Cattle Decapitation unleash new songs “The Unerasable Past” and “Death Atlas” in short film: Stream
The post Cattle Decapitation unleash new songs “The Unerasable Past” and “Death Atlas” in short film: Stream appeared first on Consequence of Sound.
Cattle Decapitation have released the short film The Unerasable Past, adding a visual counterpart to their upcoming album, Death Atlas. The film was directed by Wes Benscoter and features two new tracks from the album, “The Unerasable Past” and the LP’s title track, “Death Atlas”.
The film opens with an utterly depressing slow pan over an apocalyptic world of dust and debris, post climate change. The song “The Unerasable Past” is a brooding piano ballad in the vein of Type O Negative, which then transitions in the technical epic “Death Atlas”. Visual allusions to the volcanic eruption that decimated Pompeii call back to the opening sequence in stark parallel.
The band’s vocalist Travis Ryan offered some background on the concepts and origin of the film and music, which bridges multiple genres across the 10-minute runtime:
“When Wes told me he would be down to do a music video for us, my jaw dropped. Having a music video that is completely married to the album artwork and color palette was something I had always wanted to do but never thought it could be a reality. As you can see from our lyrics, there’s not a lot of hope floating around, so when he offered up his creative hands for a music video, we snapped to it, and along the way, it became a much more formidable force by taking the form of a short film. This worked perfectly, considering the last 12 minutes of the album not only make up two tracks that become one long emotional journey with enough monolithic peaks and valleys to rival the Andes of Argentina to the Rockies of Colorado, but the tracks themselves scream for such a treatment. The scope of the video matches the scope of the album Death Atlas, which is meant to be listened to from beginning to the end in its entirety as is the video. Wes Benscoter has proven that he is a master of art, incorporating various mediums into one disastrously beautiful extinction-level art film.”
Benscoter explained that the idea for the film came from his work on the photos for the Death Atlas layout:
“I’ve never had any real interest in doing a music video until we started planning the photos for the album layout and I thought man, this could be a great opportunity to make the kind of film I like. Grim, atmospheric, and topical. Created with a mix of old-school practical effects, some digital tricks and an insane amount of sand and fog. I used every trick in the book to try to do justice to Cattle’s apocalyptic nightmare soundtrack.”
Film and metal have been sharing a moment lately. Metallica and Slayer recently released theatrical concert films, the latter’s Killogy also including a short film in the vein of The Unerasable Past. Meanwhile, actor Jason Momoa even brought in a death metal singer for vocal training for his role on the Apple TV+ series See.
Cattle Decapitation head out on “The Geocidal Tendencies Tour” in support of Death Atlas starting tomorrow (November 22nd) in Austin. Pre-orders for Death Atlas, which arrives November 29th, are available via Metal Blade. See the full list of tour dates and watch The Unerasable Past below.
Cattle Decapitation 2019 Tour with Atheist, Author & Punisher, Vitriol:
11/22 – Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room *
11/23 – Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Bar & Grill *
11/24 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *
11/25 – New Orleans, LA @ The Parish @ House of Blues *
11/26 – Orlando, FL @ The Abbey *
11/27 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room * +
11/29 – Atlanta, GA @ Hell @ Masquerade * +
11/30 – Richmond, VA @ Canal Club *
12/1 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge *
12/2 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall *
12/3 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry @ The Fillmore *
12/4 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House *
12/5 – Chicago, IL @ Metro *
12/6 – Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater %
12/7 – Denver, CO @ The Oriental % +
12/8 – Grand Junction, CO @ Mesa Theater %
12/10 – Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theater %
12/11 – Mesa, AZ @ Club Red %
12/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent/ Decibel Pre-Party %
12/13 – Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club %
12/14 – Fresno, CA @ Strummers %
12/15 – Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre %
12/17 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox %
12/18 – Portland, OR @ Bossanova Ballroom %
12/19 – Sacramento, CA @ Holy Diver %
12/20 – Pomona, CA @ The Glass House %
12/22 – San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick %
* = also with Full of Hell
+ = no Author & Punisher
% = also with Primitive Man
Cattle Decapitation unleash new songs “The Unerasable Past” and “Death Atlas” in short film: Stream
Jon Hadusek
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