Album/EP

Cattle Decapitation - Medium Rarities (Album Review)

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

/10

Nov 20, 2018

7 min read

Cattle Decapitation - Medium Rarities
Released: November 23rd, 2018

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For Cattle Decapitation fans and collectors alike, this album is a must-have.
As the album title suggests, Medium Rarities is a compilation of unreleased and hard-to-find tracks. This project has been in the works for 10 years. Complete with lyrics and vinyl colour variant schemes, based on how people like their meat prepared. I guess you could call it a "Decap re-cap", spanning the bands 22 year long career. Album artwork, which some viewers may find a little hard to swallow, while others may consider it a feast for their eyes, is by master of morbid arts, Wes Benscoter.

I'm not about to sit here and enter into the politics of Cattle Decapitation or their songs, or more accurately, the stigma associated with the band. It's over-done. I will instead quote Travis Ryan, "it's always misanthropic". I encourage you all to read the lyrics and decide for yourself. "What you are about to hear, is beyond your worst nightmares", a perfectly fitting intro to Medium Rarities from opening track 'Birth. Cancer. Death.' found on Decap's 2005 Split 7" with Caninus (final release), along with the five succeeding tracks - 'No Future', 'Chili Dispenser', with Trav's relentless vocals, spewing imagery of bloody fecal matter.

Included in the split feature, is the lone note from 'The Recapitation of Cattle', which I believe is a continuation of the 'Decapitation of Cattle' from the Human Jerky EP.
Moving on to the final two tracks from the split, are 'Thrombosis All-in' a brief 11 second track and 'Turn on the Masters', a groove filled track with some short-lived guitar squeals. The following three tracks are on Cattle Decap's 7" EP ¡Decapitacion! all tracks are in Spanish. 'Tripas de Pepe', 'Queso de la Cabeza' and 'Vino de la Sanguifero'. They can originally be found on the album Homovore, translated into 'Pepe's Intestines', 'Headcheese' and 'Wine of the Sanguine', doesn't that sound delicious? Maybe not, but the blast beats and frantic riffs definitely are. This album wouldn't be complete without the addition of some demos and there are demos aplenty. Six raw, rudimentary tracks 'Birth. Cancer. Death.', 'Diarrhea de Dahmer', 'Human Jerky', 'Thrombosis All-In', 'Colon-Blo' and 'Flesh Eating Disease', that all Decap fans need to hear. Four and a half minutes of guttural vocals, unyielding drum beats and some heavy distortion.

Continuing on, are two covers. Decap lending their own furious sound to the 1988 Carcass track - 'Burnt to a Crisp', as well as regurgitating the lyrics and music from post punk band, Birthday Party's 'Sonny's Burning'- a Nick Cave classic. The creation of this album was almost futile, without the addition of the long-sought-after To Serve Man (2002) bonus track 'Rotting Children for Remote Viewing'. The song was long lost by band members, thankfully Heather Parsons from Metal Blade was able to unearth the track, from deep within the vault, giving the band the go-ahead they needed.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_fv5deHQIo&w=640&h=360]

The final five tracks, are hard to find bonus tracks, unless of course you're a lucky fan from Japan. 'You People' was an exclusive Japanese bonus track, as was 'World full of Idiots' from the Japanese release of Karma Bloody Karma. 'An Exposition of Insides', was a Japanese bonus track from 2012′s Monolith of Inhumanity. 'No light & No Life' and 'Cannibalistic Invasivorism' were both bonus tracks from The Anthropocene Extinction.

Not only is Medium Rarities a must-have addition to any Decap fans collection, it serves as a brilliant reminder and display of just how far this Extreme band has come. Each album offering something a little more superior than the previous, setting the bar higher for themselves, with each release. Cattle Decapitation don't think outside the box, they create their own box.