CATTLE DECAPITATION

Cattle Decapitation unleash their full death grinder fury on Vancouver, pulverizing the crowd in glorious fashion

I’ve been chewing on this topic for a while now: how much does a brutally gross band name actually hold a group back? Does it tank their popularity? Scare off record buyers? Or just make their moms question their life choices? Take California’s own Cattle Decapitation — an absolutely killer band with a name that sounds like a PETA fever dream. Let’s be real, you’re never going to stroll into Walmart and find their albums sitting between Taylor Swift and Toby Keith. Online? Sure. Beside the scented candles at the mall? Not a chance.

And honestly, sometimes I feel a little ridiculous telling my mom or daughter what band I’m off to see. I usually downgrade it to something like “the moo‑moo band” or “Cattlehead,” because saying Cattle Decapitation out loud at a family dinner feels like I’m confessing to a crime. The name is outrageously graphic — but to metalheads, that’s just a fluffy rabbit. Maybe we’re all desensitized at this point.

On the upside, if anyone ever tried to ban them for the name alone, the publicity would be so good their publicist would probably ascend into the heavens. Still, an offensive name can definitely slam the door on mainstream exposure and get you quietly shadow‑banned from certain platforms. But hey — Cattle Decapitation have been doing this since 1996. At this point, they’re not just used to it… they’re thriving in it.

Tonight we caught Cattle Decapitation headlining the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver, backed by Brujeria, No Cure, and Bayonet Dismemberment. And let’s be honest — if you walked into this show hoping for love ballads, you took a very wrong turn somewhere. Cattle Decapitation have been melting ears since 1996, and they’re showing zero signs of slowing down. But it is 2026 now, and their last record, Terrasite, is starting to feel a little vintage — three years old and counting. We last saw them at the Vogue Theatre with Dark Funeral in 2023, where they tore through a few tracks off that album. The big question tonight: will they shake up the setlist and pull out some different ones?

As for the lineup, it’s mostly the same crew we saw in 2023 — Josh Elmore shredding lead guitar, Dave McGraw punishing the drums, Belisario Dimuzio on rhythm guitar, and Travis Ryan doing whatever unholy magic he does with his vocal cords. The new face is bassist Diego Soria, stepping in while Olivier Pinard focuses on Canadian death‑metal legends Cryptopsy. Fun fact: Cattle Decapitation technically have no original founding members left. Travis is the closest thing — he joined in 1997, which in metal years basically makes him a founding father anyway.

They kicked off the chaos with “Terrastic Adaptation” from Terrasite, a head‑ripping opener that had fans foaming at the mouth before the first breakdown even hit. And if Dave McGraw wasn’t warmed up by song two, he definitely was by “Your Disposal” from Monolith of Inhumanity — a full‑blown cardio workout disguised as a drum part. Song three swung us right back into Terrasite territory with “Solastalgia,” a blast of grindcore goodness that hit like a sandblaster to the face.

Like any self‑respecting extreme metal band, they performed mostly in near‑total darkness, drowning in fog thick enough to qualify as weather. Rapid‑fire strobes kept the drama high while the mosh pit slowly transformed into hamburger stew. Bodies were flying, getting scooped up, and shoved toward the stage for further inspection during “Bring Back the Plague.” No stage antics, no chit‑chat — just one skull‑smacking assault after another.

Travis Ryan’s voice was dead‑on compared to the recordings, flipping effortlessly between sewer‑drain growls and those unhinged witch‑scream highs. The band stayed insanely tight, headbanging like their necks were insured. By the time they hit “Vulturous” at song ten — one of my personal favorites — the place was vibrating. That track’s lyrical gut‑punch about humanity wrecking the planet (“cleared by corporations, distressed by the fucking shit‑stain ‘Man’…”) remains one of the most savage lines they’ve ever delivered.

One thing about this setlist: they leaned heavily on just three albums out of their eight‑album catalog. Nearly half the set — six out of thirteen songs — came from Terrasite, including the same three they played last time in Vancouver. It is what it is.

Make no mistake, this is not beginner metal. A Cattle Decapitation show is a full‑body beating: high‑speed drumming, relentless bass lines, frantic guitar picking, and Travis’s voice ricocheting between demonic growls and schizoid banshee shrieks. The hatred and belligerence baked into every track is absolutely blood‑curdling — and I love every second of it. The sold‑out Rickshaw Theatre somehow survived the sonic demolition, and if you’re into extreme metal, this band is absolutely at the top of their game.

Setlist

1. Terrasitic Adaptation
2. Your Disposal
3. Solastalgia
4. We Eat Our Young
5. Scourge of the Offspring
6. Bring Back the Plague
7. Finish Them
8. The Storm Upstairs
9. A Photic Doom
10. Vulturous
11. A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat
12. Forced Gender Reassignment
13. Kingdom of Tyrants