Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction (2015)^{Release ID: 5970}

The fringes of my music radar is an odd place for a band/artist to be. It is a metal version of Hades I suppose were bands sit awaiting my attention before I send them into endless burning oblivion after dismissing them or I alternatively induct them into my own version of a celestial playlist by getting them on regular rotation on my listening pattern. Occasionally I will be very human and remain completely undecided on a sound or particular style of a band and leave them floating at the fringes of my interest until I stumble across them again on my seemingly endless journey of extreme discovery.

Cattle Decapitation have been in my own version of Hades for a good couple of years. I have heard good, I have heard bad things but only now with the release of seventh full length "The Anthropocene Extinction" and the ensuing internet furore around it, have I ventured forth unto the breach.

Straight away there is a problem. I don't like the production. What should be (I assume) quite gritty and crunchy riffs seem to have been coated in a film that has somehow dumbed them down to an almost nu-metal polished effect. Take the unfortunately named "Clandestine Ways (Krokodil Rot)", it sounds like a slightly angrier and not altogether as capable version of a Children of Bodom song. It makes jumps and jerks in all the right places but like any cadaver - it is merely just breaking wind instead of stuttering into a raging zombie reanimation.

Then there are the vocals. They vary from a horrible sneering delivery to a melo-death style that also emanates some BM stylings. Sometimes a track uses all three of the descriptions above yet somehow none of the tracks are memorable as a result, they sort of just pass you by. Instead of the grunting being broken up by the sneering attempts at vocals they just distract from them in a negative and not altogether functional way. Just as I am trying to get to grips with what is going on musically, my focus gets shifted as their is (yet another) vocal change.

By the time I get to track 7 of 12 I can predict the formula of the songs perfectly. Start fast, chug slow, end fast. Repeat. Grind, chug, grunt, grind. That isn't to say that there aren't moments of promise - "Mammals In Babylon" has an awesome demonic shriek which I very much enjoy but it is soon forgotten as the robotic riffage takes over. When CA chug, they properly motor but again the feeling of them somehow being held back by the production is just too strong to shake off.

An internet acquaintance referred to "The Anthropocene Extinction" as "immense". However, I just can't see anything, no spark to even bring it into the boundary of an "acceptable" category let alone one that commands the tag of "immense".