Can humanity be reborn from its own extinction in a fully mutated form? Is it even desirable? Cattle Decapitation’s new opus tackles these questions with machine-gun drums and obnoxious ranting.
It’s impossible to move in the extreme metal scene without being aware of a Cattle Decapitation release. The band only skyrocketed following the release of Monolith of Inhumanity in 2012. This album represented something of a standardization of the wilder ideas explored on The Harvest Floor (2009). The most notable element was the inclusion of high-pitched vocals that were at once husky yet highly melodic. From 2012 onwards, vocalist Travis Ryan began to incorporate this new trademark profusely, even giving way to proper choruses.
Terrasite continues to perfect the formula that has developed over the last four albums. An all-out assault by drummer David McGraw spices up guitarist Josh Elmore’s angular playing. A growing incorporation of tremolo passages reminiscent of black metal also contrasts with the heavier sections, delightfully sprinkled with monstrous guttural vocals. If this controlled chaos is executed to perfection and carefully lives up to expectations, we may lament the almost total absence of unpredictability. Cattle Decapitation used to surprise at every turn with its diverse experimentation.
Now, it’s easy to anticipate the arrival of a melodic vocal passage: they systematically occur after the interruption of a faster, faster moment. A catchy chorus then begins, or else a breakdown that could have been interchanged with something else. This is a good example of the band’s almost automatic overkill of good ideas. As a result, Cattle Decapitation offers a powerful and extreme album, but its madness is limited by a very compartmentalized and unsurprising composition.
