UMUR "To Serve Man" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, California based grindcore/death metal act Cattle Decapitation. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in July 2002. There have been a couple of lineup changes since the release of "Homovore (2000)" as guitarist Gabe Serbian has been replaced by Josh Elmore, and Troy Oftedal has been added as the band´s bassist.

Stylistically especially the change on the guitarist post has had an impact, and while the band´s core style is still predominantly grindcore based, there are now a couple of death metal traits in the music too (especially closing track "Chuck Blower" features death metal elements). The riffs are at times pretty sophisticated for the style, and Elmore is generally a very adventurous guitarist. The vocals on the album are pretty extreme. Travis Ryan´s vocal style is deep growling layered with high pitched screams. The lyrical universe is still an odd blend of vegan extremism/political agenda, violence, and bizarre humour. It´s hard not to find song titles like "Testicular Manslaughter", "Long-Pig Chef and the Hairless Goat", "Hypogastric Combustion by C-4 Plastique", and "Colonic Villus Biopsy Performed on the Gastro-Intestinally Incapable" oddly charming.

The sound production is decent but not perfect. The drum sound is a bit "artificial" sounding, and the mix is often a bit thin (lacking bottom), but overall the sound suits the music pretty well, and it´s probably an aquired taste if you´ll enjoy the sound production. So upon conclusion "To Serve Man" is a relatively high quality release by Cattle Decapitation, although they were still a little rough around the edges at this early point in their career. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy Before drifting into pure death metal territory the San Diego based CATTLE DECAPITATION started out in the goregrind and noisecore arenas of extreme metal. After a couple of EPs, they released their debut TO SERVE MAN in 2002 which is somewhat of a bridge between the early years and those that followed as this one takes the goregrind and merges it with more deathgrind. As evidenced by the cover alone, this is meant to be nasty and gory through and through with the visual shock value turned up to 11 and such clever titles as “Testicular Manslaughter,” “Colonic Villus Biopsy Performed On The Gastro-Instestinally Incapable” and “Long-Pig Chef And The Hairless Goat” making me think of the perfect fusion between early Carcass in relentless grinding brutality mixed with the humor of band like Psychostick.

TO SERVE MAN is simply a near 35 minute brutality bash with the expected grindcore elements like relentless guitar riffing with a muffled bass and incessant drumming that has never heard of a break for even one second! While the music is still very much rooted in grind, Travis Ryan’s vocals are very much in the death metal camp hence the term deathgrind! The musicianship is top of the line with one tiring speed metal riff after another with breakdowns and pummeling rhythms and occasional outbursts of a solo. This is some brilliantly brutal metal for those who love a constant barrage of uncompromising brutality but for me the tracks seem to lack enough variety to make this an extremely exciting listen all the way through. The drums become a tad monotonous at times and the riffs begin to sound a bit recycled by the end of the album, however if you are in the mood to simply band your head until your eardrums pop out then this will do the trick. Seditious and refractory music to spread earaches far and wide!