cattle decapitation - terrasite

another cattle decap album, another masterpiece. their consistency in quality is impressive. live they are a blast, too. 300 copies pressed of this variant. metal blade. 2023.

cattle decapitation - death atlas

cattle decapitation always had their own style and with every new record they added more variety. "death atlas" is the current peak of that evolution. everything sounds so rich in ideas, creativity and dynamic - a plain masterpiece it is. the artwork is brilliant as well.

the colour-way i snagged doesn't even look good from an aesthetic point of view but is a nice little novelty. black and yellow vinyl colour and #09 must have been destiny, as i am a fan of german football club bvb 09. heja bvb! metal blade records. 2019.

cattle decapitation - the anthropocene extinction

cattle decapitation is exceptional in today's extreme metal scene. they play their very own mix of technical death metal, chaotic interludes and melancholic melodies accompanied by most extreme vocals. even though i liked them for quite some time my vinyl shelf was lacking any cattle records until metal blade came to my rescue. except of the first record of cattle decap, which is quite shite in my eyes, all their albums had been released on metal blade but only some on vinyl and a shitty picture disc among them.

in celebration of ten years of collaboration, the label re-issued their whole cattle decap back catalogue on vinyl in the course of the last year. it was real fun to get my hands on all those records and be able to recap the development of the cattle throughout their releases. so when metal blade announced the new cattle decapitation record called 'the anthropocene extinction', it was a no brainer to me to jump at the pre-order.

like all metal blade orders here in europe, the pre-order was handled by emp mailorder. they had a azure/black marble version limited to 300 copies and a clear sparkle version limited to 200 on offer. i was a little split because i think the azure/black marble one looks superior to the clear sparkle, but just like with the latest between the buried and me record the collector in me won over.

the musical content is again outstanding. if you liked 'monolith of inhumanity' already, you can snag a copy without worries. the cattle directly picked up where they left off on their last album from 2012. it's everything you want from these californian vegan deathers, brutal yet sophisticated. as the title indicates (anthropocene is the time span in which man became the greatest factor of influence on earth) the lyrics deal with the man made destruction of his very own habitat, and therefore the destruction of his very self.

the presentation is pretty good too. gatefold sleeve with awesome artwork. i love how the band always includes themselves into the art, as seen on the inner gatefold. if you look closely you can see the monolith of inhumanity included on the back of the sleeve. nice touch! for the first time metal blade came around with a custom dust sleeve with the label's logo all over it. in the end the clear sparkle vinyl looks cooler than i thought. lovely all together! metal blade. 2015.

cattle decapitation - monolith of inhumanity

the last piece of the puzzle. i really was in pleasant anticipation of the release of the last full length record of metal blade's 'decade of decapitation' re-issue series. actually i wanted to order at nuclear blast. as usual with the exception of 'the harvest floor'. i ordered that one from mb's german ebay store because of the collector's box. so after i was back from london i checked nuclear blast's new vinyl section. a copy of 'monolith' was there, only for a quite high price considering the price tags for 'humanure' and 'karma.bloody.karma'.

furthermore one was not able to choose between the two usual colour options for the european re-presses. weird. so i headed again over to the metal blade ebay store. no problem with finding the desired item. now one last conflict appeared. metal blade always pressed a splatter vinyl version limited to 200 copies and a colour in colour 'merge' vinyl version limited to 300 copies for the european pressing. usually i opted for the less limited colour for personal preferences. this time both colour options were splatter vinyls. so i thought back and forth what to take. i could choose between 'golden landfill' and 'world landfill'. the choice was an easy one after all, as i read that the 'world landfill' colour was a split coloured pattern with splatter.

i didn't care that the 'golden landfill' version was more limited as the look of this colour way is way better. especially after i saw some pics of the golden splatter on the net. musically they took all the exellent ingredients, they already worked with on 'harvest floor' and took them to next level. the drum sound and the drumming itself are an aural pleasure to say the least. the songs are played crisp and tight with the right dosage of melody in their mix of extreme music. 'monolith of inhumanity' is their masterpiece and i'm really excited if they are able to reproduce such a great work with future exploits.

on a funny side note, metal blade's first pressing of 'monolith' came on a colour pattern called 'world landfill' too. only they changed the split colours vice versa. the first pressing came with opaque green and clear blue and the re-issue comes in opaque blue and clear green. i stumbled upon this re-reading lenny's post about the first pressing from 2012. the gatefold cover seems to be quite the same though. 300 copies made. metal blade. 2012/2014.

with this final record the box set is complete. here is a pic of the whole set.

excellent job, metal blade!

cattle decapitation - to serve man

ah man, i did it. i bought a record i don't wanted. and i don't mean an 'i don't really needed it at that point but it was cheap' case, i mean a straight 'i don't want that record' case. i always thought it was unnecessary to buy a certain record for reasons like collecting label releases, getting all colour-ways of one single album or simply for being a fan of a band and even buying the records that were shit. now i can relate.

when i started buying the cattle decapitation re-issues metal blade was cranking out this year, i downloaded all the albums that were due to be repressed just to re-visit them. 'to serve man' was first in line. it was all new to me and after the first listen i was heavily underwhelmed. it sounded irrelevant, insignificant... plain boring. i put it off and bought 'humanure' instead.

after i got 'karma.bloody.karma', time had come for 'the harvest floor'. and with the purchase of this album a certain item came along, that changed it all. the ominous collector's box. it had all the albums of the 'decade of decapitaion' series written on the back. suddenly, without having 'to serve man' in my collection meant the box wouldn't be complete. without having all five records meant the box would be useless. damn it, i couldn't lie to myself anymore. the task was perfectly clear.

i was about to order it from nuclear blast but as i was in hamburg, i took the chance to buy it in a physical store. saturn's metal vinyl section came to my rescue. i saw pictures of the two colour-ways on the net and again i was out for the less limited variant. that colour in colour pattern is more subtle than usual for this pattern, but it still looks better than the splatter version. thankfully saturn had my desired copy in stock.

after listening to it again, it isn't that bad. some good parts can be found here, but if you ask me, this is really for the die-hard-fans. i don't think i'll give it much spins. to me it all sounds way too unformed and uninspired. nevertheless the set will be complete and i can come to peace with it. 300 copies made. metal blade. 2002/2014.

four down, one to go...  

cattle decapitation - the harvest floor

the next re-issue in the 'a decade of decapitation' series. this time around 'the harvest floor', number four for metal blade records. it's exciting to me to listen to the development of this death metal band. with this record they found their very own sound, it seems. 'to serve man' and 'humanure' were just preperation (while i don't count 'human jerky', but simply because i don't know it), 'karma.bloody.karma' set the tone and 'the harvest floor' took it further.

cattle decap worked out their noisy and melodic elements a bit more in comparison to 'karma'. it is definitely no easy listening but i like it that way. one needs a couple of listens to comprehend it in its full diversity. music like this pays off in the end and won't get boring after a few days. the sound is great too. very clear and crisp. i especially like the drum sound. very forceful but not too much in focus.

i like the artwork and how cattle decapitation plays with the thought of exposing people to the same horrors that animals have to endure on a daily basis. the information of the release date came to me through nuclear blast, but for this record i payed metal blade germany's ebay store a visit. i will tell you why later on. after a smooth transaction, the record arrived well packed at my door.

it was a nice touch of metal blade to include some gimmicks. i got a bunch of stickers, posters, a metal hammer and a fuze magazine and a patch. not all of it is useful but nevertheless, a very nice touch! the record itself comes with the obligatory poster and this time i snagged a splatter copy, #93/200. 'pollution harvest' colour, aka grey w/ black and blue splatter. metal blade. 2009/2014.

above you can see the reason why i ordered with metal blade, even though the records are a bit more expensive as they are with nuclear blast. every customer who buys a cattle decapitation record, gets a collector's box for free. as long as they last. and i got one and am very happy about it, because i love boxsets! it's my first lp box but i got several on cd. yeah, i know, like they would count. written on the back of the box are all the records included in the set. that means now i'll have to get a copy of 'to serve man' too. goddamnit, but i can't leave it uncompleted. i'll give you more pictures when everything is in place. bleibt sauber!

cattle decapitation - karma.bloody.karma

as i mentioned in my last cattle decapitation post featuring their second metal blade output 'humanure', i would return confidently with number three for metal blade. so here we are. karma.bloody.karma. what a name for a record! i'm surprised that no new band has chosen to adopt this name. anyway, as soon as 'humanure' was up on the nuclear blast web shop, 'karma' was also there. two versions but with no further explanations. what colour and numbers and so forth.

when 'humanure' dropped, nuclear got more specific. now all the information i needed was there. a splatter version limited to 200 copies and a colour in colour version limited to 300 copies. again i thought the colour merge version would be more attractive visually but this time the collector's heart was pumping stronger. i went for the red/orange splatter. as you can see, something went wrong. at first i was pissed. man, that sucks. holding the record in hands you waited a long pre-order process to arrive and then it's the wrong bloody version. 

now i would have to send it back, probably pay extra bucks for shipping and wait another week or two or so for the right thing. plus i was really eager to listen to it. i avoided to listen to the download in whole because i wanted to drop the needle on it like a new release. when the first grudge was swallowed i thought, fuck it! i keep it. so i removed the shrink wrap and for the first time took a look at the vinyl colour. wait a second, that ain't bad. in fact, it's really good. the a-side looks pretty much like blood running down the drain. fantastic! satisfaction at last.

musically this is their best material to that point. way better than the horrible 'to serve man' and a real step forward to the good 'humanure'. they got a little bit more complex and even a bit noisy, but everything in the right dosage. they also included some grim melodies and the sound is for the first time really good, comes with a handy portion of pressure. the artwork is just classy. the indian goddess of death and destruction, kali, with a cattle head. so, very very good record all around. metal blade records. 2006/2014.

cattle decapitation - humanure

i probably said that before but again, i am a fan of vinyl re-issues. for several reasons. there is the easy accessibility of long sold out records, improved packaging or finally coloured vinyl. and sometimes there is another facet. as i saw the metal blade announcement for the upcoming re-issues of the complete cattle decapitation discography for the label, my curiosity was aroused. i knew them only by the name and had the vague idea that they were an all vegetarian/vegan band. and yeah, that they'd play some serious death metal.

so i started to do some research. first thing i did was re-visiting lenny's blog because i knew in the back of my mind him writing about their latest album "monolith of inhumanity" from 2012. his opinion was all positive. so i went over to the tube to listen to some stuff. at the time their first metal blade record "to serve man" was already available. i only found one song to that album and didn't like it. so i downloaded the whole thing and after one listen i thought, man, what a shite record. that thing is unlistenable to me. i put the idea aside.

but sometimes such ideas are persistent. the records are released monthly and next up was "humanure". i thought i should give it a try. i downloaded the album too and man, that is a real progression compared to "to serve man". so i ordered the record from nuclear blast. by the time i did, there had been no pictures of the vinyl and just the description the label gave. i took the one i liked more. "exploded polyp".

the mix between blood red and brown seems apropriate thinking of an exploded rectal polyp. i really like this merge, or haze, or colour in colour pattern. nice. metal blade presses splatter colours for the u.s. pressing and 200 splatter and 300 colour in colour copies for the euro pressing of all records. "humanure" comes in a nice gatefold sleeve with printed dust sleeve and a poster. i already have the follow-up "karma.bloody.karma" but haven't found the time to listen to it. but it'll soon appear here. metal blade. 2004/2014.