G&P review: Cattle Decapitation

Cattle Decapitation
The Harvest Floor
Metal Blade
I only adopt shelter animals. I donate to the ASPCA. I obsessively watch Animal Cops. Hell, I’m man enough to publicly cop to my love of Cute Overload (and before you cast aspersion on my sexuality, may I direct your attention to the Cats ‘n’ Racks section.) So I think I could get down with the Cattle Decapitation guys despite my omnivorous habits.
For all you meat munchers, The Harvest Floor is a gore flecked guided tour of the killing rooms that provide you with the shrink wrapped slabs of red dye #2 flesh you find at your local supermarket.
Sacrificing some of the heft and speed of Karma, Bloody Karma for clarity and precision, Cattle Decapitation unleash the latent tech and black metal elements that have lurked beneath the carcass. An ambient, black Xathur-like film coats The Harvest Floor like a rancid slick of grease. Travis Ryan gives rein to his Nordic screech on lead off song “The Gardens of Eden.” Closer “Regret and the Grave’s” burbling bass and placid violins could have been lifted off of any Mindrot album before giving way to black metal by way of power sanders.
Between the black metal cheese gratings and the Jarboe guest spots (“Regret and the Grave” and the title track), Cattle Decapitation ladle up bowls of hearty (meatless) death metal and grindcore.
My only complaint with the whole album is the drum production. New skinsman David McGraw octopoidally assaults his kit with molar rattling blasts and tattooing fills, but, unfortunately, for him, the thin kick drum sound makes it sound like he’s pounding on a battered Selectric.
But that’s a quibble in the face of the animal slaughter house stun line assault Cattle Decapitation unleash.
And I bet they like Cute Overload too.