Picking up where the previous record Death Atlas left off, Terrasite (Metal Blade), the tenth album from deathgrind legends Cattle Decapitation finds new life evolving from the charred and blackened carcass of the Earth. Emerging from its human cocoon, the titular beastie – much like the band itself – awakens to continue on its path towards total planetary devastation.
No strangers to evolution themselves, it’s difficult to believe there isn’t a single original member of Cattle Decapitation left from when the San Diegans began as a purely vegan grindcore/goregrind act back in 1996. Although technically not the band’s original vocalist, Travis Ryan has been viewed as the band’s definitive frontman for decades now, having joined the year after 1996 demo The Torture of the Damned but present on every subsequent studio release since then.
And it’s Ryan’s vocals which stand out the most on Terrasite. Yes, the formidable axe partnership between long-standing lead guitarist Josh Elmore and Belisario Dimuzio sounds pulverizingly magnificent, and the rhythm section of drummer David McGraw and Canadian bassist Olivier Pinard is often no less than utterly jaw-dropping. Still, it’s Ryan’s distorted, nasal, melodic tones that will again undoubtedly draw the most attention. Switching from deep, resonating gutturals to pig squeals and robot Gollum in the blink of an eye, the increasingly versatile vocalist continues to deliver with ferocious conviction, absolute dominance, and surprisingly clear diction.
After a suitably menacing build-up, this latest bombardment on the senses begins with ‘Terrastic Adaptation’, a barrage of drums, slashing riffs, and a variety of vocal styles setting the tone before unleashing the cataclysmically brutal ‘We Eat Our Young’. The immense carnage of ‘Scourge of the Offspring’ possesses one of the finest choruses the band have ever produced while ‘The Insignificants’ not only delivers melodic menace amid a wall of almost impenetrable noise but allows Ryan the opportunity to sing with deep, barely distorted tones.
‘The Storm Upstairs’ piles on the technicality, mood shifts, and off-kilter time changes, ‘…And the World Will Go On Without You’ ebbs, surges, retreats, and explodes while ‘A Photic Doom’ and ‘Dead End Residents’ continue the carnage, the former boasting a wonderful melodic guitar solo, the latter balancing melody against brutality, exploding into a torrent of nihilistic rage while Ryan sounds like he’s practically tearing his vocal cords out of his neck.
The melodic juggernaut of ‘Solastalgia’ sees itself out with one of the most memorable choruses on the album before the album climaxes with ‘Just Another Body’, an absolute colossus that if such a thing existed, would possibly fall into the category of progressive technical deathgrind power ballad. Or something. Not only does this ten-minute behemoth feature delicate atmospherics alongside bludgeoning riffs and punishing double-kicks and blast beats but it also includes haunting keys and a lengthy section featuring actual clean vocals.
Displaying a clear desire to progress and conquer new territories, Terrasite seethes with unbridled fury and abject hostility. If you like your deathgrind/goregrind/grindcore to be one-dimensional, atonal noise where pigs die squealing in their caves for no longer than a minute at a time then you’re in the wrong place. However, if you want growth, exploration and mutation then look no further. Terrasite is a fucking monster.
Buy the album here:
https://www.metalblade.com/cattledecapitation/
9 / 10
GARY ALCOCK