Review
Cattle Decapitation
Monolith Of Inhumanity

For the sake of this review i will make wild and sweeping generalizations regarding the death metal genre so be warned.

There seem to be 2 pervasive schools of thought in modern metal. The first rides the coattails of the old school Death Metal genre. clutching onto the first 3 Entombed LPs and early Morbid Angel records. The other is deftly or rather daftly, depending on your personal opinion, are trying to out tech each other. So these bands are desperately trying to outplay Cynic and Obscura (which may be nigh impossible anyway). On the outer fringes would be the slam genre and bands like Cattle Decapitation who seem to follow their own road.

Over the course of their last three records (including this one) Cattle Decap has refined their style to not only be more brutal but more than that be more their own. The band play it brutal throughout this record with little thought on making the songs mainstream ready, rather they tend to add slight bits of instrument mastery and vocal wizardry to stand apart from their supposed peers. The most noticeable change is Travis Ryan's vocals. He has managed to create a completely otherworldly version of melodic choruses. While that may scare a few diehards that are suddenly thinking they added sing song radio ready bits nothing could be further from reality. Instead this technique lies somewhere between singing and dying calf. A high pitched wail of a scream that is at first off putting but feels right at home in the context of each song. This technique adds an extra bit of melodic heft to the songs.

The songs are played with a strong sense of where the song is going to go in the end. Meaning that each piece plays a role in the overall structure of the song. This allows for each song to not only stand on its own but also tie quite well into the overall album. Each instrument is played deftly with the overall goal in mind and mixed with an ear for what needs to be heard at what time. This makes for a strong record that demands attention and respect without depending on overly technical parts.

Once again Cattle Decap have played their cards right and made a set of songs that speak both to their message and their abilities. For every bit of misguided publicity they received for their videos (look up the video for "Forced Gender Reassignment") the songs manage to speak much louder. For any fan of Death Metal that is somehow still missing this record regard it as a necessary purchase.