Cattle Decapitation – Human Jerky (1999)

September 9, 2023

The solid, first major entry from the now-legendary Cattle Decapitation. The band that made this record is a long way from the band that is putting out albums today, but this is still well worth checking out, especially if goregrind or grindcore in general is your bag. 18 songs in as many minutes, Human Jerky is frantic and messy, both in musicality (although Serbian (RIP) and Astor hold it down) and also in voice (Travis’ multi-layered gore-drenched approach is phenomenal).

FWIW: The 2020 remaster has a bit more punch and clearer samples, but for my money the original has a better balance overall and especially on the vocals. The wetter, nasty sounds of Travis’ vocals are pushed low behind the growls in the newer mix, which isn’t great.