Cattle Decapitation - Biography
San Diego grind/death band Cattle Decapitation uses the ultraviolent imagery and surgical vocabulary of its metal subgenres to dramatize the horror of the food chain and promote animal rights. Gabe Serbian and Dave Astor, both members of the Locust at one time or another, formed Cattle Decapitation in 1996 with bassist Ben and singer Scott Miller, who also played guitar. Their first release was Ten Torments of the Damned (1997 Humanure Atrocities), a 10-song 7-inch. It is not clear when Ben and Scott left, but Cattle Decapitation’s three songs on the split release with Armatron and Tic War 1 (1999 ToYo) featured new vocalist Travis Ryan and no apparent bassist.
Images of anthropophagy provided Cattle Decapitation with its first four album titles. After Human Jerky (1999 Satan’s Pimp) and Homovore (2000 Three One G), Metal Blade signed the band, releasing To Serve Man (2002 Metal Blade) and Humanure (2004 Metal Blade). To Serve Man, named for the 1962 Twilight Zone episode (“It’s a cookbook!”), was the first album with bassist Troy Oftedal and guitarist Josh Elmore. Founding members Gabe Serbian and Dave Astor were gone by Humanure; Serbian had left to play with The Locust in 2000, and Dave Astor left after To Serve Man. Josh Elmore told themetalweb.com that the band fired Astor, and further complained that Astor’s interest in the band had been waning, that he was unwilling to tour, that he played too many blast beats, and that his desire to sleep in hotel beds was an expression of his “sedentary, lax lifestyle.” Drummer Michael Laughlin first appeared on Humanure.
LA noise maniac John Wiese made guest appearances on the albums Karma.Bloody.Karma (2006 Metal Blade) and The Harvest Floor (2009 Metal Blade), and Jarboe, formerly of Swans, also appeared on the latter. New drummer David McGraw made his recorded debut with the band on The Harvest Floor, bassist Troy Oftedal’s last. Derek Engemann plays bass in Cattle Decapitation’s current live lineup, unveiled on the 2010 European Human Harvest tour.
