Cattle Decapitation's new album 'Terrasite' will be released May 12th 2023 via Metal Blade Records.
Techgrind juggernauts Cattle Decapitation return with their new album Terrasite, their first new album in four years on Metal Blade Records. With the follow up to 2019’s Death Atlas, the band has stepped up their game even more from Death Atlas. Pushing the limits of the bands fusion of technical death metal, grindcore, deathcore and even elements of progressive metal on this insanely complex record.
The album’s opener “Terrasitic Adaptation” is a strong opening for the album. The drumming of Dave McGraw is the standout of this record. His intricate drumming and fills, ridiculous double bass speed and solos are the showcase of this record. With blast beats right off the bat, giving off a blackened death metal/grindcore sound, the song kicks into the vocals with Travis Ryan’s trademark harsh harmonies. His mixture of goblin shrieking and phlegm-inducing gutturals are so good on this track that matches McGraw’s intensity on drums and this album just keeps pummeling you over and over throughout the entire record with the ferocity the band brings.
The lead single, “We Eat Our Young”, was the right choice to give the fans a taste of how this record was going to sound. McGraw’sblasts and double kicks start the track off again with amazing guitar riffs throughout the track from Josh Elmore and Belisario Dimuzio. The palm-muted riff halfway through gives a little break from the chaos segueing into Ryan and his guttural and shrieking the song’s title, which I can picture this being a new live staple with the crowd chanting along to it.
Second single “Scourge of The Offspring” gets carried by a thrashy/technical riff throughout the whole song and vocals with so many layers, creating Ryan’s harsh harmonies from a demonic place that blends well with the drumming, adding more punch to the vocal delivery and cadence. The stand out track for me “The Insignificants” has another relentless opening with tremolo guitars and chaotic drumming bombarding the listener in so many directions. Vocals attack and pummel the listener hard, along with driving double bass that is relentless and devastating with each song. Ryan’s goblin sounding vocals get showcased in the pre-chorus. Then deep gutturals, mixed with a chuggy riff, work so well as the vocals get more evil and other-worldly as the layers pile on. The addition of a choir vocal section add to the fullness of the production and include a spoken word part that merges with the breakdown as it then bleeds back into the gutturals and shrieks.
Slower build “The Storm Upstairs” gives a slowed down build with an intricate death metal riff with drum’s pounding over it before being driven back down to the earth with furious double bass as well as a chuggy riff that becomes a slow head-banger. Cattle Decapitation knows how to write a riff and build on it with drums, and this album is another example of how they have perfected it on this record. “A Photic Doom” and “Dead End Residents” hit you hard as hell throughout the whole track and just make you want to bang your head harder and harder with every second of blasts, gutturals and shredding.
The album’s closer “Just Another Body” is an over ten-minute stunning achievement that showcases the bands unique musicianship, dabbling with different elements the band doesn’t usually do until more recent records. With an opening piano piece, blending into a short string arrangement adding to the emotion of the piano. From there, the band mixes everything from blast beats to death metal riffage, to even a clean vocal section which works for the piece. Fusing back into the harsh vocal layering and just is an epic journey that closes one of the most standout and quite possibly, an album of the year release.
This record is a defining record for the band. I have been a fan of Cattle Decapitation since the beginning of the band, and with every record, this band has just gotten better and better. Pushing themselves musically and challenging genre norms, making them one of the defining bands in the technical death metal, prog death, deathgrind or whatever genre they want to be put it. If this is the soundtrack to the world being devoured by the giant on the cover, then turn it up to eleven and open your arms and let the destruction reign down on you.
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