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Cattle Decapitation

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This article is about the music group. For other uses, see Animal slaughter.
Cattle Decapitation
Cattle Decapitation performing at Inferno festival in Norway, 2016
Background information
Also known asCattle Decap
OriginSan Diego, California, U.S.
Genres
Years active1996 (1996)–present
Labels
Members
  • Travis Ryan
  • Josh Elmore
  • Dave McGraw
  • Belisario Dimuzio
  • Olivier Pinard
Past members
  • Scott Miller
  • Gabe Serbian
  • Dave Astor
  • Michael Laughlin
  • Troy Oftedal
  • Derek Engemann
Websitecattledecapitation.com

Cattle Decapitation is an American deathgrind band formed in San Diego, California, in 1996. The band's current lineup includes vocalist Travis Ryan, guitarists Josh Elmore and Belisario Dimuzio, bassist Olivier Pinard, and drummer David McGraw. Since 2001, none of the founding members remain with the band. Despite not being in the original lineup, Ryan and Elmore are the only constant members on all of Cattle Decapitation's eight studio albums.

History

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Cattle Decapitation was formed in 1996 by singer Scott Miller, guitarist Gabe Serbian, and drummer Dave Astor. [5] The band put out their first material in 1996 with a demo called Ten Torments of the Damned. Scott Miller left the band in circa 1997 and Travis Ryan joined the band. In 1999 their first EP Human Jerky was recorded and in 2000 their second EP Homovore was recorded. The two EPs were both recorded at Double Time Studios with recording engineer Jeff Forrest. Guitarist Gabe Serbian ended up leaving the band 2001 to focus on The Locust. Guitarist Josh Elmore and bassist Troy Oftedal joined the band right after.


Cattle Decapitation's first album To Serve Man came out in 2002 and saw controversy in Germany, where distribution company SPV refused to handle the album due to its graphic cover.[6] The cover of the 2004 album Humanure, featuring a cow excreting human remains, was reportedly censored without permission from the label in some outlets. Record store owners did not display the album, making it difficult for customers to find and buy it.[7]

Dave McGraw in 2018

In August 2009, Cattle Decapitation parted ways with long-time bassist Troy Oftedal because of "musical and personal differences".[8] Cattle Decapitation's album Monolith of Inhumanity was released in 2012. It received positive reviews upon release.[9][10]

Cattle Decapitation has toured with extreme metal acts including Suffocation, Cryptopsy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Deicide, Behemoth, Hate Eternal, Krisiun, Revocation, and Job for a Cowboy.[11] The band also participated in Metal Blade Records' Scion A/V Showcase in late 2012.[12]

Travis Ryan in 2018

The band spent the majority of 2014 writing The Anthropocene Extinction.[13] Alongside the announcement of the album title in May 2015, the band released the first song of the record, titled "Manufactured Extinct".[14] It was released through Metal Blade on August 7, 2015.[15]

On April 30, 2018, two Native American teens were pulled out of a Colorado State University tour by the police for being "too quiet" and wearing "dark clothing."[16] When the band found out that one of the brothers was wearing Cattle Decapitation T-shirts, they offered the brothers "free guest list spots for life."[17][18]

In August 2018, the band announced the addition of Cryptopsy bass player Olivier Pinard, as well as the promotion of touring rhythm guitarist Belisario Dimuzio to being a full time member,[19] thus making the group a five piece for the first time. The recording of the seventh studio album Death Atlas began in May 2019,[20] and was released on November 29, 2019.[21]

The band released their eighth album, Terrasite, on May 12, 2023, which currently stands as their most popular album.[22]

Lyrical themes

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Cattle Decapitation's songs protest the exploitation and consumption of animals, the abuse of the environment and subjects such as misanthropy and genocide of the human race. Much of the band's music is based on putting humans in the situations that animals are subjected to, for example animal testing, slaughter, etc. The band's lyrics are largely concerned with human impact on the environment, the ethics of eating meat and animal rights.

Ryan comments: "Josh and I are what you would call "vegetarian". We've tried and tried to be as up front about that as possible but the entire media world thinks we are hardline vegan, which in turn trickled down to fans and we're just not. I've been vegan at points but I try to be as correct as possible and point blank, there's times on tour where I just don't know if what I've been given to eat has eggs or dairy in it and the road is rather unfriendly to us. We aren't afforded the luxury of going to a Whole Foods at 3 am after a show. At that point it's fucking Taco Bell or something disgusting. You're driving down the road burning fossil fuels and your vehicle is covered in the carcasses of insects and sometimes birds and other animals. So how far does one take it? This is why I can't claim vegan. I live my life with as much compassion as I can for others, the environment and the animals though. At home it's much easier."[23]

Metal author and journalist Garry Sharpe-Young once acknowledged the band as "one of the few metal bands whose message hits as hard as their music".[6]

Members

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Timeline

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Discography

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Cattle Decapitation discography
Studio albums8
EPs4
Music videos8
Split albums1
Demos1

Studio albums

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List of studio albums, with selected chart positions
Year Album details Peak chart positions
US
Heat.
[24] 		US
Indie.
[25] 		US
Hard
Rock
[26] 		US
Billboard
200
[27] 		GER
[28]
2002 To Serve Man — — — — —
2004 Humanure
  • Released: July 13, 2004
  • Label: Metal Blade
 — — — — —
2006 Karma.Bloody.Karma
  • Released: July 11, 2006
  • Label: Metal Blade
 — — — — —
2009 The Harvest Floor
  • Released: January 20, 2009
  • Label: Metal Blade
 16 — — — —
2012 Monolith of Inhumanity
  • Released: May 8, 2012
  • Label: Metal Blade
 6 32 18 — —
2015 The Anthropocene Extinction
  • Released: August 7, 2015
  • Label: Metal Blade
 — 5 5 100 88
2019 Death Atlas
  • Released: November 29, 2019
  • Label: Metal Blade
 — — 3 116 56
2023 Terrasite
  • Released: May 12, 2023
  • Label: Metal Blade
 — — — — 34
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart.

Compilation albums

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  • Medium Rarities (2018)[29]

Box Sets

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Year Album details
2014 Decade of Decapitation[30]
  • Released: 2014
  • Label: Metal Blade
  • Contains: To Serve Man, Humanure, Karma.Bloody.Karma, The Harvest Floor, Monolith of Inhumanity

EPs

[edit]
Year Album details
1999 Human Jerky
  • Released: 1999
  • Label: Satans Pimp, Three One G (reissue), Accident Prone (reissue)
2000 Homovore
  • Released: May 2, 2000
  • Label: Three One G
2000 ¡Decapitacion!
  • Released: 2000
  • Label: Accident Prone

Split albums

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Year Album details
1999 The Science of Crisis (with Armatron and Tic War 1)
  • Released: 1999
  • Label: ToYo Records
2005 Cattle Decapitation / Caninus
  • Released: November 24, 2005
  • Label: War Torn Records

Demos

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Year Album details
1996 Ten Torments of the Damned
  • Released: 1996
  • Label: independent

Music videos

[edit]
List of music videos, showing year released and director
Year Title Album Director(s)
2002 "To Serve Man" To Serve Man Russ Herpich
2004 "Reduced to Paste" Humanure —
2009 "Regret and the Grave" The Harvest Floor Gary Smithson
"A Body Farm" —
2012 "Kingdom of Tyrants" Monolith of Inhumanity Mitch Massie
"Forced Gender Reassignment"
2013 "Your Disposal"
2016 "Clandestine Ways (Krokodil Rot)" The Anthropocene Extinction
2017 "The Prophets of Loss" Paul McGuire
2020 "Bring Back the Plague" Death Atlas —
2021 "Finish Them" Nicholas Vidler
2023 "We Eat Our Young" Terrasite David Brodsky
"Scourge of the Offspring"[31]
"A Photic Doom"
"Solastalgia"

References

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  1. ^ Andy Hermann.Seeing Cattle Decapitation at Los Globos Just Made Me a Deathgrind Fan Archived December 1, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. LA Weekly. January 6, 2015.
  2. ^ Bayer, Gerd, Heavy Metal Music in Britain (Ashgate Publishing, 2013), p.60.
  3. ^ "Staff Review: Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene Extinction | Sputnikmusic". SputnikMusic. August 12, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  4. ^ Cattle Decapitation at AllMusic
  5. ^ "metalweb interview". Archived from the original on July 23, 2008.
  6. ^ a b Metal: The Definitive Guide, page 169
  7. ^ Sanford, Jay Allen (November 19, 2008). "Cattle Decapitation Veggie Burgers, plus History of San Diego Music Parts 1 thru 7". sandiegoreader.com. San Diego Reader. Archived from the original on December 28, 2008. Retrieved December 9, 2008.
  8. ^ "Cattle Decapitation Parts Ways With Bassist, Announces Replacement - Blabbermouth.net". BLABBERMOUTH.NET. Archived from the original on August 16, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  9. ^ "Review: Cattle Decapitation – Monolith of Inhumanity". Archived from the original on January 1, 2014. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  10. ^ "Cattle Decapitation – "Monolith of Inhumanity" Album Review – Thrash Magazine". Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  11. ^ "JOB FOR A COWBOY announce headlining tour with CATTLE DECAPITATION & WHITECHAPEL – Metal Injection". March 1, 2010. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  12. ^ "SIX FEET UNDER, CATTLE DECAPITATION And More Confirmed For Scion A/V Label Showcase". bravewords.com. Archived from the original on January 1, 2014. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  13. ^ "Cattle Decapitation - Writing Material For New Album". Metal Storm. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  14. ^ Staff writer(s) (May 20, 2015). "CATTLE DECAPITATION to release The Anthropocene Extinction this August via Metal Blade Records". metalblade.com. Metal Blade Records. Archived from the original on May 23, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  15. ^ "PHILIP ANSELMO To Guest On New CATTLE DECAPITATION Album". May 20, 2015. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  16. ^ "Safety | Colorado State University". archive.is. May 5, 2018. Archived from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  17. ^ Swenson, Kyle (May 4, 2018). "Two Native American brothers were touring a Colo. college when a parent called police. They say it was racial profiling". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  18. ^ "(4) Cattle Decapitation – Posts". archive.is. May 5, 2018. Archived from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  19. ^ "Cattle Decapitation announces new band members | Metal Blade Records". Archived from the original on October 23, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  20. ^ CATTLE DECAPITATION TO BEGIN RECORDING EIGHTH STUDIO ALBUM Archived May 25, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. loudwire.com. GRAHAM HARTMANN. March 25, 2019.
  21. ^ Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic, retrieved February 9, 2024
  22. ^ Greg Kennelty (January 10, 2023). "CATTLE DECAPITATION Announces New Album Terrasite". Metal Injection. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  23. ^ INTERVIEW: TRAVIS RYAN OF CATTLE DECAPITATION Archived November 12, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. July 22, 2015. moshville.co.uk
  24. ^ "Cattle Decapitation – Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  25. ^ "Cattle Decapitation – Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  26. ^ "Cattle Decapitation – Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  27. ^ "Cattle Decapitation – Chart History". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 12, 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  28. ^ "Discographie Cattle Decapitation". GfK Entertainment. Archived from the original on November 1, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  29. ^ Andrew Sacher (September 20, 2018). "Long-rumored Cattle Decapitation Rarities Compilation Finally Coming This Fall". BrooklynVegan. Archived from the original on September 20, 2018. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  30. ^ Chuck Armstrong (November 24, 2014). "Cattle Decapitation's Travis Ryan Discusses 'Decade of Decapitation' Box Set". Loudwire. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  31. ^ Video on YouTube
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