Grindcore for beginners Part 5 - Choosing Death

Cattle Decapitation
Humanure
US; 2004

I'm listening to this album at the moment, and I've had to pause it to write this because I keot getting destracted by its awesomeness. While not my favourite Cattle Decapitation record (Human Jerky takes that prize hands down), this is an amazing record, and perfect for the next chapter of Grindcore for Beginners.

Oddly enough, it could also have worked in the previous chapter. Cattle Decapitation began life as a damn good gore band before moving into deathgrind, and they have retained the fascination with blood, guts and the mortification of the flesh. Unlike other gore bands (except, rather aptly, Carcass) Cattle Decapitation are devoid of the childish shok tactics and rather worrying misogyny that characterises so many others in the subgenre. This, you see, is gore with a conscience. Cattle Decapitation are militant animal rights enthusiasts, and their songs point out the horrors of factory farming, hunting, etc. usually by putting humans in the position of the animals involved. Sample lyric:

Unwanted humans food for carnivorous gimp
Rotted remnants and leftovers
Victim now a bloated flesh blimp
Blackened and purple from decay
Fetishistic sex acts with the dead
Dying from shock and being chained to the rot
Kicking and screaming and slipping in slop
Humanity is the stench that fills your nostrils
Release the gimp

That's from their fantastically titled song "Release the Gimp". But, as I said, they're not a gore band any more - this album is pure deathgrind.

Deathgrind is a subgenre that takes grindcore and adds the conspicuous technicality and higher production values of death metal. It's still brutal as fuck, but it doesn't have the lo-fi muddiness that you'll find on so many grindcore records. It's also more accessible, so if you know a death metal fan who's struggling to get into grind, this could be the perfect gateway album.

The misanthropy that permeates Cattle Decapitation's lyrics is quite common in grind. The general mindset of grindcore as a genre seems to be quite negative - I'm pretty sure it's a combination of the political/social awareness that characterises a lot of grind, and the fact that loud, noisy music is great for when you;re pissed off.

For more awesomeness from Cattle Decapitation, check out their earlier, more gore-focused album Human Jerky or last year's Monolith of Inhumanity.