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ALBUM REVIEW: Terrasite – Cattle Decapitation

They’ve only gone and done it again, haven’t they? CATTLE DECAPITATION have once again penned an album to accompany the end of times and make us all feel terrible about it. At the end of the day are we not human parasites that feed off the Earth’s life force? A Terrasite.

From the destructive opener Terrasidic Adaption to the soul-shattering 10-minute closer Just Another Body, this album evokes an emotive response that many bands can only strive to achieve. If you’re familiar with the band, you can expect the traditional frantic greeting of blistering double bass hits, relentless fretwork and the snarl of an unhinged animal. Those uninitiated may find this panic-inducing, but don’t worry there are plenty of melodies to help you breathe. The grinding groove of Scourge Of The Offspring is an early album highlight. You probably shouldn’t be bopping along to a brutal track based upon the necessity of natural selection and how we’re leaving our children with the scraps of this world, but we dare you not to. There’s such poignancy in the lyrics here with how everything played out with COVID-19.  

What you’ll find by the end of the first few tracks is just how catchy these songs are. Ever since the days of Monolith Of Inhumanity, the band have managed to hook you in with their…well hooks! If you’re not maniacally yelling “We Eat Our Young! or creepily chanting along with the “We have always been the virus” line from The Insignificants like you’re stalking a couple of Hobbits from the shadows then there’s something wrong.  

Speaking of creepy. Travis Ryan has been known to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up with his ‘goblin’ singing voice. Some may claim it was overused on the previous album Death Atlas, but he’s reigned it in on Terrasite to the record’s benefit. Now when those unsettling cleans come in, the effect is so much greater. There’s a sense of relief when they eventually kick in as they are now a welcome break from the unrelenting chaos of his growls. There’s no denying that Ryan is one of the greatest metal vocalists out there today; not only does he have multiple ways of screaming but he’s also incredibly intelligible. In this genre that’s quite hard to come by and it allows the gravity of the lyrics to fully penetrate.  

By now, everyone should realise just how ridiculously talented each musician is within the band. Whether it’s the fast-paced verses in ...And This World Will Go On Without You or it’s the powerful chorus, every part is played masterfully. They’ve also turned the bass up which gives Olivier Pinard a chance to truly shine. Listen to the bass work in The Storm Upstairs, his playing elevates an already epic track. Impeccable stuff. David McGraw is once again an absolute machine behind the kit. Straight from the off he’s a powerhouse of blast beats but he works so well in unison with Pinard during the stomping grooves that are dotted all over the album.  

Josh Elmore once again on guitar is a master at the band’s wall of sound. He somehow manages to throw everything at the listener without causing them to be overwhelmed and it has shaped their musical direction over the years. Elmore and second guitarist Belisario Dimuzio shred through the album with ridiculous speed but nail the swagger of melodic death metal. A Photic Doom is as infectious as this music can get and stands as one of their most accomplished tracks yet. Everything they do best is injected into this beast. While the brooding Death Atlas was dark and fed off the blackness, Terrasite finds its horror in the daylight. In music terms there are glimpses of, dare we say it, hope. The guitars display a richness not heard in previous efforts. But let’s not be fooled here, there’s still plenty of depth to this despair.

If you’ve seen the artwork for the album, you should have a taste of the overarching story. The name Terrasite was coined by Ryan meaning a parasite that feeds on the Earth (Terra). The band are well known for being vocal about the state of the planet and the themes on show here prove once again just how angry they are at how we as a species have turned out. There’s a pain in their anguish that can only be expressed via this medium, especially in the mournful Just Another Body. This record was written while the band were in a place of exasperation. This song was penned after the deaths of some of their closest friends, and you can feel the sorrow. The piano intro is delicate but despondent until it all emotion is borne for all to hear. “Blind to ourselves, we are just bodies” is a haunting reprieve that reminds us of our crimes as humans, watching our hive burn before our very eyes. It’s on this track that we hear a cleaner vocal style that we’ve not heard before from Ryan and it’s an interesting conclusion to the album.  

If anything’s for certain, it’s that CATTLE DECAPITATION will be on the soundtrack to the end of the world when it inevitably arrives. By the looks of things, it may come sooner than we imagine. Since the exceptional Monolith Of Inhumanity, the band have been on a winning roll. One that you’d imagine in a Vegas casino they’d call you up for cheating at this point. You just cannot be this consistent, can you? Turns out you can, as Terrasite is once again a masterpiece in death metal storytelling that will be on countless album of the year lists. 

Rating: 10/10

Terrasite - Cattle Decapitation

Terrasite is set for release on May 12th via Metal Blade Records.

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