Single Slam – One Day Closer to the End of the World by Cattle Decapitation (Death Atlas)

Cattle Decapitation, have released their first single from their new album, Death Atlas. This song is One Day Closer to the End of the World.

Death Atlas is due to drop on the 29th of November via Metal Blade Records. It is probably the most eagerly anticipated album I have left to come out this year. Death Atlas follows Cattle Decapitation’s excellent 2015 album, The Anthropocene Extinction. They did also release a compilation album of B sides and the like called Medium Rarities in 2018. A new studio album has been a long time coming. Cattle Decapitation are Travis Ryan on vocals with Josh Elmore on guitars. Dave McGraw is on the drums and Belisario Dimuzio is alos on guitars. Finally, on the bass, it’s Olivier Pinard.

Cattle Decapitation are a band I really admire. They never stand still with each new release managing to sound very much them while also sounding more expansive than the last. Genre boundaries seem like a thing Cattle Decapitation smash through rather than allow themselves to be restricted by.

One Day Closer to the End of the World is another prime example of that. It weighs in at around 3 minutes and 45 seconds long. It starts off viciously with a crunching riff and meaty drums. The riff is a bit stop start as deep and powerful vocals rip out lines. The drum and riff pace seems to keep growing in speed culminating in a chorus that makes good use of Travis Ryan’s quirky cleans. His cleans are the biggest change in One Day Closer.

They still hold that quirkiness and sound intense and threatening, especially layered over a brain melting riff and bone shaking drums but they also sound more powerful, more evolved and full. This is so evident as we hit the last section of the song. A part that left me awestruck. The heaviness slows, a few cymbal crashes and drawn out guitar notes set the scene and then bang. Heaven. A really heavy but grooving rhythm with insane drum speed while Ryan hits us with the most amazing clean vocal section. It’s brilliant, as he almost croons his way through a verse moving up and down in tone and rewriting everything you have ever known about extreme metal.

What a song, absolutely brilliant. I think the subject matter is pretty damn obvious and in line with previous Cattle Decapitation albums but, if you want to know more, check out the statement from Travis Ryan below.

“The core concept of this record is humanity’s insignificance despite what we’ve convinced ourselves. That’s kind of why this album cover takes place in space, to remind you that ‘the universe always finds a way to purge’. In the grand scheme of things, our species is merely a fleeting thought.”

So another Cattle Decapitation song and another absolute corker. It’s hard and heavy and full of extreme beats and brain melting riffs. The deep vocals are blackened and powerful but the song is made by the cleans, especially in the all conquering rhythmic section near the end. Brilliant.

One Day Closer to the End of the World is available now on all the usual streaming platforms. You can preorder Death Atlas from here.

Cattle Decapitation Links

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