Still numb from the Dynamo festival only a day before, I was glad to discover the new Cattle Decapitation in my mail. I was still very much in the mood, so what else would be better than a new album to keep the mood going for a while longer? Well, maybe seeing them live, in the surroundigns of a festival like Dynamo.

I remember the first time I put the album on, I thought something like “......wow.” Just when I thought I had seen the loudest, blackest and dirtiest bands of the moment, Cattle Decapitation came along. Not even acts like Children of Bodom, Finntroll or Opeth make such noise. And I really was close enough to those bands to judge that, for I was in the photo pit at the time. But still they are no match for Cattle Decapitation. Come to think of it, I took the CD out of my player again. Normally when I write a review I put that CD in the player, just to get in the mood again and maybe finding out something more. But with this album every time I tried, I took it out before it reached the end. This is so fucking loud, believe me, there is a limit to everything.

This doesn’t mean that they are bad though. The sound is not of a very high level, which is a shame, but these guys can play their instruments.

It just sounds a bit flat, like if they are in some cheap rehearsal room or something. Bet that will be better when they play live. The vocals are so unbelievably evil that it just gets under your skin. Not that you can make heads or tails of the lyrics, but hey, that is what the inlay is for. But the grunts, man… Before, I could not believe someone could sing like this and survive. And although the lyrics are not articulated (this is an understatement), actually reading them is enough to feel terminally ill for the rest of the evening. How about song titles like “Testicular Manslaughter”, “I Eat Your Skin”, “The Regurgitation Of Corpses” or “Chunk Blower”? Not to mention the ever so subtle “Colonic Villus Biopsy Performed On The Gastro-Intestinally Incapable”.... And still people wonder why some countries ban music like this. Not that I condone banning, but it happens and you can guess what the arguments are.

Phew, Cattle Decapitation. Picture this: every time I open the CD player to take it out, I expect to either find a CD still smoking and dripping black goo all over, or a non-human hand reaching out and pulling me into the bowels of the netherworld (or something like that)…