Customer Reviews

Humanure

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This album is awesome, it hard, it violent, the lyrics are well written (they have a sordid black sense of humor, just listen to: "Cloacula..."), the voice sound better than To Serve man (now i can "understand" what Travis is saying) and drums are better too, not only blastbeats... I really like the production. If you love death metal, specially grind death you must get this album. Oh, I forgot, Humanure has been banned and the original art cover its gonna be changed. Hurry, get a copy now!!! 4 stars.
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Mediocre: Selltallica, Slipknot, and the kiddie numetal stuff.

By far the greatest investment I've made all year. What sets it apart from other death metal is it's simplicity, yet it sounds great. And, of course, Travis Ryan's voice like none other. Highly recommended for veteran and rookie death metal listeners.

Great stuff. I just picked this up along with the Homovore album. If you like grind/gore/death, then you may like this. It's very heavy, brutal stuff.

I am glad that they are an intelligent metal band. By that, I mean their lyrics focus on real issues and problems. Other bands that do this include Napalm Death and Dying Fetus. The lyrics are quite good for this band.

I am sick and tired of people bad mouthing this band for idiotic reasons such as and i quote "Any death metal band with a good meaning behind them sucks, i won't even give it time of day!" How F*&^ing simple are you?, i mean really are you that close minded that you automatically disregard something that has meaning i'm sorry but your an idiot...flat out, your just plain stupid, now go back to listening to your pointless mortician cd's. And to the person who said that this sounds like Morbid Angel, do you have ears?, are you deaf, this sounds nothing like Morbid Angel, there not even in the same league ( Cattle Decapitation is not better then morbid angel they are so different it's like hot and cold) if anything they sound like Carcass or even a little like General Surgery, but not morbid angel, not at all.

Now for the review, These guys are good,but there are some issues that i need to adress like the sound quality on this cd has taken a nose dive from the great production on to serve man. The songs are a little more varied with preatty heavy grooves that break up the chaotic blasts and thrash beats that lay all over the album. The bass has a very heavy,thick, and distorted sound that i personally like to hear along with the guitarist who has a knack for some very creative soloing, and riffs that are technical and very busy. The vocals are GREAT, i don't give a s@#t what anyone says this guy can scream his ass off!, i haven't heard such a punishing and interesting vocal style since sylvian houde (formaly of kataklysm before he became a basket case) on Temple of Knowledge and Sorcery. If you need further proof go see them live, you will not forget it.

I mean that in a good way, but the guitar just wasnt heavy enough, but the vocals were excellent. The lyrical content was so graphic and disgusting that it was funny, like the song Polyps they sing about how someones extremely bad case polyps takes over and kills, what a horrible way to go. I think the singer took a few medical classes and some hands on anatomy, funny stuff.
When I first opend the cd and saw the band members i was expecting them to be dissecting a cow with blood everywhere and the members would have long hair and wear all black, but instead they were actually neatly presentable which blew my mind but it was a suprising change, thats another i like about them, they dont really look like Grind Death but they sure as hell can play it.

Disturbing,sickening,heavy,twisted lirycs= perfect death/grind and great produced album, i might add. It was quite hard to find a single weak track because there wasn't any to be found and i love the drums! Buy or die !!!

Cattle Decapitation's 2004 effort, "Humanure" (which also happened to be their first for Metal Blade records), was a ginormous leap forward from the mediocre and thoroughly one-dimensional goregrind heard on 2001's "To Serve Man." In fact, at the time, "Humanure" was, without question, the band's finest hour. And not only that, but it is apparent (in retrospect) that this record also marked a huge creative breakthrough, and a substantial step towards becoming a great, and more timeless one. But what, you ask, had improved so much? Well, numerous things, actually.

For starters, Michael Laughlin (their then current drummer) makes his presence felt right away. He had replaced David Astor, who in himself is a fine drummer, but Laughlin clearly possesses a higher level of playing ability. See, while the drumming in "To Serve Man" was very fast, it was also heavily triggered and even sometimes sounded totally computerized. (In short, it wasn't any more memorable than what you would hear on the average Berzerker outing.) Laughlin, on the other hand, is much more creative and human-sounding. More technical, too. (And ML playing in a mathcore group -- Creation Is Crucifixion -- should be further proof of this.) No, his style of playing on "Humanure" can't be said to be very groundbreaking, but it does illustrate that the man definitely has exceptional playing chops. He rattles off one grinding, hyper-kinetic blast beat and mind-boggling gravity roll after another with ease; and he is also able to pull back on the reigns a bit and frequently throw in more mid-tempo parts.

But of greater importance is the fact that the songwriting is improved incredibly. By making it a point to include plenty of dynamics, well-placed tempo changes, breakdowns, groove-oriented sections, and catchy parts (yes, you read that right!), the level of depth, breadth, quality of musical arrangements, and amount of memorable songs had improved almost 100 percent. There are gobs of excellent melodic riffing to be heard, here, too, thus helping to give the music a bit of nice nuance. In fact, there is so much of it in almost every one of these eleven tracks that one could argue that they have just as much in common with grindcore as with genres like thrash, black metal, and even melodeath. Fear not, though, because "Humanure" is definitely first and foremost a grindcore album -- and yes, for those keeping score, it retains enough elements to warrant falling under the "goregrind" tag. The only difference is just that Cattle Decapitation now have some finesse and musicality, instead of just throwing together thirty-minutes worth of bludgeoning guitars and programmed drum beats. As a result, they sound less out-of-control (if only slightly), and more mature and epic.

Frontman Travis Ryan probably upped his game, too, by making his vocals a bit more dynamic this time around. He ranges from Deicide-esque bellows, to nasty growls, to wicked pig squeals, and borderline black metal-style shrieks. Finally, two things remain to make this, the San Diego-based quartet's fourth full-length, standout from their previous three: the inclusion of (occasional) guitar solos, and audible, grumbling bass lines. Overall, Cattle Decapitation are influenced mostly by The Locust (whom they started out as a side-project of, and whose vocalists make a cameo somewhere on here), Carcass, and Cannibal Corpse, but "Humanure" also takes more than a few cues from the likes of Emperor, Decapitated, At the Gates, Circle of Dead Children, Cryptopsy, Nasum, Brutal Truth, Dying Fetus, and The Black Dahlia Murder. A strong Necrophagist influence is also present throughout. Even so, it can now officially be safe to say that C.D. have broken free from living in anybody else's shadow, and they can be ranked among the upper-tier of death-grind's elite.

The undisputed highpoint of the album comes at the end: "Men Before Swine" may just be labeled as just an outro, but with a near Pig Destroyer-worthy level of shockingness, it is as memorable as anything this reviewer has ever heard. But there certainly are other standouts, as well. The titular track kicks things off with a bang -- technical yet catchy riffing, deft, blistering blast beats, vocals that verge on the classic goregrind "pig squeal" style, and only occasional slow breakdowns. "Reduced To Paste" is equally as frenetic, and is backed by impeccable, locomotive, virtuosic drumming (i.e. think almost constant jackhammer-fast blasting), but also makes a little room for brief yet tastefully melodic soloing. "Bukkake Tsunami" is highlighted by whiplash-inducing tempos, rib-crunching breakdowns, chunky power chords, a three-second bass solo, and tons of scalding, 1349-inspired black metal tremolo picking.

"Chummified" is track number six, and a very dizzying one at that; its successor, "Applied Human Defragmentation," almost plays like full-on thrash, and is fueled by a flood of buzzsaw riffage. "The Earthling," features a handful of exceptional, Slayer-esque guitar solos, and "math-y," stop-on-a-dime tempo changes that smack the listener in the face. Later on, "Lips & Aholes" is another standout, and is an extremely brutal and vicious tune -- even for Cattle Decapitation! In fact, it is such a cut-throat slab of grindcore that it would give the likes of Napalm Death a run for their money. But it is the aforementioned "Men Before Swine" that takes the cake for the best track. This roughly ten-minute long soundscape is comprised of gnawing guitars, interesting, noteworthy bass work, pig squeals, hissing noises, a butcher house setting (seemingly), a plodding tempo, Skinny Puppy-styled industrial knick-knacks, haunting ambience, and a mood so dark and evil it is almost indescribable and guaranteed to send chills all the way up your spine. Suffice it to say, it is one truly and appropriately horrifying way to close an already very scary album.

Cattle Decapitation is an awesome band. Their new album Humanure is just perfect. It was pretty hard to find because of the nature of the album cover which depicts a cow defecating blood and human limbs, and I was happy I got it. Brutal guitars, monster drumming, and awesome growling vocals. Speaking of growls, Travis Ryan's growls are alot more clear thanks to the good production. Humanure and Chummified are my favorite songs. Buy this if you're a true death metal fan. Hail Cattle Decapitation.

Cattle Decapitation are one of the top names in goregrind and with this new album they have pushed their sound to new heights. The songs are longer, more complex and they sound a lot more like death metal than standard goregrind. The same brutal sound is there but the songs seem more thought out and well written and their is plenty here for metal fans of all kinds to enjoy. The best songs on here are "The Earthling", "Humanure" and "chummified". If you liked To Serve Man you will love this, they've done nothing but improve.

"Humanure" is a step forward from its predecessor, 2002's "To Serve Man." Vegetarian and misanthropic themes still dominate; the original cover artwork features a cow excreting human heads, a scene omitted on copies of the album sold in record store chains. But the music has a newfound sense of dynamics. Slower sections, ambient noises, atonal solos, and genuinely catchy riffs make the blasting passages more brutal by contrast. If Fantomas made grindcore, it might sound like this.