i speak madly about Cattle Decapitation and Monolith of Inhumanity

Here I will yap about one of my favorite bands and my favorite album by them, Monolith of Inhumanity. I do not know anything ever and am just an idiot with interests in things so I might have stuff wrong or sound stupid. If this is the case then feel free to advocate for my public execution in the comments.

Cattle Decapitation is an American death metal/grind band. The band has gone through a lot of changes over the years. It was formed by Gabe Serbian and Dave Astor of The Locust, plus vocalist Scott Miller. In 1997 they released the demo Ten Torments Of The Damned. After the demo, Scott Miller left and was replaced by Travis Ryan for vocals. I like Miller's vocals on the demo, but after being on every release since then, Ryan feels so essential to the overall sound of Cattle Decapitation.

Since the demo, Cattle Decapitation has released 12 albums/EPs plus some other things. If you take a listen to their first release Human Jerky from 1999 and then their latest release Terrasite from 2023, it's clear that their sound has changed a LOT. Their early work is really deathgrind I think, retaining punk influence from The Locust. I really like this era. It is so dissonant and nasty. It sticks out to me that this was the only time they used real gore on their covers. From Humanure in 2004 and onward it is all art. I think those visuals fit in with the feeling of the music at the time-- lyrics that could seem surface level and as though they are gory just for the sake of gore, getting their point across with pure shock. At least, the first two albums Human Jerky and Homovore fit that description in my opinion. The third album To Serve Man gets a lot more obviously meaningful lyrically, I think.

I guess I should describe the actual point of the music then. Cattle Decapitation's music is very anti animal farming and abuse. They use shock and disgust to make the listener uncomfortable with the reality of farming animal products. The name of the band itself is an example of this. The lyrics also involve a lot of putting humans in animal slaughter situations. It's very Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Their more recent work is heavy on themes of climate change and pollution. Anti religion themes are there throughout their discography. Off the top of my head I can also think of their subversion of the super common misogynistic themes in death metal on Testicular Manslaughter and the pro transgender stance they take on Forced Gender Reassignment.

From Human Jerky in 1999 to The Harvest Floor in 2009, I think it's clear that the main focus of the music is animal farming. Monolith of Inhumanity in 2012 I think reflects the band's changing focus from this to climate change/humanity's overall negative impact on Earth. All three albums released after Monolith of Inhumanity mainly focus on this.

As well as being a turning point in the lyrical content, I think Monolith of Inhumanity is where the band's sound changes the most significantly. It is much more atmospheric and foreboding. I'd say The Harvest Floor (2009) and before is more horror movie slasher sound while Monolith of Inhumanity (2012) and onward is more....... all consuming cosmic horror sound.... This becomes more true on the 3 subsequent albums. By Terrasite in 2023, I think the grindcore from their early work is nearly totally gone and they are really clean death metal.

Monolith of Inhumanity. Finally..... My favorite Cattle Decapitation album....... It opens with The Carbon Stampede, which is, to me, SHOCKING going into it if you're listening to their discography in order. They've always been heavy of course but the absolute weight of the opening track here is so good. Every previous album honestly feels flat as hell if Monolith is the reference. This album is probably their most popular and it's for insanely good reason. I really like the variety in this album, having some really solemn poetic ass songs and also some pure gross-out stuff.

The fourth track, Forced Gender Reassignment, sticks out 2 me... It's probably Cattle Decapitation's most famous song. It's pretty infamous for it's shocking, gory music video. I recommend checking it out. I'm pretty sure all the gore is just special effects so ye. I made an awesome Minecraft skin of the gimp guy from the music video and I wanted to put it on here so bad but.... I'm too unsure... I mean it's just a Minecraft skin but still... so if you wanna see my supa awesome Forced Gender Reassignment gimp guy Minecraft skin tell me and maybe I can IM you a link. I mean who in the world wouldn't wanna see supa awesome Forced Gender Reassignment gimp guy Minecraft skin. I know I would. Anyways. IDK what the general American population's opinion on trans people was in 2012 but I imagine it wasn't very good so I think it's cool that these guys released a song like this back then. I guess it makes more sense with their roots being in punk and all.

The sixth track, Projectile Ovulation... Oh my god dude. There's nothing I can even say to express how much I love this song. I have been brought to tears by how much I love this song. Cattle Decapitation does AMAZING serious, thought provoking stuff but TBH my favorites will always be the super nasty shlock. This song is so insanely over the top lyrically and in its production. Literally the most out there extreme way you could ever think to describe menstruation is the lyrics. It's awesome. Oh, I almost forgot about the fucking Mike Majewski guest vocals oh my GODDDDDDDDD. THAT'S!!!! THAT ONE DEVOURMENT GUY!!!!!! I LOVE DEVOURMENT!!!!!! YIPPY!!!!!!!!!!!

The eleventh and final track Kingdom of Tyrants is beautiful dude. I don't know what else to say. It is so...... it's good. ok. it's good

I cannot lie. Cattle Decapitation was kind of a significant part of me deciding to stop eating meat. I mean of course I was already consumed by guilt for eating meat before I discovered them but to have this sick ass band call me out for being a piece of shit???!?!?!?!?!? The final straw. Anyways. Umm yea I kind of like this band a little bit. Tell me if you love or hate the CSS I did for this blog post. Here's my Hatsune Miku redraw of the Monolith of Inhumanity album cover hopefully it's not too gory for Spacehey lol