By Joseph Franklin and Jillian Locke

CHARM CITY DEVILS ~ EDITOR’S PICK!

Charm City Devils (John Allen ~ vocals, Vic Karrera ~ guitar, Anthony Arambula ~ bass, Nick Kay, guitar, and Jason Heiser, drums), the band hand selected by Nikki Sixx as the first to be signed to his label, Eleven Seven Music (named the Rock Label of the Year by FMQB), has already taken over the Baltimore rock scene and now has its sites set on the rest of the rock lovin’ universe ~ and their debut album Let’s Rock-n-Roll is helping them do just that. It won’t hurt, either, that the Devils have just been added to the heavy hitting line-up for this summer’s Crue Fest 2, where they’ll share the stage with Motley Crue, Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman, and Drowning Pool.

Here’s what Nikki Sixx had to say about signing the Charm City Devils: “When I first heard Charm City Devils, my initial thought, along with everyone at Eleven Seven, was this is a real rock band! When I listen to their music I hear elements of credible bands like Aerosmith and I feel AC/DC. I like the fact that they’re from Baltimore and the way they relate to the working man’s experience. They’re not from NY or LA. You don’t hear many bands from Baltimore and these guys carry on tradition with their own relevant modern sound with classic riffs.”

OK, that’s pretty much the only endorsement I needed to hear!

So first, grab a copy of CCD’s Let’s Rock-n-Roll; then catch them at Crue Fest 2 at the Comcast Center in Mansfield on August 19. Get even more Charm City Devils at www.myspace.com/charmcitydevils.

IGGY POP’S PRELIMINAIRES

Iggy Pop, the Godfather of Punk, takes on the language of romance and gets “dangerously near jazz” on his new album, Préliminaires, to be released in the U.S. on EMI Music’s Astralwerks label on June 2. Produced by Hal Cragin, Préliminaires, which means “foreplay” in French, is score music inspired by Michel Houellebecq’s 2005 novel The Possibility of an Island.

The book is “… about death, sex, the end of the human race, and some other pretty funny stuff,” says Iggy. “I read the book with intense pleasure when it came out and, in my mind, I created music that would have been the music that I would hear in my soul when I read it.”

Later on Iggy was approached to write several songs for a film documentary about Houellebecq’s life and his attempt to direct a film of his own book. “The project grew and grew and I found the emotions from my reading transforming themselves into music,” Iggy explains. “I wrote less and less for the movie and started writing an alternative score to the novel.”

On Préliminaires, which eventually took on a life of its own beyond the film project, Iggy sings the standard “Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves),” originally covered by the likes of Yves Montand and Edith Piaf, while the New Orleans-influenced “King of the Dogs”—with a jazz arrangement featuring trumpet, trombone and clarinet—tells the story of a dog named Fox who explains “how cool it is to be a dog, and how much it beats human life.” There’s also a version of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s bossa nova standard “How Insensitive (Insensatez).”

“At one point, I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music. I’ve started listening to a lot of New Orleans-era, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton type of jazz. And I’ve always loved quieter ballads as well,” says Iggy. “There are some guitars on the album. Only one song is vaguely raucous; three have jazz-like instrumentation.”

The album was recorded in Woodstock and in Miami, where Iggy first sketched out the songs in his small cabin on the river on his old wooden guitar.

“Like Daniel, the book’s protagonist, I too have grown weary of a career as an entertainer and I wish for a new life,” he says. “I, too, have spent desolate hours in the future world of the Spanish Coast. The concluding chapters about Daniel and his small faithful dog wandering doomed through a ruined earth to the desiccated sea were the most empathetic and believable predictions of the future that I’ve encountered.”

The visuals for the album package are being created by French/Iranian graphic novelist and award-winning film director Marjane Satrapi, who first met Iggy when she asked him to do the voice for one of the characters in her Oscar-nominated animated feature Persepolis in 2007

ISIS

On May 15, ISIS embarked on a six week US tour in support of Wavering Radiant, kicking things off in San Diego. The band’s latest release finds the LA-by-way-of-Boston quintet teaming up with producer Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins).

The music of ISIS is a suitable metaphor for their 12-year career: patient, meticulous, fraught with tension and gradually building towards an apex of seismic proportions. From the hypnotically bludgeoning down-tuned riffs of their early years to the gracefully sprawling passages on their pivotal sophomore album Oceanic and continuing through the intricate rhythmic textures and increased melody of 2006’s In The Absence of Truth, ISIS have successfully navigated the process of growing and evolving without disavowing their initial vision.

There is no consensus among ISIS’s cult-like fan base as to which album serves as the ultimate document of their art. Each record is a piece in the puzzle. Consequently, to brand their latest offering, Wavering Radiant, as the pinnacle of their achievements would be folly. Yet it’s a tempting proclamation. The factors that defined ISIS
in the past are still present, but the band manipulates its tactics and strategies with a refined sense of purpose and a heightened knack for nuance. They’ve extrapolated on the polar nature of their music it’s simultaneously their most challenging and accessible music to date. While Wavering Radiant is finely structured, dynamically varied, and melodically developed, it’s also unpredictable, expansive, and densely layered. Every ISIS endeavor is an active listening experience ~ requiring an aficionado’s ear for subtlety and a scholar’s grasp of the larger picture ~ but Wavering Radiant manages to provide instant gratification while also harnessing the slow burn of a classic, revealing the full extent of its mysteries only after repeated listens.

Rare is the record that finds the individual players as compelling as the sum of their parts, and ISIS has achieved just that. While the monolithic guitars of Aaron Turner and Michael Gallagher remain a primary fixture in the ISIS soundscape, the dueling instrumentalists continue to develop and expand upon their interplay. Together they
evoke the emotional range of Wagner: brooding, triumphant, vengeful, and morose. Aaron Turner’s vocals are more prominent than ever. But in keeping with the egalitarian nature of their art, the vocals continue to serve as flourishes rather than a focal point. Clifford Meyer’s multi-instrumentation duties play a stronger role this time around as well. His atmospheric textures are still present, but he unlocks new horizons for the band with Fender Rhodes, electric organ, and the occasional psychedelic guitar lead. Jeff Caxide’s bass playing still covers a broad spectrum from providing melodic counterpoints to the guitars to conjuring Peter Hook’s chorused bass leads. Wavering Radiant finally gives Caxide his due, allowing his various approaches to further accentuate the music’s shifting moods while anchoring the melodies into the formidable rhythm section. And here drummer Aaron Harris once again shows his expansive depth in technique and ability. From esoteric tabla passages to authoritative syncopated punctuations, Harris transcends the basic metronomic function of the drum set to imbue the percussive element of the band with a heightened sense of drama and power. Wavering Radiant finds every component of the ISIS armory coming into equal play.

Grandiose without being over-indulgent, epic without compromising focus, ISIS have resurrected the art of prioritizing the album over the individual songs. Wavering Radiant, though divided into seven pieces, is essentially one composition. It’s difficult to listen to the record without feeling the ghost of an era in rock music where musicians weren’t afraid to take chances, weren’t concerned with pandering to short attention spans, and weren’t compelled compact their material into a radio-friendly format. With producer Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins, Enslaved) behind the boards, the recording displays a sonic range and tonal depth in perfect step with the broad range of the band’s capabilities. This is an audiophile’s dream: rich in headphone candy, goose-bump inducing in its crescendos, majestic in its beauty, humbling in its devastating power. If radio still exists in 30 years, Wavering Radiant is the kind of record that obsessive DJs will play in its entirety during their graveyard shifts.
But the huddled mass of ISIS enthusiasts is already celebrating its arrival.

You can catch Isis on June 4 in Northampton at Pearl Street and on June 5 in Boston at The Paradise ~ we’ll be at that second show snapping pix to share with you in next month’s issue!

www.isistheband.com

JASON SHANNON

Minneapolis, MN-based singer-songwriter Jason Shannon will be performing at Paradise Rock Club in Boston on Monday, June 15, opening for acclaimed musician Bob Schneider in support of his debut release.

Released April 21 on Wild Horse Records, the 12-track self-titled debut album Jason Shannon opens with the first single, “Mister Miracle Mile,” an infectious, gypsy-tinged take of greed-gone-wild, complete with fiery horns, that is currently building at radio. Performing Songwriter recently included the record in their DIY Top 12 list for March/April 2009 and noted that “…overall, the diversity of the tracks, paired with Shannon’s heartfelt tenor, makes for an intriguing and worthwhile listen” (Beth Walker).

Fusing folk, blues, pop, soul and rock & roll, Shannon creates a funky blend of American roots music and thoughtful, intelligent lyrics. Check out the Texas-born Shannon and his five piece band (with Daryl Bolicek on drums/percussion, Tim Carrow on keyboards/vocals, Nick Johnson on bass guitar, and Wendy Tangen-Foster on violins/vocals) at jasonshannonmuscomic and myspace.com/jasonshannonmusic.

THE YEAR’S GONE BY

Like the new video “You Might As Well Be In Space” from The Year’s Gone By? Then catch them live at the Waterfront Tavern (w/ Conditions and The Anytime) in Holyoke, MA on June 14. And check out more of the band at www.myspace.com/theyearsgonebynj

FRONTIERS RECORDS

Everything Old is New Again…And Better Than Ever

With Frontiers’ new North American distribution deal with Super D Independent Distribution (SDID), a bunch of great music from big names that have been around for a while but are still rockin’ are now available in stores:

JSS (better known as former Yngwie Malmsteen, TSO, and Journey vocalist Jeff Scott Soto) gives us his already highly acclaimed album Beautiful Mess on CD with a bonus DVD.

Jimi Jamison, vocalist for Survivor on the group’s biggest hits (including Rocky IV theme song “Burning Heart,” “High on You,” and others), is releasing his new solo album Crossroads Moment, written and produced by the other former Survivor member Jim Peterik.

Wetton/Downes Icon, a project made up of Asia founding members John Wetton and Geoff Downes, is releasing 3.

The melodic rock project Place Vendome, which features former Helloween vocalist Michael Kiske, will release Streets of Fire.

Former Magna Carta recording artist Robert Berry (formerly of Three, Ambrosia and GTR) will release The Dividing Line.

Leaving the End Open will arrive from Hardline, the former band of Journey’s Neal Schon and current home to Axel Rudi Pell singer Johnny Gioeli.

The great Joe Lynn Turner (Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen, Rainbow) will offer up the newest release from his melodic rock project Sunstorm.

Also slated for release is a DVD from White Lion, Live at Bang Your Head Festival 2005. The track listing for the live DVD is: “Lights and Thunder,” “Hungry,” “Lonely Nights,” “Broken Heart,” “Fight to Survive,” “Little Fighter,”
“Living on the Edge,” “Tell Me,” “Wait,” and “Radar Love.” Bonus material includes an interview with Mike Tramp.
www.trampswhitelion.com, www.myspace.com/returnofthepride

www.frontiers.it, www.myspace.com/frontiersrecordsusa

THE DECEMBERISTS

The Decemberists launched their “A Short Fazed Hovel” 2009 North American tour at the Hollywood Palladium in LA on May 19. Other highlights of the tour include their first-ever concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York (June 10), two shows at the Edgefield Winery in their hometown of Portland, Oregon (July 18-19), and major festival plays including the Sasquatch Festival (May 23), Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (June 13), Newport Folk Festival (August 1), Lollapalooza (August 7), and the Austin City Limits Music Festival (October 3). Full venue and ticketing information is available at decemberists.com/tour.aspx.

On tour, The Decemberists will play two sets a night, the first a full performance of The Hazards of Love, and the second consisting of their older material. Joining the band on stage will be special guests Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden. Pitchfork called the band’s live debut of The Hazards of Love at SXSW “a triumph,” while The Wall Street Journal declared it “a remarkable experience.”

OTEP

Victory Recrods has signed LA recording artist Otep. Otep’s all encompassing musical approach ~ coupled with her shaman-like artistic qualities and other creative musings ~ have lead to over half a million albums sold over the course of three studio albums. Singer, songwriter, renegade, and all-around force of nature Otep Shamaya describes the band’s music as “…a total and complete mutiny on the senses. We are a fusion band by nature, inspired by many styles and tones from a variety of musical genres- rock, punk, metal, hip-hop, spoken word, jazz and classic rock. We never allow the antiquated limits of a genre confine or restrict us. Our music is universal and does not belong nor can it be contained in a nice, neat, little box.”

The first project under the new collaboration is OTEP’s highly anticipated fourth full-length studio album Smash the Control Machine, which will be released on August 18. Ms. Shamaya says of the album, “The economic crisis is hitting every working family in this country. The album and its title track, ‘Smash The Control Machine,’ will lay bare the greed and corruption that fostered this calamity, but will also focus on the undying spirit of the working class that always fights the good fight. The title is a line from a William S. Burroughs poem. It is my intention to create an album that serves every head of the hydra that is OTEP. From poetry, to politics, to shock and awe, to sex and righteousness, to standing up and fighting back. Like the mystical symbol of the Ouroboros [the sacred serpent swallowing its tail] all things will be brought back to circle.”

GOMEZ

ATO Records recording artist Gomez has announced a national tour with dates confirmed throughout the spring and summer of ‘09. The band will be touring in support of A New Tide, its just-released sixth studio record. The tour kicked off in Detroit, MI, on May 22 and will be hitting Boston’s House of Blues on June 2.

“A New Tide” debuted on Billboard’s Top Album chart at #60 this week, marking the highest chart debut in the band’s history. Billboard praised the release, proclaiming that it is “a brilliant 11-song collection of lyrical jewels embellished by colorful and unusual textural arrangements.” The New York Daily News also touted the band, claiming that “Gomez crafts warm, rustic pop songs that recall classic ’60s rock groups like Traffic and the Faces,” while Paste Magazine calls the new album “Catchy, quirky & Gomez’s most experimental.”

THE MARS VOLTA’S OCTAHEDRON

The Mars Volta’s fifth studio album, Octahedron, will be released June 23 by Warner Bros. Records. The record will be preceded by its first single, “Since We’ve Been Wrong.”

Octahedron follows up last year’s The Bedlam In Goliath, which featured “Wax Simulacra,” the track that took “Best Hard Rock Performance” honors at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.

Octahedron was written by The Mars Volta ~ Omar Rodriguez Lopez (music, arrangements, direction) and Cedric Bixler Zavala (vocals, lyrics) ~ and performed by The Mars Volta group: Marcel Rodriguez Lopez, Thomas Pridgen, John Frusciante, Isaiah Ikey Owens, Juan Alderete de la Pena, Cedric Bixler Zavala and Omar Rodriguez Lopez.

Hailed by The New Yorker as “…perhaps the most musically adventurous act currently signed to a major label,” The Mars Volta formed in 2001. The band’s recorded body of work includes the 2003 debut full length De-Loused In The Comatorium as well as Frances The Mute (2005), Amputechture (2006) and the previously mentioned The Bedlam In Goliath (2008).

The Mars Volta is confirmed to appear at this year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester TN and the second annual Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco. Further U.S. dates will be announced as they are confirmed. Keep your fingers crossed that Worcester winds up on their itinerary!

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

Killswitch Engage, MA’ s favorite hard rockin’ local-boys-done-good, have announced the title for their eagerly anticipated fourth album for Roadrunner Records: Killswitch Engage. The album, produced by Brendan O’Brien (AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine) and co-produced by guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, will hit stores on June 30.

Some of the working track titles for the album include “Reckoning,” “The Forgotten,” “Light in a Darkened World” and “Starting Over.” Vocalist Howard Jones offered a little insight into Killswitch Engage: “It was time for us to step outside of our comfort zone and try something a little different with this record. It definitely still sounds like us, but we needed to be refreshed and take things a little further.” The singer also comments on the album being the band’s second self-titled effort of its career, saying, “When we all couldn’t agree on an album title, someone suggested we just keep it self-titled and we all pretty much agreed…gives it the feeling of a fresh new beginning.”

Killswitch Engage have been playing the tentatively titled “Light in a Darkened World” during their set on the Music As A Weapon Tour, where they are serving as main support to Disturbed. The band also performed the song as the opening act of the first annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which were held on Tuesday, April 7 in LA.

KE will spend the summer touring as a main stage attraction on the second annual Rockstar Energy Mayhem Fest. Jones shared that “We are excited and thrilled to share the stage this summer with Bullet For My Valentine, Slayer and Marilyn Manson. We hope to entertain and enjoy our time interacting with both old friends and new friends daily. Prepare yourself for laughs, riffs and the unexpected. We will do all we can to make you move, yell and ponder who made the mistake of letting us onstage. You have been warned. Oh, and watch new episodes of ‘The Office.’”

Pulse will be front and center at the Comcast Center on Aug 4 for the local leg of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Fest, so we’ll be bringing you plenty of pix of all the debauchery.

Killswitch Engage’s album cover art is now viewable exclusively on the band’s artist page at www.roadrunnerrecords.com/newreleases/release.aspx?releaseID=315. Check it out.

RA GUITARIST BEN CARROLL SET TO RELEASE NEW SOLO ALBUM

Universal recording artist Ben Carroll is set to release his first solo effort, “A Dream Between Two Fires,” on June 9. Carroll, lead guitarist for the band Ra (Universal/SMR) has spent the past three years conceptualizing and recording the album in between tours and recording sessions with band.

Carroll shares, “’A Dream Between Two Fires’ is the record I’ve wanted to make my whole life, I’ve always been driven to do an instrumental record that follows on the footsteps of guys like Joe Satriani & Steve Vai.”

Along with writing, arranging, producing, engineering and mixing “A Dream Between Two Fires,” Carroll laid down every track. “This record motivated me to keep innovating my guitar playing and overall musical style, as well as motivating me to learn engineering, mixing, editing, programming and all other aspects of studio work. I wanted to have full artistic freedom and be totally in charge of the end result.”

In his work with Ra, Ben has had multiple charting radio singles. Ra songs have been featured in movies, television and sporting events. Ben has shared the stage with many of the greatest bands in modern rock (Korn, Godsmack, Disturbed, Seether, Alice in Chains, Deftones) and has worked with the industry’s foremost producers and engineers (Andy Johns, Bob Marlette, Toby Wright, Jason Cosaro, Paul Logus).

The ESP & Mesa/Boogie endorsed guitarist is also gearing up along with his partners, Michael Rocchio, Jaime Vendera and Greg Pettis, to launch the website for their ground-breaking comprehensive music artistry coaching, music technical training, and music business consulting firm, The RockDoctors, LLC.

“Nothing like The RockDoctors exists. Our goal is to have a dramatic impact on the quality of rock music being produced now and into the future, as well as improving the quality of life for musicians in the modern music industry. The end result of what we are looking to achieve is to help artists to shift the standard of how music is created and marketed by putting creative power back into the hands of the artists while assuring that artists are justly compensated for their talents and efforts.”

The American Rock Star Academy, the educational arm of The RockDoctors, LLC, is the brainchild of Ben and his long-time friend and business partner, Greg Pettis. It is an online music school focused specifically on generating tomorrow’s rock stars. The American Rock Star Academy provides the student with live, one-on-one, music instruction from today’s real-world rock stars, such as members of Shadows Fall, Ra, and Megadeth, and provides artists with a source of solid income for the inevitable downtimes from touring and recording.

www.ADreamBetweenTwoFires.com
www.BenCarrollMusic.com
www.Myspace.com/BenCarroll
www.Myspace.com/RaMusic
wwwRa-Band.net

AMORPHIS: PAGAN/FOLK METAL ORIGINIATORS DELIVER NEW VIDEO!

The new video clip for “Silver Bride” from Finnish metallers Amorphis is now online on the band’s MySpace page (vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=57200462)!

Commented guitarist Esa Holopainen, “Director Owe Lingvall did a great job with ‘Silver Bride.’ We are very happy how the video came out and it really serves the song.”

The video depicts the blacksmith Ilmarinen forging a silver bride for himself. The concept for the video and idea for the lyrics was taken from a famous tale from the Kalevala, which is considered the national epic of Finland and is compiled from Finnish and Karelian folklore.

The “Silver Bride” video was shot in Helsinki, Finland at Angel Film Studios and in Umea, Sweden at Village Road Film Studios with Helsinki Pump Production Company. The video was directed by Owe Lingvall (Scar Symmetry) and produced by Mirka Rantanen. Animation and special effects were provided by David Sandberg.

Skyforger will be released on June 16 through Nuclear Blast.

Visit Amorphis online at: www.myspace.com/amorphis & www.amorphis.net

WILD LIGHT

This past March, Wild Light ~ Jordan Alexander, Timothy Kyle, Seth Pitman, and Seth Kasper ~ released their critically acclaimed debut album Adult Nights on StarTime International/Columbia. The record received praise from numerous prestigious publications including Rolling Stone, SPIN, LA Times, Paste Magazine, and Billboard. In addition to releasing their debut record this year, the band has been touring non-stop, kicking things off in January with a coast to coast US tour supporting Tapes ‘N Tapes, a string of highly successful shows at the annual SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX, and as main support on The Killers recent North American tour. Catch Wild Light at House of Blues in Boston on 6/7, supporting Doves.

WAR TAPES

Neil Popkin (singer/rhythm guitar), his sister Becca Popkin (bass), Matt Bennett (lead guitar) and William Mohler (drums) have just confirmed that they will join alternative electronic rock and industrial icons VNV Nation on a 23-date North American run, bringing them to Paradise in Boston on July 17.

Even though the band now resides in Downtown LA, the band has Boston roots. Neil and Becca are originally from the Boston area, while William is an alum of Berklee College of Music.

War Tapes are on tap to bring their self-proclaimed “heart-quaking doom pop,” timeless melodies, anthemic choruses and arena-ready sound to the masses ~ pick up their newly-released Sarathan Records debut The Continental and experience the sound for yourself!

Check out WAR TAPES’ video for “Mind Is Ugly” at www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXPZ8k7NSn8.

More band info can be found here at www.myspace.com/wartapes and www.youtube.com/wartapeschannel

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An Interview with Cattle Decapitation
Never Judge a Book by Its Cover

By Jillian Locke, Music Editor

Editor’s Note: When I was first approached to include an interview with Cattle Decapitation in Pulse, I refused, explaining that cruelty to animals ~ and those who support it ~ have no place in our magazine. I then learned a very important lesson (one that I suppose we are taught at an early age but must be reminded of from time to time) ~ that not everything is at it appears and ~ as Jillian so perfectly addressed in her article’s title ~ never judge a book by its cover. So, now knowing the guys from CD a bit better, I am GLAD to introduce you to the band and have them in our Summer Sounds issue. Jillian, take it away!

“We’re not really putting forth a message in the same way that Christians or straight-edge bands do; we’re just not like that. We’re a f*cking death metal, and that’s the angle,” says Travis Ryan, squealer (that’s right, like a pig – Travis Ryan is literally the human embodiment of a pig) for San Diego’s death-metal grinding machine, Cattle Decapitation, who’ve been out touring with GWAR, Priestess, and Withered, to name but a few. To those unfamiliar with the band, the last assumption they would make is that Cattle Decapitation is actually a vegetarian, pro-animal, anti-human group of dudes who desire nothing more than to shred and destroy.

Ryan retraces the history of CD: “The way it came about was me and a couple of dudes, including Gabe Serbian of The Locust, who wanted to carry on the torch that was lit by Carcass back in early nineties/late eighties; that of metal vegetarians.” Once again, not an assumption someone who is not familiar with the metal scene would make. However, I find that metal musicians are usually more economically, politically, and environmentally aware and active than your average folks.

For instance, the ancient Ouroboros symbol is found on the cover art of CD’s latest anti-human cacophonic masterpiece, The Harvest Floor. The symbol is a snake or dragon eating its own tail, giving it a cyclical shape. This represents birth, death, rebirth, and the eternal return; essentially, the never-ending cycle of life. “The Ouroboros symbol harkens back to original ideas of CD, with the whole ‘what comes around goes around’ concept. The meat industry kind of stands in the way (what we’ve done with our tools and hands) of natural selection, but if that is our role in natural selection, that’s not very respectful of nature…but using that symbol is to show some sort of reverence for natural law.”

With all their reverence for nature and animals and the natural law, Cattle Decapitation comprise one of the most brutal, gnarliest death/grindcore acts on the circuit. Their recent performance at this year’s NEMHF was diabolically face-melting, as is their latest Metal Blade offering, The Harvest Floor, which is an absolute essential album for any serious metal extremist. These nature-driven brutalists are on an anti-human, anti-ignorance rampage, and you would do well to get yourself caught up in their nomadic warpath.

www.myspace.com/cattledecapitation
www.cattledecapitation.com