Cattle are a three piece from Leeds including Chris from the infamous Leeds band Super Luxury. Interesting fact, if you Google Cattle band, they are top of the list. Second down is a band called Cattle Decapitation. Make of that what you will. Anyway, Cattle formed in the summer of 2012 and have released a self-titled EP that is a no holds barred assault on your musical senses.
Forget about guitars all these guys need is a bass, drums and a raging vocalist to grab your attention. The heavy, pounding bass line is the backbeat of their songs. It provides the dark foreboding feeling that creeps and crawls unravelling until the brutal end. The vocals throughout compliment this unravelling of the mind and the drums compound this feeling of wading through murky depths of emotion.
The opener ‘Rockets’ lulls you into feeling this record will be slow melancholy brewing but don’t be fooled as the bass sounds thud you know something far bigger is due to hit. When the groaning vocals kick in this adds to the weird, suspense. Then full momentum is reached as the vocals scream with full force and the drums crash with the beat of the bass to encapsulate full devastation.
The start of ‘Whoa Bessie’ mirrors the anticipation of the beginning of a race. The rapid movement of the bass notes and the rallying drum cry fuels such an energy driven song. The vocals are pure despair falling onto every heavy fuzzy bass note. This matches the sense of demented, madness when vocalist Chris screams as if no-one can hear him on ‘Pyramid Shaped Hole’.
My personal favourite on this EP is ‘Sun, Fangs and Wide Eyes’. ‘We choose noise and try to keep it together’ cries Chris above the awesome bass riffs that kick out right up until the howling end. All of these songs feel like an attempt to make sense of chaotic madness which you just can’t help but enjoy.
We look forward to hopefully catching these guys live soon but in the meantime check out their bandcamp where you can purchase their EP for a bargainous £3!
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=4200865553/size=medium/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/transparent=true/
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