Cattle Decapitation is hands down one of the most brutal acts ever to come out of Southern California. Mixing the speed and brutality of grindcore, the chunky riffage of the old and new school of death metal, and some of the most disturbing vegetarian-gore-oriented lyrics and vocals ever heard, Cattle Decapitation are taking the world of extreme music into a death roll into the underground.
Formed in 1996 by David Astor and Gabe Serbian, also members of the popular sci-fi horror core group The Locust, the band has gone through some interesting changes. After their first 7" vinyl release "10 Torments of the Damned" had sold a few thousand copies, and numerous local shows completed, the then guitarist/vocalist disappeared without a trace. Serbian then asked Travis Ryan, ex-drummer for S.D. death metal band Strangulation (now reformed as Disgorge) to come do vocals and guitar after hearing Ryan's Vocals on old school Carcass-clone band Anal Flatulence. Ryan was more than enthusiastic to try out upon hearing their recently released 7", realizing that it was a promising move as well as sharing a love for gore-oriented metal.
The sound of the band changed drastically from the 7" and has held the same level of brutality ever since, but not until another change was made. Astor, then bassist for the band, decided to switch spots with Serbian as Serbian decided to play guitar. They then started out, rather experimentally as a three-piece consisting of only guitar, drums and vocals writing vigorously and recorded and released 2 different albums within a year.
The first album "Human Jerky" was released by Reno, Nevada's, Satan's Pimp Records. Released on LP format only, the album sold out it's entire first pressing of 1,000 copies within a week. This success was due largely to the fact that the band consisted of members of The Locust. Soon Cattle Decapitation had accrued their own huge following in the grindcore/hardcore circuit. Having never toured the US and only a few shows outside their native San Diego habitat, the band still continued to sell records and managed to get together a slew of songs in the same year for their second album release, "Homovore". The album came out within 9 months of "Human Jerky" and was released as a beautifully disturbing gatefold-cow-colored vinyl as well as CD. This album really helped anchor the band, deleting rumors that they had been a one-off band, since The Locust was so successful, it's hard to imagine that these guys could be for real.
The reality is: Cattle Decapitation are here to break the mold of the everyday hum-drum death metal persona. With cutting edge lyrics and an uncompromising musical style, the band is ready to take the globe by storm. The death metal community is fairly new to the band since they've mainly been releasing the lions of musical carnage into the grindcore arena for some time now and there's lambs left for the slaughter. Now the death metal community shall feel the wrath of this disturbing 4-piece. Now with the addition of a bassist, the pummeling Troy Oftedal, the band has fine-tuned it's sound into a blistering cavalcade of gore nothing short of total onslaught. They have created the mp3 site, www.mp3.com/cattledecapitation to shop their brand of gore-grind to labels and to use as an example of their new material to those with baited breath awaiting the arrival of their next album, appropriately titled "To Serve Man".
The band will also be featured on the upcoming Necropolis Records' "Requiems of Revulsion: A Tribute To Carcass" covering the classic, "Burnt To A Crisp".
