Cattle Decapitation - Homovore (2000)

I was going to start out this post by making a joke about either "Homovore" meaning someone who cannibalizes gay people, or make some joke about it rhyming with "homo whore". I didn't know what to pick, nor how to execute it, so that's where you come in. Make your own director's cut version of this post and get back to me.

Opening track "Mauled" sounds pretty interesting because it's not as fast as the Cattle Decapitation we've come to know, and the production is much better! To top it off, the track is almost three and a half minutes long, which is like six hours in grindcore! It was actually astounding for me to hear because "Holy shit, they sound good here!" but then as soon as the second track "Joined at the Ass" kicks in, we're back to the Cattle Defrappucino we've always known, shitty recording quality and everything.. WHY?? WHY COULDN'T THEY CONTINUE WITH THE SAME LEVEL OF QUALITY?? WHY TEASE US?! Man, that IS a torment of the damned!!

But as a saving grace, there actually seems to be more thought put into the songs than "play the same short song for 12 minute sand hope no one notices" on "Human Jerky", with some mildly interesting parts appearing in some of the songs to help distinguish themselves slightly, but not enough for you to actually remember, such as the short drum solo in "The Roadside Dead (Detrunked Stumpification Through Roadrash)", you know, the chart-topper. But hey, at least it's a step above from COMPLETELY indistinguishable grindcore, right? Er... DEATHGRIND. Yeah!

Even in their most interesting moments on this album that finds them trying to introduce new elements into their music, Cattle Decapitation just didn't know how to write a good song overall yet, but it's still damn interesting in a "huh, neat" kind of way at times, that makes you think "if they can do this, why don't they ALWAYS do this?" before they return to the deathgrind style that made them a household name. Damn shame, too, because you can just tell these guys had something bigger going on in their minds than just standard deathgrind.

Even if the album isn't particularly good, this album finds Cattle Decapitation moving to a more interesting direction than the good ol' fashioned "make unholy noises into the microphone while some dudes play some boring shit in the background" musical monotony they were torturing ears with before. I mean, come on, we have Lana Del Rey for that.

6/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!