Hey, no kidding! Death Atlas just secured my Spotify #2 slot. I haven’t put it down for a week! I’m not into a lot of extreme-doom-grind-blast-whatever-CORE music... Rings of Saturn, [classic]Slipknot, Lamb of God, Pantera, and Black Label Society with a couple more obscurities dominate the heavy end of my musical spectrum. With a name like “Cattle Decapitation”, I found it hard to take them seriously- at first, but then I put it on. I have a lot of metal head friends who expose me to some pretty obscure and small metal bands who all sort of sound the same to me. Racing drums, prolonged screams with inaudible lyrics, and so much volume and distortion that any tone from the instruments is lost in the noise. This is what I was expecting out of CattleD. Not quite. I gave it a cover-to-cover listen on my way into work and a couple songs remained floating around my head during my 13 hour shift. I couldn’t wait to listen to it again on the return trip. Yes it is all those things I expected, but it’s crafted in such a way that the songs all have their own identity, movements, and dare I say, emotions? Vulturous was the first stand-out track for me. The groove-core approach to the guitar is right up my alley and I love how the solo fits into the structure of the song- and the pause-BLAST transitions are fucking brutal. I am sure I will be learning to play this song soon. The vocals are also next level. Until I looked it up, I assumed there were two vocalists. He’s got a brutally low monster-growl, and then that high pitched scream that conjures images of a winged demon. What I really thought was cool is he double-tracks and harmonizes his screams, which is just silly... Bring Back the Plague is another top track for me. It starts out angry and driven, then it transitions into a haunting chorus that stays with me throughout the day... this whole album is just so well crafted. The artwork, the sound, the message- everything fits together in one cohesive package that makes me excited for both the future of metal AND the end of the human race. Lol.

For real, though... i haven’t felt this refreshed by something new that wasn’t Tool in a long time. I am very excited to see CattleD and Author & Punisher tomorrow night. Thanks for the push, Hellboy.