Oh shit, I forgot Travis Ryan had a side project

Bonus points if you can read Travis' shirt

This isn't exactly breaking news, but it's still worth mentioning. Those of you who are familiar with the deathgrind masters Cattle Decapitation should definitely take a few minutes to check out Travis Ryan's equally brutal side project Murder Construct. This top notch grind machine features the infamous Cattle D. vocalist, as well as members of highly esteemed death metal and grindcore bands like Impaled, Exhumed, Phobia, Bad Acid Trip, Intronaut and more, so basically if you're a grind fan your jeans should be tightening any second now. All the usual ingredients for a good deathgrind band (dissonant chords, frantic blasts, an anti-everything mentality, etc.) are on display, but Murder Construct also put their own unique spin on the music, adding atmosphere and the occasional elephant-marching groove to the equation. If you want to get an idea of what they sound like, the lineup pretty much speaks for itself; think Karma Bloody Karma-era Cattle D. meets Exhumed, then they decide to get really drunk and play grindcore. The production is organic but not muddy as with many other bands in their genre, so it sounds like you're sitting there watching them jam. And speaking of watching them jam, you can do just that with this video of them rehearsing their song "Control".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwlv3nTJOfM

Murder Construct's debut self-titled EP is out now via Relapse Records, but if you're too cheap to get it Metalsucks is also streaming it in full over yonder. Since a lot of the members are currently busy with their main projects this band doesn't really do a whole lot of shows, but according to their Myspace (y'know, because anyone fucking uses Myspace anymore) they have a show scheduled in Los Angeles for March 4th, so if you live in the L.A. area you're a lucky, lucky fuck. Leave your thoughts in the comments, and stay tuned for the next installment of Slam Spotlight sometime this evening.

-BK

King of Those Who Know Show Review: Cattle Decapitation w/ Devourment, Knights of the Abyss, Burning the Masses, and Son of Aurelius October 28th in Seattle, WA

Please welcome another new writer (and old timer apparently) to our midst, King of Those Who Know. Expect more show reviews and blog posts from him in the future.

So the night starts out with local opener Bloodhunger from Tacoma. Not too many people there except the bar, but they were ridiculously good. Usually I'm up to date with local bands but they got by me, and man do I regret it. I definitely think anyone who likes any kind of metal to check them out! They play about half an hour set and some more people start coming in.

Devourment

Next up is Son Of Aurelius, another band of whom I've never heard. Apparently they have a new vocalist. A young band that brings a lot to the table if you like tech death. Some people start getting into them, some headbanging going on and some moshing, not much though. People were more watching then moving, with good reason cause these guys were good!

Another young band is up by the name of Burning the Masses. I've listened to these guys a little on last.fm but just never got into them, for some reason I just assumed they were a lame deathcore band, not a good misconception! The place now has maybe 50 people on the floor, lots in the bar, a pretty good turnout for a Thursday night. A lot of young people showed up for this show, so at least there are young people who know what good music is. These guys go up and shred and I just watch. Now theres a pretty good pit going, with one or two hardcore dancers. These guys played like one breakdown and of course they hardcore dance.... right next to the pit. So a hardcore dancer hits a mosher in the face and theres almost a fight, but security and other moshers break it up. That was the only time my eyes were off BTM, they had great harmonies and straight riffin just about the whole time. A great band that people should check out if they like bands like The Faceless.

Devourment

Now Knights of the Abyss is up. They have talent, but I think they were on the wrong tour. It couldn't have been easy to follow the other acts, cause they just seemed boring to me. No moshing or headbanging for the most part. I was right in front of the stage so I looked back to see the same kid dancing just about the whole time, but no one cared because these guys just didn't cut it. Great talent, but the other bands just had my expectations raised too high for these guys. 

Next up is Devourment, their first time ever in Seattle. They were one of the most heavy, brutal, crushing death metal acts I have ever seen. It was 

Cattle Decapitation

like a bulldozer over everyone, just fast crushing riffs and blast beats. It was almost indescribable. They were a great live act, everyone was moving for these guys, I got into a few pits, almost everyone on the ground was either headbanging or moshing. The live experience was great, this is the true meaning of "heavy." On a side note I think its funny and great that the Hardcore dancers left after KOTA.

Finally the headliners: Cattle Decapitation! I got right in the middle of the stage for these guys, the anticipation was great, made even better by the Terminator song played in the dark. Everything about this band was great; one of the most insane guitarists I've ever seen, the bassist was matching a lot of it. The drummer was amazing, and Travis was in my face for most of the show. The performance was complete with his spitting all over the place and catching it. A live performance that can't be described through words. Everyone was moving for these guys too, just good fun moshing. If you have never seen these guys, I recommend that you go out of your way to see them. They played a lot off the Harvest Floor and some older stuff. After they walked off everyone started to chant "Encore! Encore!" They came out again and Travis asked "you guys want another? how about two more?" then he thanked us for staying for all the bands. He said their next song was "The Decapitation of Cattle" and it was about a second long, then he said seriously thanks for coming out and the next song is "The Recapitation of Cattle" and that song lasted about a second and that was it. Very funny guys that are truly in a league of their own. The only performance I've seen better than this was The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Cattle Decapitation

So the tour's just about finished but I highly recommend that you go to see these bands when they come through your town.