Cattle Decapitation
October 10, 2017
The Regent – Los Angeles, CA
Cattle Decapitation is a death/extreme metal band from San Diego, California. In 2015, they released their seventh studio album, The Anthropocene Extinction. Despite the band’s rather disturbing name, the band’s lyrics primarily deal with the mistreatment and consumption of animals, the abuse of the environment and touch subjects such as misanthropy and genocide of the human race. Many of the band’s album covers depict humans being put in situations that animals are subjected to, such as animals testing, slaughter, and even a cow defecating human remains. The band was originally an all vegetarian lineup, but now only vocalist Travis Ryan and guitarist Josh Elmore remain. Even on a Tuesday night, dedicated metal showed up to support one of death metal’s elite bands.
The lights came down and Cattle Decapitation started the show with The Carbon Stampede from their best album, Monolith of Inhumanity. Right away, you could feel the brutality and speed of their music as every song hits you with force that immediately makes you wanna headbang and raise your horns in the air. Naturally, a mosh pit on the floor started to give the band a proper welcome. The second song played was the follow up song to the opening track, Dead Set on Suicide. Cattle Decapitation made note to fans about their newest album and gave them a taste of it as they played The Prophets of Loss. Watching the band members play the music itself is mesmerizing. The instruments are played so fast, that the band members almost seem inhuman. Guitarist Josh Elmore moves his hand up and down the guitar’s neck with such speed that you see nothing but a blur and seems to almost teleport. Drummer Dave McGraw drums with such speed that his very drumsticks also appear as a blur and swiftly uses his full drum kit.
Ryan himself would belt out deep-guttural growls that were almost impossible to understand in true metal fashion as well as using ear-piercing shrieks for some songs. Cattle Decapitation was at full speed for the whole performance as they played brutal tracks such as We Are Horrible People, Clandestine Ways (Krokodil Rot), A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat, and Not Suitable For Life. Ryan has in interesting way of keeping his stage presence interesting. Throughout the show, he’d spit up into the air and attempt to catch his loogie. If he was successful, he smeared it on himself. He let the fans know that he liked the moshing going on and dedicated the next song to those in the pit and if he didn’t see any action, he would be forced to meet fans in the back for a little…Forced Gender Reassignment. With that, the band played their most famous track, which itself is infamously known for it’s music video that has been heavily censored/banned by many websites due its contents of violence, rape, and sexual assault. Only one website so far has been brave enough to show the full uncensored version. That website is Bloody Disgusting and you can watch the clip here. Cattle Decapitation announced the end of the show and played Pacific Grim, the final track from the newest album then left the stage. Many fans made their way out of the venue, while many also stayed behind hoping for more music. After a little while, the band members came back and Ryan thanked the audience for coming out for the first stop of the tour. For the final song of the night, Cattle Decapitation played one of their popular songs, Your Disposal. The song ended and the band thanked the audience again for coming out. If you like your metal fast and brutal, Cattle Decapitation is the way to go. The tour just started so check them out if they come to your area!
Review by: Misael Ruiz
