If there's one thing I can't stand it's vegetarians. Why? Well, mostly because I'm one myself. It's very annoying when you're at a dinner party and you pass on the plate of meatballs, and when asked why you suddenly have to defend yourself against people who automatically assume you're one of those militant PETA-types. And who can blame them? Most veggies I know are indeed stodgy and humorless and frankly I'm sometimes embarrassed to be associated with them. It's a good thing to have some standards in this age of mass consumerism but at least one can have a sense of humor about it. And don't even get me started about those straight edge people! Ugh! Can't stand 'em!

Another thing I can't stand is the majority of grindcore bands. It was fun when it started with bands like LÄRM and even more so when bands like NAPALM DEATH and CARCASS made it big, but one can only take musical extremes so far. Nowadays so-called 'extreme' bands are more busy outdoing each other with who can be the most 'shocking' than with actually making some decent music. It's all very funny that a band like WACO JESUS has an album cover with pics of people shitting on each other or that PROSTHETIC CUNT releases a record titled "Fucking Your Daughter With A Frozen Vomit Fuckstick" but who cares when the music on those records is so boring? Dutch grinders ROMPEPROP even have a live show with fake blood. Grindcore has become the musical equivalent of those awful 'self-referential' teenie horror comedies *yawn*

Luckily the combination of those two (vegetarianism and grindcore) is a bit more interesting. If there's one thing the blade-wielding cow god on the cover of this latest release by CATTLE DECAPITATION proves it's that some vegetarians do have a sense of humor (the cover to their previous album "Humanure" was even funnier). CATTLE DECAPITATION are not only pro-vegetarian, they're anti-human as well. The first line on the album is "Goddamn humans and their stupid ideas", and sets the tone nicely for what the rest of the record is going to be like. According to the press info they set out to do 'the most nihilistic, pessimistic and hateful record we've ever done lyrically' and I can only say they have succeeded wonderfully at that. Although there's definitely some gory lyrical bits (and even a song called "Total Gore?") CATTLE DECAPITATION never stoop down to the childish excesses of many of their contemporaries. Their blatant misanthropy may be nobody's idea of fun, but I still prefer that above slapstick splatter with lousy music. Not that CATTLE DECAPITATION's music is all that special. It's mostly your average grind/death, made slightly more interesting by some healthy doses of pure metal. The best parts on the album are the ones where they slow down things a bit, like the 7-minute long "Alone At The Landfill" with its creepy second half, or the atmospheric album closer "Of Human Pride & Flatulence". With more moments like that this would have been more than 'just' a decent album.

- Van Hoften

OFFICIAL SITE: www.cattledecapitation.com

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