Cattle Decapitation

Death Atlas

In 1996 David Astor, Gabe Serbian, Scott Miller, and Travis Ryan came together in San Diego, California to form an addictive Metalcore band called Cattle Decapitation (also known as Cattle Decap). Unfortunately the only original member still playing in the band is Travis Ryan. But the original dose of aggression prescribed to us by Cattle Decapitation has been increased but the medication has come with intense side effects of headbanging and lashing guitar riffs. We can say thank you to the newer members of Cattle Decap for not only preserving the original aggression but also giving us a higher quality and intense dose of adrenaline. The newest members include: Josh Elmore (2001-present), David Macgraw (2007-present), Belisario Dimuzio (2018-present), and Olivier Pinard (2018-present).

Meet the band:

Cattle Decaps’ 2019 release of the album Death Atlas is by far one of the best albums they have released and it has received higher ratings than some of their other albums on ratemymusic.com. This album deserves all the praise it gets because the riffs and drum solos alone deserve amazing rates, then you throw in the almost evil villain esk vocals and the lyrics and what do you have? You have a band who became immortal like the greek titan Atlas who holds up the sky. Atlus is depicted as a skeleton in space holding the world on the album cover. Below is a link to the full album on Youtube:

From the cover to the actual songs this album is 100% representative of a possible future of the world. Songs like “Bring Back the Plague” and “One day closer to the end of the world” provide a good mental image of possible futures of Earth. Kinda scary and definitely gets the message across to listeners. “Bring Back The Plague” is my personal favorite of the two. From the very beginning of the song to about 1:10 minutes in the guitar and drums are just sick to the max. However, the lyrics are what really set this song apart from “One Day Closer to the End of the World”. The lyrics of “Bring Back The Plague” begin with the worlds Yersinia Pestis, which is a Bacteria that is passed by rats and rodents. This Bacteria is the reason for the Black Plague, which is a pretty dark way to start off a song but it catches your attention. As the song develops you keep hearing these references and Ryan flat out saying the Black Plague. Thus further showing how serious these guys are about the possibility of another plague and how we as a society of Earth were affected by this catastrophe. Some specific lyrics that catch your ears are:

“The wrath of God bleeds from their eyes

And like the raven, this contagion keeps repeating, ever eating

Humanity to nevermore”

Musixmatch

The mere fact that Cattle Decap put that the wrath of God bleed from their eyes into a song is just gruesome and intense. I love it! These lyrics are awesome also because not only due they reference the famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe (The Raven) but it uses the famous words nevermore to really ring out and make your mind think. By far my favorite lyrics in the whole album. The song ends with the chorus and wow that is a way to end a song because Cattle Decap really made it clear what the message is of this song:

“The universe always finds a way to purge”

-Travis Ryan

A really good album overall and lots of good things but I do have a few suggestions for improvements. There is a song called the “The Great Dying, pt1” and it’s alright but I really didn’t feel like it needed a part two. Like just combine both “The Great Dying, pt1” and “The Great Dying, pt2” into one amazing song instead of making them into filler songs for the album. I hate filler songs on albums ams I feel like Cattle Decap could have done without having two songs and just combined it into one great piece.

Overall I love this album and I would highly recommend this album as more of an intro into the Cattle Decap fan farm and to show that person what this band is capable of. Death Atlas is about how the universe will continue with or without humanity and that we are such a small part of the universe. We can be here today and gone tomorrow, with this current outbreak of Covid-19 I have definitely listened to this album with a different mind set. That we are not immortal and that we won’t be here forever. In the words of Ryan, “I want people to be shocked into thinking more about their futures, their loved ones, the pain they’re potentially subjecting their future generations to. Everyone just seems to live in the now with no care for tomorrow and that’s incorrect thinking as far as today goes. Don’t make tomorrow a cancelled check.”

Here are some other albums by Cattle Decapitation: