by Morgan Y. Evans
It's the last day or so until Bush leaves office for good, and Cattle Decapitation are a perfect soundtrack for the wake of horrors we've been left with. Not saying that Obama is automatically going to fix anything, but the last eight years underscored the worst in human nature to some of the biggest degrees in human history. Cattle Decapitation are heavy and ferocious as fuck, but they sure as hell aren't trying to participate in the World Full Of Idiots who blindly follow. Constantly questioning and confronting crowds and the general public to whatever extent possible since the band's inception in 1996, Cattle Decapitation have some of the most outspoken and left-leaning views out there and also some of the most unforgettably revoltingly awesome metal covers in heavy music history. Seriously, These guys could occasionally make Cannibal Corpse lose their lunch!
Cattle Decapitation are strong contenders right out the gate for one
of the best metal albums of this newly born year (still covered in birth
fluids and bloody chunks) that we call 2009. Their new record (and first
in three years) The Harvest Floor was produced (like 2006's Karma.Bloody.Karma)
by board-master and all around cool dude Billy Anderson (Melvins, Jawbreaker,
High On Fire, The Men Of Porn). Billy has even gone on record to imply
that it may be his proudest work in a career that includes countless victories
for the rock underground. The Harvest Floor also features new
monster Cattle Decapitation drummer Dave McGraw for the first time (adopted
son of country singer and recent Def Leppard collaborator Tim McGraw...Ok,
that's a lie, but I hope someone is drunk and only half reading this and
tries in futility to Google it for awhile).
For some time actually well spent, go to Cattle Decap's MySpace page and
peep the first new "single", a song called "The Gardeners
of Eden". The rolling and extremely technical bass playing of Troy
Oftedal in the intro alone should prove enough of a clincher, to say nothing
of the bleak and yet captivating slow mid-song death hypnosis that ensues.
Dave McGraw shows very confident footwork beneath the engrossing guitars
as vocalist and acidic frontman Travis Ryan rips his own throat out all
over the track.
The Harvest Floor hits streets on January 20th and comes highly endorsed by this Crusher staff writer. The record is a black humored masterpiece that is simultaneously very serious and has something to say, even if a lot of vocals evoke tortured blood gargling. Cattle Decapitation should've written the soundtrack for the WETA Workshop special effects sequences (the guys who did Lord Of The Rings) in the recent New Zealand horror film Black Sheep, where abused and chemically mutated sheep become flesh eaters and get revenge on humanity by the thoundands! Seriously! Go by a pound of some Chronic, rent this cinematic high water mark that generations will be judged by, turn the movie's sound down, toke up and crank The Harvest Floor! Not only does the band hold down (and burn down) the butcher shop all on their own but The Harvest Floor features guest appearances from Ross Sewage (Impaled/Ludicra), Dino Sommese (Dystopia/Asunder), Jarboe (Swans),Jackie Perez Gratz (Grayceon/Amber Asylum), and Los Angeles noisician John Wiese. Personally, the thought of even Jarboe alone on a Cattle Decapitation record as a guest is seriously exciting. These guys do not hold back, ever, and the talented batch of people they've invited on board this time are sure to add to the band's gut-busting legacy.
The Harvest Floor may be the best disc yet from the band and represents a huge West Coast artistic statement that the grind-freaks will be more than happy to live up to on their Killing 'Til Oblivion tour, kicking off Jan 21st with fellow Rictus-grinning-assholes Psyopus, Book Of Black Earth and Gigan. The following is my exchange with Travis Ryan about the concepts and urges that went into making this heavy, heavy, heeaavvvyyy record.
MORGAN Y. EVANS: Producer Billy Anderson is quite renowned and
has always worked with and pushed the range of bands he gets behind, with
his work ranging from Jawbreaker to the Melvins’ Houdini to
High On Fire and Crisis’ late, great Like Sheep Led To Slaughter
album, to name a handful, Eye Hate God’s Dopesick,
seriously, or Neurosis’ Enemy Of The Sun, arguably one
of their best three records ever. Billy’s pedigree is wide and he
is also quite a capable musician whether in his own groups like Blessing
The Hogs or near whatever he touches. How did you end up working together
on the new album and what did he contribute to The Harvest Floor?
TRAVIS RYAN: Years ago we played with Blessing the Hogs in Anaheim, CA and I guess he hit up Josh (Elmore-Guitar) there about recording us in the future. I thought I recognized his name but didn’t think much of it. Apparently we made a fan of him from the times that he saw us. I love the guy, but for some reason he holds us in really high regard. It’s extremely flattering as he recorded fucking Swans’ live material on their Soundtracks For The Blind album! That’s a big one you missed! [laughing] So, being dumbstruck about that, we of course jumped at the chance to work with him. We didn’t quite get what we wanted out of our Karma.Bloody.Karma album, (another one Billy did for us), but we were definitely close. We met with him and explained our side of things, and he was dead set on doing a record we wanted. So we went with him and had Zach Ohren do the drums, since our new drummer Dave McGraw was a fan of his drum recording skills. What we got is really mind-blowing. Not perfect by any means, but that’s nearly impossible to do without cheating. Most bands, especially these little 20-year old fuckers flat out cheat. Period. They cheat by using inhuman ProTools techniques to make it “perfect”, but if you can’t do it live, then don’t put it on record, that’s how we feel. To each their own, but that’s how we feel. Billy has a lot of input on the recording, but he is super open to our ideas and that’s what we love about him.
MYE: Yeah, It’s cool Billy’s also involved in another record that features Jarboe of Swans [and her own!] fame. It’s hard to imagine her being involved with the band if you were introduced to the group via To Serve Man, but it’s awesome! Also, How did it feel when Billy described the album as one of- if not THE- recording he’s most proud of in his career? That’s a tall order!
TR: I know! What the fuck!? [laughing] He said that to me and I said, “Wait… say that again! Slowly this time so I can quote you on it.” Its true. He’s super proud of this record, and he loves us and we love him. Billy is friends with Jarboe and hooked her up with us. I am a HUGE fan of hers. It’s quite ridiculous. I have everything she’s done and more!
MYE: I really like Children Of God by Swans. But, you’ve done a whole damn film this time accompanying the CD, documenting the making of it. I love that, when, bands like (the very different from you sonically) Mogwai, have featured films, like with their Mr. Beast album. How hard was it documenting and properly accompanying the making of the record without interfering with making it during recording?
TR: Have you seen it? Its pretty low budget man!!! [laughing] I mean, shit… I light my farts on it! The hard part was getting it all edited, and I have to commend our buddy Cain Gillis for an awesome job putting it all together in time. He’s a genius. Never really did much editing, but he somehow knew what he was doing the whole time. It’s pretty ridiculous to watch him work. He does our web stuff, too. It didn’t interfere with the recording at all. If anything, having Dino Sommese (Dystopia/Asunder) in there feeding me chronic and nitrous oxide helped slow things down, but only in my mind. [laughing]
MYE: [laughing] Do you guys get mad or does it often happen that because the band is associated with grind or death that stupid people might assume you aren’t astute in regards to other styles?
TR: I think when they see that we’re a “veggie-gore band” that we must be fucked up in some way and could be into just about anything! [laughing] The Drive-By Truckers shirts our guitar player wears probably doesn’t help the situation much either, but that’s great! We thrive on diversity.
MYE: What does the album title The Harvest Floor represent to you? It sounds rather conceptual and stark and yet potentially QUITE ominous.
TR: A “harvest floor” is the area of a slaughterhouse where the animal is finally killed. Done with a bolt or bullet to the head or a slit to the throat to drain the blood. It’s the area of finality and our album has a very “final” feel to it. Very “ominous” as you say. So to me, it represents just that. That is why the title track has that feel to it. It’s like a death march for the end times.
MYE: It's cool how the cover art is these people being blindly led to their deaths. Can you tell us, Travis, about the headspace you were in lyrically or the dynamic within the band at the time that coincided with the writing of The Harvest Floor? Any song name as exciting as “Colostomy Jigsaw Puzzle" (from 2000's Homovore album by Cattle Decap)?
TR: There are a couple. “Tooth Enamel and Concrete”, “The Gardeners of Eden” and “The Ripe Beneath the Rind” come to mind. This album is pretty much Karma.Bloody.Karma., part 2, on purpose. There just wasn’t enough said about certain things that dominate that album and I’ve closed that chapter on this record. I may revert back to a sort of mixture of that vibe and our earliest records for the next release. I even have the album cover already! I always think ahead. In fact, The Harvest Floor was a working title for the last 2 albums! I tend to collectively and methodically come up with lyrics which begin with song titles and album names. If it doesn’t feel right, it can’t be. So it was the right time for this concept.
MYE: 2004’s Humanure may have had the most disgusting album cover of all time (showing a cow excreting a dead human), more than even more straight-forward butcher/gore bands. Yours had a lot more conceptual depth though, even including the gross-out factor. The new album cover is cool, also. It looks like a King Diamond version of a Cattle Decapitation cover! Sweeeeeet!
TR: [laughing] I see what you mean about the King Diamond thing. Humanure was actually artist Wes Benscoter’s idea, because he didn’t like the ideas I was giving him. I respect his opinion almost more than the other guys’ in the band, as he is a fucking master, but also because having that kind of respect for the artist gets you a killer product, period. I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else, honestly, for fear that this progression would be killed. I have the album cover for the next one, but it’s so fucking gory, (yes, a million times worse than Humanure), that Metal Blade is going to have to put an O-card over it or something. So, we’ll hopefully have Wes do the art for that. I’m really happy that this time Wes was able to honor our requests and do the idea that I came up with. He nailed it perfectly. To Serve Man, Karma and this one were my ideas and he just fucking nails ‘em every time!
MYE: I am dreading what that cover art is going to be [laughing]! Oh, man. Tell me about “The Gardeners Of Eden”. I had a dream recently that our hopes for Paradise are more man made than we pay attention to, in that, the world needs nurturing. Not to say that Adam and Eve are real, or some crap, because that seems like a fairy tale, but in the dream there was an empty garden with no humans in it, but the serpent just chillin’. Like, there may be so called “evil” in nature, so to speak, but it's more animal survival instinct... but paradise also can’t exist in truth if we ignore our most base instincts and refuse to try and improve.
TR: “Evil” is a man-made apparition. It’s an idea used to steer people in the right direction. There cannot be evil in nature as everything happens for a reason. Man’s nature is destructive and “evil” would just be an opinion if you ask me. "The Gardeners of Eden" song refers to humans as the gardeners, cutting down and ripping out our natural world. If a god really did create this world, then he’s a miserable, sadistic, fallible fuck.
MYE: [laughing] There's certainly a lot of problems with it, not counting just what we've done ourselves. Well...2008 was a kick-ass year for all shades of metal, from thrash with Testament’s kick-ass return to experimental pagan black metal like Hellveto’s Neoheresy and lots of other stuff across the map! What excited you musically last year and what are you looking forward to the most in the world of brutal music besides, of course, dropping your own latest monstrosity?
TR: The band Nadja really hit me hard. It’s a killer guitar and bass duo with electronic drums from Toronto. They’re super slow, darkly ambient and “dirgy”. One of my current favorites. My old electronic band 5/5/2000 actually was fortunate enough to do a split record with them so that was cool.
MYE: Nadja is dope. I love the guy and the girl chemistry in that band and artistic sort of approach. There's a less heavy, but still Melvins influenced band called Black Horse from Brooklyn I just discovered that's a guy and a girl with a Roland drum machine and like, Melvins guitars but they have these swanky Boss Hog type vocals that are also really dope and people should get down too. AS for you guys, what do you think will startle people the most about the new Cattle Decapitation record?
TR: That we finally were able to capture that feeling you get when we play live. We’re a much different band live than on record, but we’re doing our best to change that. Mainly from popular demand; we’re finally giving in, ok, you assholes! [laughing] That, and the intense musicality of it. For being a brutal record, it’s very musical without being too much in one area.
MYE: Can you further explain the process of working with Zach Ohren on the drum tracking and how it went documenting new drummer David McGraw on CD for the first time with this band? He must have had ideas he really wanted captured, no?
TR: It was pretty funny getting Dave to do stuff we’re used to like interviews and such. He’s a great guy and I love him. Zach was really good, kinda has an edge. We didn’t know what to make of him at first but we figured him out for the most part. I think he was just tripping that we asked him to do JUST the drums as apparently drums are his least favorite thing to record. But we had a feeling this was worth giving a shot. We got a fucking amazing record, so we’re glad we did it. The reviews so far seem to agree!
MYE: Yeah, the drums sound very succinct and complimentary. Lastly, one thing that has always been cool about your band is that you always seem, despite whatever success you gain, to keep things in the right place, like, I can find a cool, not as well-known band online, like the demented slow-grime of Hyperion Blast from Buffalo,NY and it doesn’t seem out of place to imagine them playing with you guys. Your name is Cattle Decapitation, so it isn’t like, on banners and t-Shirts at Wal-Mart, but, you guys still are getting real established and have earned respect yet stay in touch with the scene.
TR: Yeah, I mean we come from a total “DIY” background and still pretty much do. We do, of course, rely on booking agents and labels for things, but as long as we’re not making money off of it, we’re no “better” than the local bands opening. Just more well-known. And, probably better musically. Just kidding. No, seriously, we’re very well-grounded and the idea of being a “rock star” and playing death metal or what-have-you is retarded.