LIVE REVIEW: Cattle Decapitation @ Slay, Glasgow

Despite a career spanning nearly three decades, death metal/grindcore misanthropes CATTLE DECAPITATION continue to propel themselves into even more prestigious acclaim and continue to surpass popularity. Tonight, they are live in Glasgow and the show is originally scheduled for the Cathouse, but is upgraded to the roomier Slay after selling out. Shortly afterwards, this venue sells out months in advance too, one of many sold out ventures on this UK tour.

First to whet the crowd’s appetite is VOMIT FORTH, a relatively new death metal act formed in 2018 from the United States. In 2022, they released their debut album Seething Malevolence on Century Media. Their take on the subgenre concentrates on bruising rhythms and classic New York-style slam death metal, with a nod towards more core variants. There’s a trend of hardcore and metalcore band members initiating death metal acts now (many of which sign to Century Media), and VOMIT FORTH doesn’t deviate from this formula, leaving so much to be desired.  Vocalist Kane Gelaznik is enthusiastic in attempting to warm up the venue. The early-comers are satisfied with what they see and hear, and react with encouraging movements.

Rating: 7/10

The second band on stage is 200 STAB WOUNDS, another young death metal act formed by hardcore musicians. This quartet has garnered a surprising amount of underground attention in their five years of activity. Unlike the openers, these Americans incorporate various styles of death metal into their compositions, resulting in every song sounding particularly distinct from anything else. The spirit of their sound is later CANNIBAL CORPSE, but with lots of add-ons. Their aural inventory includes chugging brutal death metal riffs, hardcore-style beatdowns, suffocating slams, rough guitar melodies, creepy solos, precise pinch harmonics and atmospherics, delivered in a frenzy of alternating tempos.  Mosh pits and crowd surfers answer the call as the band pummels through the likes of Phallic Filth, Skin Milk and Itty Bitty Pieces. Excellent brain-bashing metal.

Rating: 8/10

The last support band is SIGNS OF THE SWARM, an American deathcore act. Formed in 2014, their take on the subgenre is laden with thick grooves and heavy riffage. Their meat-and-potatoes approach sees the sweat-slicked congregation fire up mosh pits, circle pits, hardcore dancers and crowdsurfers (even when there’s no music playing and vocalist David Simonich is merely introducing a song). Of course, breakdowns are as common as black t-shirts here, with the band and many attendees doubling over back and forth in time to the rhythm. For a deathcore band, aside from Simonich, the other band members fail to move around sufficiently. As the set continues, the songs display scant variation and the performance feels stale. Some more musical variation and a more dynamic stage presence would have improved the proceedings considerably.

Rating: 6/10

Around 15 or so years ago, headliners CATTLE DECAPITATION expressed their feelings on hardcore, metalcore and the nascent deathcore genre with the release of their ‘Gore not core’ t-shirt. The design featured a hardcore dancer in the middle of crosshairs. So it’s ironic that the same band is touring with hardcore, metalcore and deathcore musicians now, rather than heritage death metal acts. Irrespective of who else is on the bill, these Californians are masters of the ferocious live show. The set starts with Terrasitic Adaptation from last year’s Terrasite album, although Slay‘s sound isn’t quite sharp enough. This doesn’t deter moshers, crowd surfers and headbangers though.

Tonight’s set originates from the tail end of CATTLE DECAPITATION‘s discography, particularly the last two albums. The likes of We Eat Our Young, The Storm Upstairs, Bring Back The Plague, Finish Them and Time’s Cruel Curtain are unadulterated nihilistic death metal. Ever so slightly older tracks include Dead Set On Suicide, Mammals In Babylon and Pacific Grim. Guitarist Josh Elmore delivers vicious misanthropic metal with undulating heavy yet technical riffs and atmospheric proggy melodies. Vocalist Travis Ryan batters the city with deathly growls, noxious rasps and his idiosyncratic so-termed goblin vocals. The music cycles through aggressive, melancholic but mostly apocalyptic, serenading mankind’s self-imposed cannibalistic demise.

Ryan seems less emphatic than usual, perhaps natural for a man almost fifty years old. Or it could be something else. He tells the crowd that they recently discovered that their long-time friend Blake Harrison, who used to play in grind legends PIG DESTROYER suddenly died a few hours before. An idiot in the crowd cheers, but Ryan is quick to insult him and rightfully orders him to play in traffic. No matter the energy reduction, the band maintains an active performance, comfortably commanding the stage and demonstrating flawless crowd control. Their show sprints by and Ryan announces that the next song is the concluding one of the night: Kingdom Of Tyrants. One final propulsion of flailing limbs and hair and the show ends with a bang. Yet another flawless exhibition from the leaders in modern death metal/grindcore.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here: 

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