Cattle Decapitation at Welcome to Rockville 2026 - PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you love one to censure? Wow for you. Young s, this is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm. Here with Travis Ryan. You're at Welcome to Rockville You. Oh my god? How's it feel to be a Welcome to Rockville? It feels great. It's hot. But I love humidity, luckily, Do you really?

0:48 Yeah? The rest of my band hates it? So why do you love humidity? See? I love this kind of stuff. I'm at. I'm a heat tempered person or something. I don't know. I run hot, I think, and I think I just I don't know. I think I'm lucky in that respect. But at the same time, But you're not from Florida. No, I'm from California. Yeah, so that's so weird. Okay, because all right, I'm originally from New York, New Jersey. Moved to California in nineteen eighty. Imagine a time that, like my dad was like, pack your bags were moving to California. In three days, We're in California. I lived in a Gora, thousand Oaks, west Lake and Maria del Ray, and I spent the eighties on the Sunset Strip. Troubadour, the country Club in Resita, and then when Slayer and Metallica left us, me and my bro would hitchhike up to the Bay Area to go to the real show.

1:38 Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. I was at the first. Ever crossover show at it was an Elks Lodge. It was coc DR. I wasn't there at that one, but I loved Dr. But it was pre Pepper, the Descendants and Suicidal before Suicide crossed over when they were still. Like suie boys. And then on the metal side it was Possessed, Dark Angel and Savage Grace sick. Oh I've heard Savage Grace. Oh Grace, Okay, yeah, but they were a pretty big thrash in LA and they toured with Motorhead but then fizzled out. But there was no security.

2:18 Yeah, first time ever punk's in the metal heads in the same room, and it was insane. It felt dangerous. Oh, it was great. It was I wasn't I'm a little younger than that, but even the early nineties, like death metal scene and stuff like that, it had this sense of danger that isn't present anymore. It's so funny. When I was driving over here today with my son who's he's forty one, he's not kid. But I was explaining to him about we were explaining the difference between black metal then, black metal now death metal, the death metal now. So I played them, you know Venom Yeah, which by today's standards is not black metal, would be like pop.

2:58 In fact, I listened to. Venom now, I'm like, sounds kind of poppy. But back then it was like, oh my god. Like I remember going to OZ Records in the Valley. Brian Slagel was a store clerk there. He hands me this album Welcome the Hell, and I look at it. H I'm like, oh my god. And then I listened to it and I'm reading the lyrics like we did back then, and I was literally getting scared. And you had something physical that you could absorb, you know. And that's the thing about that, Like, I mean, I'm glad that physical still exists for that reason. It was just but there was something about that being the only way to find something. You have to look through the think you lists and see what other bands they think, and then go check those people out.

3:41 Yeah yeah, t shirts they. Are wearing in the pictures, that kind. Of shit, you know, totally, that's exactly how it was. You know, go spend money on a record and it were a tape and just hope that it is. It could have suck. There were a lot of albums I just listened to over and over again. So I liked it because I didn't want to waste my money. Yeah, yeah, you know, totally unpopular opinion. I didn't like Back in Black the first time I heard it. Yeah, I mean I like it now, yeah, you know, but possessed. First time I heard them, I was like, oh my god. So that's why I did. I played for him. You know, you were the more like as something, as something would come out that was more extreme than the last you would go on. That's the way it was back then, because like, okay, before Metallica and Slayer, Judas Priest was the heaviest.

4:28 Iron Maiden was the heaviest. And then I remember the first club show I went into it went to in LA was Motley Crew before they had an album, so they weren't glam. They were like horror pumps. Yeah, they were okay, And it was at the Roxy and they were trying to burn down the Roxy to bring Satan in, and I'm like, I'm never going to a concert ever, a real concert ever again. And that started me going to the club shows like every night, you know. And then Slayer came out. I went to their first show ever, Battalica's first show ever. And yes, that was the progression. It just got. And then it's like funny you take something like Metalica and the Black Gun came out and we were all fucking posed me.

5:13 I still am, actually right, I really am. I warned my friends. I've said this a lot in interviews or online and stuff like that. I was warning my friends, like, I don't know, man, if this is anything like that. Uh. It was not Telegadiga Knights. It was Days of Thunder soundtrack. No, that was Guns n' Roses. Shit, I'm thinking of something else. Wayne's World. No, it was that sound they were It was a Stone could Crazy was on a soundtrack? Was it Detroit Rock City or something like something like that. I care I was on a soundtrack And I was like, guys, if it's anything like that, I don't know, man. And then they bought them. They stood they went to the midnight sale, you know, and stood in lying and ship I didn't go. And then the next day we sat there in the park, smoking weed, trying to convince each other that it was good, and we just couldn't really all those things. It was like we were are getting in the head way, heavier ship, no doubt, the changing of the guard sort of for us as teenagers, that's kind of what it sucks.

6:07 It was. The first Metallica concert I got to go to was the It's on that benjam Bird box set in San Diego, the San Diego date for the you know, they had the snake pit and all that ship for the Black album. Yeah, and I was like, well, this is the closest I'm gonna be able to get to seeing the older stuff and and all that ship, you know. But after that, I saw him with Missus Stain. Oh dude, Yeah, that's you know. Yeah, you're at the first show. Yeah, you would go and then you would go over her house after the show and party all night long. And that was like an every night occurrence. You know. It's funny. I've been saying this today. People ask me, so can you bring me backstage? I'm like, there's not really anything going on. It's not the eighties. I want to watch a bunch of guys stare at their phones.

6:49 Right exactly is exactly like they don't. It's although back then, whole different story, different story. You know. I used to walk into the Rainbow with Motley Crew to hang out with Lemmy, you know, like epic that I was at the party when Vince left with Razzle and killed him. You know, shit, it was bonkers then, But nowadays it's like, yeah, like you said, I hung out with Rob from Godsmack sharing pictures of grandchildren. You know, it's like that. But I love that we have bands like you that keep getting it more and more extreme. You would have liked the shirt I wore yesterday. It was hell Hammer.

7:37 Oh yeah, yeah, And I remember the first time I heard that, I was like, that's fucking sick, you know, and then yeah, it just get Here's the thing I found in the eighties with me and my friends. It had to get faster and heavier, so everything had to be And like me and my bro not that long ago, we're listening to some of the stuff we listen back then, and he goes to me, was it a lot faster when we were I'm like, yeah, not no, we just thought so because there was nothing fast exactly. You know, Uh, when Nuclear Assault came out, it was just like, this has got to be the fastest drumming, you know. And then I love that you said that. I was listening to that on the way over here today.

8:19 Yeah, Game Over and the Plague and It's Survive. It was like my favorite freaking record and handle with care. I love that band so much. I kind of feel like I wonder if that's maybe where I get my Like I have this like melodic vocal thing i'd like style that I do, and I'm like, sometimes it almost sounds like it's in that same wheelhouse. Or whatever it probably is, and you didn't even notice it, like just guy in your system. And that's something I'm glad you brought that up because I talk about that all the time. Just because people growl, scream or whatever, they know how to sing, they're just choosing to sing that way. Yeah, It's kind of like when I tried to explain to my parents that, like with death metal growing up, I was just like, you know, there's not much of a difference between this and the classical that you guys listened to. They were like really in the class longer.

9:05 These these guys are really insanely proficient players. It's just to you and your older ears. It's it's a wall of noise. Yeah know. And now I'm past the age that they were talking like that, right way past that age. Now I'm like, what were they thinking, Like, I don't know. It's well, see that is the difference too because of bands, Like you know, I was talking about this earlier. But first I want to say I've always said, like, people don't realize that metal is. A derivative of classic. Oh absolutely, you know. And so yeah, I mean I say stuff like that all the time, and stuff like like you like bringing the New Guard so to speak. At that point in yeah, we.

9:46 Were a weird b We kind of bridged the like, uh, we bridge the gap. This band Cattle bridge the gap between like you know, the older old guard of death metal and then the Lader Ship the death Course stuff and all that stuff, which was around what to four oh five and before between that was like this metal core kind of stuff, you know, people doing the os Fest and stuff like that. So it's like all these different types of metal, you know, kind of get you know, getting their bearings with the metal core guys are all getting their bearings with this, you know. Yeah, this scene, and then we kind of just kept going. We're the tortoise man. We just kept kind of trudging along. We never went away, did we never. We never benefited from taking five years off and doing a reunion, right, you know, like a lot of bands, we just kept fucking going.

10:33 So it's passion though, yall, is what we set out to do. I'm gonna stick with it. I mean, what else are we gonna do? Well, that's a testament to your band members, because why they take five years off because they're fucking want to kill each other. Yeah, exactly. We all took the two years off, you know, COVID or whatever, and that put everything into perspective. I'm also getting up there in age. You know, it's been harder to get back to it since then those two years. You know, It's funny you said that because at two years I was like dying because I go on tour and I do festivals all over the US, UK and Europe, and then it just all just stops. Yeah, But then like after COVID, they so want to make up for it that like the past few years, it's been every weekend from March till October and now the festivals are four days with a pre party instead of two or three days last year.

11:25 At the end of the year, I was like, it was first time I ever felt that way. I was like, yeah, can we have a year of COVID please? Dude? No. I mean I kept saying, we're gonna be We're gonna be nostalgic for this. You know. Back then during those two years, it was like, I don't know, man, I think we're gonna be nostalgic for this one day. But after that, I really enjoyed the first year. After that first year, I was like, all right, come on, let's get back to this. You know. Exactly six months later, I'm like, come on. Well, here's the way I look at for artists. Okay, Like you said that first year, the reason I think that first year is because you finally got to jump off the hamster wheel that you couldn't get off of because it's like, yes, and you couldn't be creative because one show, the next and the next and you're writing a song on the tour bus. I've said for a long time that the best music we're ever gonna have might have come out of that lockdown, because artists like you could chill out and find who they are as an artist again instead of just keep going.

12:25 Well, I mean all these micro genres popped up. Yeah, I thought we were. Gonna lose bands. I thought people are gonna be like, you know what I mean, I can't have this ever happened to me again kind of thing. But no, we didn't really lose any bands. We gained a ton of new uh not only new bands, but like all these crazy subgenres, and we got anime metal. And shit like that now, you know, like baby metal. I mean death Clock. Yeah, I was at there. My next fuck today from their show last night. Oh ye, death Clocks better awesome. The worst hangover my life was the day after one of their h they played on the at the Comic Con. I live in San Diego, so went to the comic Con.

13:05 I got in free and I got this wristband, this death Clock. They I got on the guest list or whatever, and Jeane put me on and and there there was this purple wristband that it got you whatever you wanted from the bar, and it was unlimited, nice and supposedly. I left and went and did a bunch of shout up the devil Era Motley Crue songs at like a who is it? Not? What was that car company that was doing all the metal stuff for a while, not Sonic? What the hell is? It starts with the s Anyways, they were putting on a an event there, doing all this karaokeing shit, and apparently I went and did a bunch of stuff and weis posted it and all this stuff, and I don't remember a damn bit of it.

13:50 Wow. I was just that was the last time I really ever got that that turned up. It was just gnarly. Well, gone back to your parents. I talk about this. I brought my son into his first mash Bet. He's out there right now, my grandson I brought into his first mash bet. That would have never happened in my generation, Okay. And that's what I love about today, is like we're out there and there's kids that look at some of these kids, how they know these bands. And when I was fifteen, I wasn't gonna go see some band of fifty something year old, you know, like type of thing. So it's kind of cool how it's changed like that. But I do have a question, what was your parents' first reaction when you told them the name of your band was going to be Cattle Decapitation, Like, forget the meaning.

14:38 I don't give a shit out I mean member, but I like the reaction. You know, it was weird because I have I don't even remember, to be honest, I was living at home with them, I know that for at least a couple of years after it joined. And then I moved down to San Diego and that's when the band really started going, when we signed a Metal Blade. And you know, for many, many, many years, my mom kept you know, she'd get these things in the mail. The USPS is hiring, and she bugged me about that, you should go work for the USPS. You're you're interested in. Mail because great benefits. Yeah, oh yeah, and she's right, and it is probably a great job. But she finally stopped doing that, I'd say, I mean that was in the early two thousands, think about it, so like she probably stopped doing that about eight years ago or so when one day she goes on YouTube and she types in cal the Capetator, or she touched in my name or something like that, and she was shocked at the amount of articles that came up.

15:41 You know, there's millions or something and that was what it took wow for her to finally stop giving me these goddamn usps notices saying they're hiring, and took the band and what I'm doing really seriously. And then ever since then they they follow the stories my dad. I was looking at that the second we get off stage. I'm back there, you know, cool and off, trying to get get my bearings, and I'm adding stories that fans have posted. I literally do it, not so. Much for the band, but for my dad. I love it. I want them to see it. I'm I'm very happy that that we're that we've been able to do this, you know this, and be able to live in southern California and be able to do death metal. It's it's a pretty much a dream come true.

16:25 Man as bad ass and you're damn good at it. Oh, thank you for sure. And like, have you ever done Welcome to Rockville before? No, we've only done one Danny Wemmerfest. It was after Shock, Okay, Yeah, I love that one. Yeah, how you like this one compared to after Shock? Dude? It's well, honestly, this was for me a little bit more put together. I feel the stage was way sicker. I actually liked this a lot more than after Shock. Plus, do you look at the venue? Come on, I know a question for you. Okay, see how the seats up there are colored? Yeah? Why are they colored?

17:05 So it's got to have something to do with the well, shit, it doesn't have anything to do with the cameras. Or the close the lights. Something to do with the lights and game makes it look like the stadium's full. That's exactly what it is. And then I was in I was interviewing NASCAR driver yesterday and we talked about that, and he made a lot of sense. He said, you know, you go to a basket ball game, there's like twenty thousand people. He goes twenty thousand people in here would look like the place was empty because it holds like one hundred thousand. So yeah, they do it not only for the TV but for the drivers. Yeah, so I guess it kind of pumps up the drivers. You know, I see that because it's just like playing. You know, you play at a venue and there's five people, or you played there's one hundred thousand. You're gonna play the same way, but it's not the same feeling. You know, you get pumped when there's a huge audience out there and they're like singing your words or what.

18:08 Yeah, oh yeah, you know I love that too. Like if they're singing your words and they are a you know, and you're a death metal band, yeah you know they like your music. Oh absolutely, I like that because I have done a pretty decent job. I think of trying to make them intelligible where you could understand. You know, it's still growling and screaming and shit, but I try to enunciate as much as possible, you know, And it's kind of for that reason. You know, it's kind of hard though, And my hat's off to you because listen, I played guitar, I sucked. I played drums, I sucked. I sang thrash metal. I sucked. The main reason I sucked at the thresh mellow is where my hat's off to you. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I had no technique. I was just screaming, and like, I look at people that like they have the technique.

18:57 Yeah, death that like along for the long haul you kind of you should probably develop a technique instead of you have to just air jumping and yelling or whatever. I've seen a lot of bands lose their voice a week in, a week to two weeks in. Sometimes I want to sing a song on my show, and I came to make it through one Slayer song because I'm not doing it right and my throat. Gets all fucked up. Yeah, it's not just you know, screaming and yelling, you. Know, exactly. That's why I want people to know. Yeah, you know, they think that's what it is, but it's so much harder to sing death metal or than it would be. A pop song. Yeah, you know. Yeah, And that's where my hat's off your body into it work.

19:41 It's your entire respiratory system. Really, no doubt. I mean, my heart rate affected my my vocals even, you know. Yeah, I've learned all sorts of stuff that's cool, and your viewership should check out a charismatic voice Elizabeth. She's a phenomenal opera singer, but she has taken a liking to extreme extreme vocals and is doing a ton of research based off of it, or based you know, a bunch of research on on extreme vocals, and it's there's a whole lot of really cool. I was part of the the you know this this research and there's a whole lot of cool stuff coming and from them and just listening to her do these uh you know, reviews or like analysis of metal vocalists and stuff extreme vocalists and shit like that. It's just cool to see somebody who's an opera singer that makes me my job drop watching her job drop too is really cool, you know like that. And so you know, even somebody like that who's very collegiate, you know, very extremely educated in this subject acknowledges it as as a real bona fide.

20:51 This is a real This is a real thing, and it's got applications maybe even outside of vocals, you know, like with some pathology. I want to check her out myself. Yeah, Like that's pretty cool. He's super sick. Do you have any final things you want to let the listeners know. We haven't talked about that. They should know. We're on our final tour for the Terra Site album cycle and we'll be going home after this and finishing writing our record. We're about three or four songs in and I'm going to finish it by the end of the year and record it and then be be back out probably a year from hour or so. A little more than that. Maybe nice. Yeah, And I do have to say my final word is I love the artwork on that album, Oh my god.

21:32 And I'm all about our artwork and that I look at that. That's the kind of album that I would walk into OZ Records and go to Brian Slego. That's a cool album. It tells a story exactly. That's it. Well, thanks a lot for being the here man. Thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man anytime, any time. Thanks for having me. You got it. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of plate Man on w for CUI Radio.