decapitation continue the technical death metal/deathgrind style of "The Anthropocene Extinction (2015)", but this time with even more clean vocal parts and more focus on melody and atmosphere. Maybe it´s wrong to call Travis Ryan´s vocals clean singing as it has very little in common with what most people will probably think of when the word clean is used to describe vocals, but when he doesn´t growl, snarl, or use some other extreme vocal style to express himself, he sings some pretty intense and raw melodic vocal parts, and for a lack of a better description, I´ll call them clean vocals. Ryan already started experimenting with this vocal style a couple of albums back, but on "The Anthropocene Extinction (2015)" they were more fully integrated in the music. Ryan expands even further on his clean vocal journey on "Death Atlas" and while some of the most conservative deathgrind heads may disagree, I think he succeeds in making the clean vocals an even more integrated part of Cattle Decapitation´s sound, without sacrificing too much death metal brutality and authenticity. This is still a pretty extreme album.

Cattle Decapitation are known for their pro-animal rights/anti-human lyrics, but on "Death Atlas" they focus more on the global warming situation/the pending apocalypse as a result of human exploitation of the earth´s resources. "Death Atlas" is a bleak album and Ryan doesn´t exactly paint a picture of hope and salvation which song titles like "The Great Dying" and "One Day Closer to the End of the World" are also a testament to. These are highly politically charged lyrics urging the listener to consider if they are going to follow the Greta Thunbergs or the Donald Trumps of the world. It´s a highly ambitious and epic apocalyptic concept album.

Cattle Decapitation are as usual a very well performing unit and the musicianship is on a high level on all posts. They can play both slow, heavy- and mid paced, and fast- and blasting in a convincing manner and Ryan´s commanding vocal performance is also passionate and rather unique. Add to that a powerful, raw, and detailed sound production, and "Death Atlas" is through and through a high quality release. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Monolith Of Inhumanity" is the 6th full-length studio album by US, California based deathgrind/death metal act Cattle Decapitation. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in May 2012. It´s the successor to "The Harvest Floor" from 2009 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as bassist Troy Oftedal has been replaced by Derek Engemann.

"Monolith Of Inhumanity" is the album where Cattle Decapitation moved on to something new and produced a more mature version of their sound. It´s still furiously fast-paced, aggressive, and brutal technical deathgrind, but the memorability of the material and the level of songwriting sophistication are on a higher level here than before. Lead vocalist Travis Ryan delivers all sorts of extreme vocal styles, from deep growling, unintelligible effect laden growling, high pitched aggressive screaming, and his raw semi-melodic vocals. The latter vocal style has now become a fully integrated part of the band´s music, and when they appear, those parts often work like semi-melodic breathers amidst the otherwise chaotic soundscape. A good example is the slower middle part of "Lifestalker", where the "clean" vocal part provides that section with an almost epic quality. The clean vocals are also quite effective on "Dead Set on Suicide", where they appear over a fast-paced chaotic sounding part.

"Monolith Of Inhumanity" is generally a very busy and technically challenging release, and it´s definitely not an easily accessible album. There´s a progressive/avant garde edge to Cattle Decapitation´s sound which sometimes takes the listener off guard. It for example took me many listens to fully grasp album opener "The Carbon Stampede". The chaotic and almost avant garde nature of that track was a real challenge, but after some spins it clicked with me, and I understood the brilliance of the composition. So for some listeners (myself included) work is needed to learn to appreciate an album like "Monolith Of Inhumanity".

"Monolith Of Inhumanity" features a sharp, detailed, and powerful sounding production, which suits the material perfectly. I´ve always had at least some minor issues with the band´s previous sound productions, but Cattle Decapitation have finally managed to produce a near perfect sound for their music. Upon conclusion "Monolith Of Inhumanity" is a high quality release by Cattle Decapitation. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.