When I went into this year looking at all the music that was announced at the time, I knew that 2019 was going to be something special for me as a metal fan with so many new bands coming out with material that I had yet to know would blow me away along with so many past favorites coming around to deliver even more excellence. It wasn’t until a few months ago that we knew Cattle Decapitation would put out new work (I figured they’d wait until sometime early next year, personally), and I couldn’t think of a better band to cap the year off with! They have just been getting better and better in both execution, themes, and literally every feasible aspect of their craft, and to say that they’ve reached an unprecedented peak with “Death Atlas” would be equivalent to just walking up to them and spitting in their eyes.

While it was with their previous album, “The Anthropocene Extinction”, that Cattle Decapitation gained my loved and respect, their reputation truly does precede them on every possible level. Their work in the world of both grind and death metal has made them modern legends for the scene and their evolution to become what should absolutely be considered a game-changing act as been a true pleasure to witness for anyone who can get behind their sound. And even if one cannot get into their sound, they cannot argue that the very words of the lyrics have true weight to them that can only be compared to the very essence of the world baring on your shoulders. From trying to bring awareness to the cruelty of humans to other forms of life to quite literally showing how we’re killing the planet itself, Cattle Decapitation has never once shied away from showing the truth no matter how bloody or unsightly it can be. In no other work have they embraced that more than with “Death Atlas”, and it’s with this piece that we see not only the band at their absolute peak with what’s undoubtedly their crowning achievement, but we see them take the definite thrown as the key band that crosses both the realms of death and grind to transcend the styles in order to produce something that no other band has been capable of, even if they don’t know it.

The very essence of everything that is found within “Death Atlas” can be described as no less than a blaze. One that, more often than not, as you might imagine, rages far more often that smolders such that it immediately eradicates everything in its path with as much pain and destruction as both, but it still is capable to smolder to which it can produce a hauntingly beautiful sight. Everything that Cattle Decapitation has ever brought to the table across the many albums and years of their career come to an unbelievable peak here as even just one song, virtually any off “Death Atlas”, can be seen as a masterwork all on its own. When they’re put together, it creates what can only be considered one of the absolute best works of its kind that we’ve ever been blessed with. “Death Atlas” procures so much of what has made this band truly infectious in the past few years and turned the dial up to one billion as we’re granted grand songs that are unnaturally ferocious in every capacity, infectious down to the last note, and haunting on a near tear-inducing level. Everything laid down here is marvelous to behold and boiling with rage, except when Cattle Decapitation pulls back whether it’s to just throw you right back into the inferno that is the future of the planet, making everything just a tad slower but even heavier, or even switching up the vocals for an entirely different feel altogether. No other song has that better implemented the whole of “The Unreasonable Past” that cuts to the very soul that can comprehend the words that are being spoken for they are sung with sorrow for an entire world, regret for actions that have led to this doom, and heart for the innocent life that’s being punished unjustly. Such themes are common throughout “Death Atlas” and I truly believe there isn’t a single band that could’ve pulled it off better than Cattle Decapitation.

This, if you haven’t guessed by now, is an album that I feel should be considered as one of the most important works of its kind on practically every front that it can be viewed at from. It’s a work that wraps together the grand destiny of our world should we not begin to take responsibility as a species, a work that transcends just about every possible style of heaviness that’s out there, and something that burrows its way into your very psyche such that by the end of the record there is no other thought other than the echoing chaos that is “Death Atlas”. Cattle Decapitation finds someway to bring something new and excellent to the table with every single album that they put out, but it’s with “Death Atlas” in particular that they find themselves becoming a band that is not only to be heralded and respected but horrified and feared of for their power is truly that of titans.

“Death Atlas” releases on November 29th via Metal Blade Records!

PRE-ORDER “Death Atlas” via multiple sources here.

LISTEN to singles from “Death Atlas” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Cattle Decapitation on Facebook here.

FOLLOW Cattle Decapitation on Twitter: @cattledecap