Review Summary: Not as tasty as it sounds.....
Grind is not a widely loved and adored genre, nor is its many sub-genres infusing death metal and hardcore punk but through decent releases of bands such as Dying Fetus, Carcass and Pig Destroyer it was grown from a unheard of genre in the dark undergrounds to minor genre filling it's niche and filling it quite nicely. Cattle Decapitation is a band rooted in death metal and gore-grind while slowly moving into a successful death metal act. They are also very rooted in their vegetarian beliefs. Their lyrics are odes to placing humans into the same captivities and treatments that our tasty animals go through to become our food. The results are often quite strewn with hilarious tounge-in-cheek humor and equally violent results. Now please, come with me and taste some
Human Jerky.
As with a lot of heavier bands with a humorous twist on their song there are samples. These samples are well timed and not overused. The first song, "Cloned For Carrion" starts with a sample of a witch asking if a unknown person is a god, after a pause he answers that he isn't. He precedes to die. This first glimpse of the album intrigues the listener then the audio vivisection begins. This first track bounces in and blasts you in the face with Travis Ryan's tormented vocals screaming and melting into your head. This track sets the standard of what is to come on the following 15 minutes of album.
The aforementioned vocalist, Travis Ryan (or Scott Miller), is mixed blessing. His voice has a guttural screech of a dying veal with the low belly-churning growls of a steroid-ridden bovine. Both these tones are used quite often and can greatly vault the track to a level of sonic dismemberment as seen in "Stench From The Dumpster" but also drag it into near unlistenable levels in a good half of the songs. And in a part that baffles me, the vocalist seem to drown in his own phlegm and blood during the outro to a song that continues into the beginning of the next. Lyrically speaking, they are all about misanthropy and animal supremacy. People dying and turned into burgers and other food stuffs. People dying and turned into household items and people just dying in general. All this dying is almost standard in any heavy genres but Cattle Decapitation all add touches of perverse, violent and droll humor to it as well. The combination of paroxysmal violence and subtle humor turns out quite well.
On the other hand it is full of total misses and pure repetitiveness. The riffs never seem to go anywhere and rarely change, the drumming (while at time executed quite nicely) is bland and sloppy. Blast beats are somewhat abound and at times get into a rather nice groove but overall are weak. The bass is unnoticeable at almost all times and the songs would seem to mash into one if not for the spaces between songs. But in overall catchiness it seems to fit together well and pull off a few half-decent songs with catchy groves (Gestation of Smegma), and strong group effort (Colon-Blo). There are also a few nuances that capture your attention keep you occupied such as the odd sounds of "Intro to Carnage", "Cream Of The Crop" and "Mad Cow Conspiracy (Bloated Bovine-Home to the Flies and Anthrax Spores)".
In conclusion, this album is a poor effort by a band that would progress over time and turn into a decent death band. Human Jerky show a band in its beginning and developing stages. This album is not for the feint of heart and should probably only be listened by fans of Cattle Decapitation and fans of grind in general.
Recommended Tracks
Cream Of The Crop
Mad Cow Conspiracy (Bloated Bovine-Home to the Flies and Anthrax Spores)
Colon-Blo
Decapitation Of Cattle
