CATTLE C
INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST TRAVIS RYAN BY CHRISTOPHER J. HARRINGTON
attle Decapitation’s newest “Well, we seem to know now what an record, Death Atlas (out now album needs to have a little more,” via Metal Blade), has the vocalist Travis Ryan laughs. “I feel feel of the future, and for all of us this is our most ‘realized’ record.” sentient life forms it’s not good news. For all the propulsion of riffs and Anyone paying attention to the grind, there are equal parts nightband over the years knows that they have been relaying socio-econom- mare spacescapes and psychological noise. This variation is someic and ethical warnings from the thing the band has particularly beginning. With Death Atlas, even if honed-in on since 2015’s The Anyou’re still in complete denial, the thropocene Extinction, a record that message is clear. is noteworthy for its immense tonal“Environmental scientists and engi- ity and structure. The dichotomy is neers now describe the current era even more severe on Death Atlas, as planet Earth’s mass extinction,” and that’s the point. a voice echoes in machine tone on the track “The Great Dying.” “Its “Personally, I did want the valleys to be super low, and that means the cause: humans.” depressing or slow parts need to be With their new album, Cattle Decap- extremely emotional and depressitation rise to the challenge of com- ing,” Ryan says. “That’s honestly my bining form with substance, the totali- favorite kind of stuff, ever since I ty of which is shattering, schizophren- was a child and heard Beethoven’s ic, and of course, headbanging. In Moonlight Sonata for the first time. I fact, as dark as the record is, it’s the fell in love with that kind of stuff immost headbanging thing the group mediately. I’ve always been a fan of has ever laid out. goth, new wave, ambient, and synth
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stuff. So, I’m finding the band to be much more fun, and it’s become much more a force as a creative outlet of late. The last twenty minutes of the record is, in my opinion, some of the best material we’ve ever done.”
Those twenty minutes, starting with the track “With All Disrespect,” and ending with the nine minute “Death Atlas,” package all of Cattle Decapitation’s musical and conceptual revolutions in a powerful way. Using technical prowess to stimulate the content the band relays, the last four songs bend and twist like Robert Patrick in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Of particular note, “Time’s Cruel Curtain” shows how the band has created a completely unique way to blend melody with pure grind, a feat that people are just now adjusting to. “It’s morphed from one or two people writing most of it, to the process including everyone, even myself,”
