Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene Extinction (2015, Metal
Blade)
With their
seventh album, the vegan deathgrind act Cattle
Decapitation comes back after a much praised album that was Monolith of Inhumanity. Based in San
Diego, California, the obvious heirs of Cannibal
Corpse and Exhumed are pushing
the extreme level of the genre a bit more.
With The Anthropocene Extinction the band
explores more mid-tempos while keeping the speed at a full head-on, they manage
to make a more constant and well balance album of twelve outstanding sons. With
‘’Plagueborne’’ they even let themself vogue onto more melodic choruses and put
a certain depth into the extremity of their music.
This penchant
for exploration and maybe a fresher start for Cattle Decapitation was a way to
not tend into the repetition of a formula that made Monolith of Inhumanity such a praised album. Cattle Decapitation
simply is a band that doesn’t want to redo the same formulaic album over and over again.
One of the
surprises in The Anthropocene Extinction
is the ‘’Ave Exitium’’ interlude of Neurosis-like
scale. A slower more atmospheric song of clean vocals and somber effects. It
leads to ‘’Pacific Grim’’ that elevates brutality and old-school Death to a
level of epic grandeur that only live could rendered a song that great.
Taylor Ryan’s vocal performance is versatile and gives
the definition of Deathgrind vocalist a meaning; with his heavy growls and his
melodic high octaves. Behind the kit, David
McGraw gives a clinic to any drummer who wants to be fast and really tight.
He may not be as brutal as George
Kollias’ robot-like performances but I think that McGraw delivers as much
and he is probably the best death metal drummer right now.
A must for
2015 and I can’t believe it took me so long to get to this release but I think
it is probably one of the must of the year and was a huge blindspot.
8.3
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