CATTLE DECAPITATION – Brisbane, Australia 13th February 2020
Earlier in the day, the proposed Cattle Decapitation gig at The Brightside is moved to The Tivoli in preparation for the torrential rain predicted for that evening. It turns out to be quite the prescient move, as the heavens do indeed open, lashing Brisbane’s streets in that classic Queensland summer way.
Those who are not held up in traffic (or worse) are fortunate enough to catch opening act Descent. They have been getting plum gigs in recent times, with this reviewer catching them open for Dark Funeral last year. However, Descent are more than mere “support band to the stars”, bashing out a hardcore-influenced take on extreme metal that is certainly worthy of your attention.
Next up, is Revocation from Boston, Massachusetts, who have been making an unholy racket in different forms since the year 2000. By now, they are a finely honed technical death metal act, characterised by the fierce bellows and fiery leads of frontman and sole remaining founding member David Davidson. He’s quite the virtuoso in both areas, and fortunately for us the band as a whole are similarly on point. It’s also the most richly melodic set of the night, as the flurrying guitar solos, jagged riffs and tricky time signatures make for an almost classic metal touch at times – more than anyone tonight, these songs sound like they were carved from marble.
But the big drawcard tonight is the conceptual death/grind attack of Cattle Decapitation. Their prestigious career has seen them move from the goregrind of earlier records, to the more environmental themes to be found on last year’s masterpiece Death Atlas – but there’s always been a stronger social point to be made through their music, an approach in line with grind godfathers Napalm Death.
After the tape intro of Anthropogenic: End Transmission, there’s no messing about, blasting straight into The Geocide and keeping the intensity up all the way through, right up to the final encore. The songs are twitchy and, frequently, outrageously fast, the musicians’ hands almost a blur as they navigate these barrelling, complex songs.
Particularly impressive is frontman Travis Ryan, who not only has energy to spare, but is also one of the most versatile extreme metal vocalists I’ve come across. From high-pitched screams to bottom-of-the-swamp gurgles a la Nespithe’s Antti Boman, his harsh vocals have extraordinary range and are utterly terrifying. There’s no comfort to be found in his cleans either, resembling a crone cackling at the oncoming apocalypse.
There’s a brief return to body horror in the punishing Forced Gender Reassignment, but the most impactful moment for this reviewer is the epic title track from Death Atlas, an expansive piece that evolves into something beautiful and heartbreaking. The rain is soon forgotten.
Reviewer: Matt Thrower
