Following on from 2019’s rapturously received Death Atlas, Terrasite is Cattle Decapitation’s tenth album, and a deeply impressive sequel to an album widely presumed to be the pinnacle of the band’s career. Taking a substantial step away from the focused darkness of Death Atlas, Terrasite sees the band exploring a wider range of influences with stunning effect. The result is an album that sees the band’s nihilistic message supported by an ambitious soundtrack that draws on influences such as Strapping Young Lad and Gojira, alongside the more familiar, death metal suspects. Sometimes mesmerising, sometimes melodic, yet always brutal, it is a masterclass in crafting an album that explores the boundaries of what is possible in extreme metal without an ounce of compromise, and it stands shoulder to shoulder with its predecessor.
With a short, atmospheric introduction only serving to set the nerves aflame, Terrasitic Adaptation takes its time to reach critical mass, the band unleashing huge, flaming chords before Travis Ryan’s harrowing scream tells us the band have formally arrived. Ferocious, yet with underlying hints of melody, this is everything we’ve come to love about Cattle Decapitation – huge, juddering riffs, inhuman vocals and epic solos all present and correct, with a surprisingly catchy chorus tucked away amidst it all for good measure. It’s one hell of an opener and the band lose not a second as they plunge headlong into the frantic horror of We Eat Our Young. With producer Dave Otero somehow carving remarkable clarity out of the sonic carnage, We Eat Our Young is a seriously weighty, surprisingly groove-laden blast that sees Cattle Decapitation streamlining their sound with devastating effect, although it’s a shame it fades out rather than come to a definitive end. Next up, the stabbing Scourge Of The Offspring is a testament to the musical skill of the band and drummer David McGraw in particular. Drawing on elements of Gojira, it’s a punishing, musically complex piece, delivered with remarkable precision. Equally intense is The Insignificants, a dizzying piece that takes a sudden leftfield turn towards the epic, complete with monstrous, hanging chords, clean vocals and synth elements. Deeply impressive, it paves the way for first side closer The Storm Upstairs, a weighty songnthat is all the heavier for the slower pace the band adopt. With Olivier Pinard’s bowel-rupturing bass and Travis’ vocals delivered with coldly mechanical precision, it brings the first half of this brutal, yet varied album to an impressive close.
The second side kicks off with the whirling rage of …And The World Will Go On Without You, another track that starts out as “simply” a great Cattle Decapitation song, before introducing a more progressive element that only adds to the sense that the band is having fun pushing the boundaries wherever possible. The imperious rage of A Photic Doom sees David trying to reduce his drumkit with a barrage that leaves the listener feeling shellshocked, although the epic lead work of Josh Elmore ensures that this is not mere brutality for the sake of it. Dead End Residents, meanwhile, is a masterclass in seething death metal, the uncomfortably on-point vocals deliberately rendered with a clarity not always afforded the band’s work, ensuring the listener can escape neither the message, nor the savage riffing that emerges as the song progresses. Yet, even here, with the band at their most foreboding, the subtle addition of (sort of) clean vocals adds another dimension to proceedings, ensuring the listener will remember the various tracks long after the album has concluded. The crystalline riffing of Solastalgia sees the band maintaining the levels of intensity, but it’s the album’s stunning, conclusion that will have everyone talking. A ten-minute piece that draws in brooding piano and atmospheric layers of synth, Just Another Body is a truly cinematic finale that shows just how far the band have come. That it is still fearsomely heavy probably should go without saying, but there’s a maturity to the delivery and a sense of ambition that truly sets the song, the album and the band apart, and it leaves the listener utterly stunned in its wake.
It is no easy task to follow up an album as impressive as Death Atlas and yet, with Terrasite, Cattle Decapitation have outdone themselves musically and conceptually. Utterly without compromise, the band have still managed to successfully incorporate a range of elements without losing sight of what it is that has made them such a respected staple of the death metal world. The result is a masterpiece and an absolutely essential album for any fan of extreme metal. 10/10
