For Those About to Squawk: Waldo Pecks on Blood Incantation and Cattle Decapitation

What’s up, guys? Your ole’ boy Waldo kicking it with you this time to give you some releases you’re going to love (or hate) I mean, whatever, I’m here to inform you of some upcoming releases.

While I may not be on the Album of the Year kick that some people are on, Blood Incantation’s Hidden History of the Human Race on Dark Descent is a STELLAR pecking record. Starspawn (their first LP) was awesome, and HHOTHR follows that up with a bang. Blood Incantation has not been kept a secret and with death metal becoming a more and more prevalent thing these days Blood Incantation is leading the pack, but I digress… HHOTHR is an exercise in death metal I mean all aspects really. There are not JUST OSDM, grooves, blasts, pinch harmonics, prog and technicality… there’s ALL of that in one tidy, neat, albeit aggressive, package. I know the “prog” word has some purists maybe a little scared, but BI never go too far into it to distract from the overall songwriting, which is pure death metal (and amazing).  The one thing to note here is that there’s an 18-minute (!?) track and while this sounds like it may be lame (they could’ve EASILY split this into two or song songs), it’s REALLY good, kinda hypnotic until it hits and pummels you into dust. I gotta say, this MAY be the record of the year. 9 Fucking Pecks.

Looks like a death metal week… on black Friday (appropriately) Cattle Decapitation will release their 8th studio effort, Death Atlas, and I gotta beaking say, it’s pretty ripping. Whatever is going on here is stellar.  There are changes, and I mean changes in the songs so they REALLY never come off as same-y. One of the first things that’s IMMEDIATELY apparent is how vocalist Travis Ryan’s voice has evolved.  High-pitched screams, and death growls are still here (as they should be), and there’s only what I can describe as vocoder type vocals, AND there’s way more depth and breadth here. The songwriting is next level here, there is no boring standard death metal. The one complaint (in this birdbrain’s opinion) is the production here is lacking a little low end, but in general is crisp and clear. Well done! 8 Fucking Pecks.

Ok, I’d write some more, but Decibel pays me by the word and they budget is only $1.47. Waldo out