Single Slam – An Exposition of Insides by Cattle Decapitation (Medium Rarities)

American death/grindcore band, Cattle Decapitation have a new release coming on the 23rd of November called Medium Rarities. The first song released from that is An Exposition of Insides.

Medium Rarities is the clever name for the release which is a collection of never before heard songs, live tracks, covers and out of print music – basically a load of ultra rare material from the pre Human Jerky era. If you are a fan of Cattle Decapitation, this Metal Blade release is surely a must have. The last full studio release from Cattle Decapitation came back in 2015 with The Anthropocene Extinction so it has been a while.

Cattle Decapitation are a little changed in regards to line up in 2018. Founder and vocalist, Travis Ryan, is still fronting the band. Josh Elmore is still there on guitars and Dave McGraw is still on the drums. Originally a touring member between 2015 and 2018, guitarist Belisario Dimuzio is now a full time member.  The other change comes on bass where Derek Engemann is no longer in the band, replaced with Olivier Pinard.

Photo by Pabla Montana

Speaking about Medium Rarities, frontman Travis Ryan stated the following – “I started this project 10 years ago and it got shelved because nobody could find the missing bonus track from To Serve Man. Well, they recently found it along with the lyrics and that spurred us into action and finally made this release happen! So glad this amazing artwork by Wes Benscoter will finally see the light of day! Crazy I’ve been sitting on this piece for a decade.”

An Exposition of Insides is 3 and a half minutes long and is a really heavy, aggressive blast of metal. Furiously pounded drums are the dominant sound in the beginning as the song starts at full speed. Depp, deathly growled vocals join in alongside a clever little, higher toned, compact riff. It switches to a little more technical a sound with sudden stops and starts and a glorious sounding guitar slide and squeal. In typical Cattle Decapitation style, the song manages to remain forceful and punishing throughout while still chucking loads of little change ups into the mix.

The vocals move between higher screeches and low growls. Guitars mix between playing bass heavy rumbling riffs to sudden higher toned, intricate lines. The drums are ferocious throughout but shoot off in multiple directions giving a 3 dimensional feel to the song. There is a cracking high speed solo as well adding another element to An Exposition of Insides that manages to squeeze a shit load of powerful death metal creativity into a short song.

An Exposition of Insides is a cracking song with loads going for it. It is exactly what you would expect from Cattle Decapitation. In that way, I guess you could argue it is predictable. That would be unfair though. If it is predictable that they release strong, creative, progressive grind or death, then that is a wonderful compliment. Great song.

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An Exposition of Insides is out now on the normal streaming services, like Apple Music and Spotify. There are a load of insanely collectable versions of Medium Rarities available to preorder. Different vinyl variants, cassettes, pins and more. Visit here to grab some of those. Find out more about Cattle Decapitation at their website, on Facebook and Twitter.