Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity

So here's my thesis:

Death/grind is the new thrash metal, updated from around 1985, to now:

it's sophisticated in terms of musical structure, rapid key changes, and challenging melodic (riff) formations-- it's hard to play, yet blisteringly furious (i.e., aggressive and fast)... a great balance of savagery and technical ability: witness Danny Lilker's definition: technical and yet intense....

So, I got the advance copy and promptly burned into onto a blank CD and played it at jet-engine volume on my Tank-like If Outdated Speakers ©... because I know one thing, and I know it well:

Death/Grind, as a genre, is useless played at anything less than loudest-sound-possible (194 Db) volume: that's where it's made to be.

Like extreme forms of free jazz, this music is meant to permeate you, to absolutely be your everything for the time you're listening to it-- or to be nothing.

This is the complete opposite of background music.

BUT: give it the chance, and this will OWN you. It's perfectly, ridiculously extreme in that Death/Grind way, but is also full of surprises and tiny evolutions and tempo, key and texture changes enough to keep your cerebellum interested, while your reptile brain writhes in ectothermic ecstasy....

There's sweep-picked solos, blast beats, breakdown (all while being respectably detuned), blah blah blah-- you like extreme metal?

Monolith of Humanity is worth your while.


--Horn

[Monolith of Inhumanity is released worldwide on Metal Blade records on May 8, 2012.]