Alas, the most highly anticipated Summer Slaughter tour didn't make it's way down to the Big Easy this year, but we did have a small piece of it when Beyond Creation and Cattle Decapitation graced us with their bloody presence at Siberia in the midst of the mega tour. On a quick sidenote, I must say that Cattle Decap had one of the brightest display cases I've ever seen in my life. It lit up the back half of Siberia!
Hailing from the French half of Canada (Quebec), Beyond Creation laid down some pretty brutal death meal. Not to ruin his cred, but frontman Simon Girard sounded so sweet and sincere in his between song thanks and introductions, then he would deeply growl out his lyrics. The transcendental music had many progressive elements like the really technical bass work of Hugo Doyon-Karout that was easily heard over the scaling guitars Simon and Kevin Chartre. They were definitely a crowd favorite.
Cattle Decapitation may sound pretty gory, but these guys are all about ending meat consumption and animal cruelty. Their songs often focus on the travesties of being a farm or lab animal, as well as other hardly spoken about traumatic and disturbing events. Depsite the seriousness of their music, this is one of the most fun and vivacious metal bands you can find. Vocalist Travis Ryan is really a madman on stage. He begins each song by baptizing himself with water in a very calm manner before violently shaking it off by banging his head to the fast, grinding music made manifest by guitarist Josh Elmore, drummer David McGraw and bassist Derek Engemann that ensues, spitting into the raging crowd, wrapping the mic around his neck, and even licking a mysterious substance off his hand slowly while deeply looking into your eyes. His vocals were abrupt spewed phrases mixed with these intense, high-pitched growls that seemed to sound like throat singing as he bent his back to the floor and dangled the microphone over his head. And I’m pretty sure I saw him bash the mic on his forehead at least once. I must say that he whipped the crowd into such a frenzy that it may have been one of the more intense pits I’ve seen at Siberia, not to mention that stage divers and pit jumpers.
Cattle Decapitation and Beyond Creation are commendable for taking their day off to rock NOLA.
