Cattle Decapitation * Devourment * Knights Of The Abyss * Burning The Masses * Son Of Aurelius

Originally founded in 1996, Cattle Decapitation's songs protest the mistreatment and consumption of animals as well as the abuse of the environment. Lyrics may also focus on subjects such as misanthropy and genocide of the human race. Much of their music is based on putting humans in the situations that animals are subjected to (animal testing, slaughter, etc). Notably, all current members of the group are vegetarians.

Their 2002 album To Serve Man saw controversy in Germany, where distribution company SPV refused to handle the album due to its graphic cover. The cover of the 2004 album Humanure, featuring a cow excreting human remains, was reportedly censored without permission from the label in some outlets. Record store owners did not display the album, making it difficult for customers to find and buy it.

Former member Gabe Serbian is a member of the band The Locust.

Metal author and journalist Garry Sharpe-Young once acknowledged the band as "one of the few metal bands whose message hits as hard as their music".

Cattle Decapitation has toured with many death metal bands including Suffocation, Cryptopsy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Deicide, Behemoth, Hate Eternal, Krisiun, and Job For A Cowboy. Their latest album The Harvest Floor was released in 2009.

The band has been cited repeatedly for being an early influence to bands such as Job For A Cowboy, The Black Dahlia Murder as well as a legion of "deathcore" hopefuls.

In August 2009, Cattle Decapitation parted ways with long-time bassist Troy Oftedal because of musical and personal differences.

San Diego, United States
1996

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Devourment is a brutal death metal band that was formed in 1995 after the demise of local Dallas based death metal band Necrocide by drummer Brad Fincher and guitarist Braxton Henry (both from Necrocide) along with vocalist Wayne Knupp.

Wayne decided to move back to his hometown of Chicago, Brad moved to San Antonio, TX to get his education. Months later both Wayne and Brad moved back to the Dallas area and decided to continue the life of the band. However, Braxton Henry had in the meantime already formed a band known as DeadIndustry. Luckily Wayne knew Brian "Brain" Wynn who he used to actually play with a few years before. So after finally contacting him, Brain was introduced to the band whom musically, he clicked with instantaneously.

Soon the trio put out a 2-song promo, which featured Shroud Of Encryption and Festering Vomitous Mass. Several months later with the additions of then guitarist of Sintury Kevin Clark, and underground artist Mike Majewski, Devourment recorded one more song, Choking On Bile, which would be added to the 2-song promo resulting in the 1997 demo released by Corpsegristle Records that gained such a tremendous fan base. The demo would be entitled Impaled.

Wayne Knupp decided to leave the band due to some internal problems leading up to and during the trip to New York. Brain phoned Wayne and fired him from the band as soon as Wayne got back from being left in New York by the band. The band would have a hard time finding a new vocalist, somebody who could most importantly, compare with Wayne's brutal vocal. Their choice would ultimately be guitarist/vocalist of local band Detrimental, Ruben Rosas. Ruben of course was heavily influenced by Wayne in the first place.

The band then landed a record deal in 1999 with United Guttural Records and released the debut CD Molesting The Decapitated. After playing show with such bands as Macabre, Deaden, Cephalic Carnage and Fleshgrind, Ruben was arrested as a fugitive from justice. Ironically this was also the same night that Molesting The Decapitated was released. Not knowing what to do, the band decided it was time to part ways. But due to the overwhelming response from fans worldwide, Devourment reformed minus Brain and adding once again Braxton Henry on guitars and none other than Wayne Knupp on Vocals.

Together they would record one new song entitled Babykiller, which, would be released along with the 3 songs from the "Impaled" demo and the 8 songs from "Molesting The Decapitated". The release was called 1.3.8. No shows would ever be played though and eventually the band faded out.

Ruben was eventually released from his 2 1/2 year incarceration and tried to rejuvinate the band. He eventually recruited various new musicians, played a few shows, but things never really materialized.

A few years went by and Ruben, and original bassist Mike Majewski talked again about reforming the band and finally recording the band's long awaited second album. Eric Park filled in the position of drummer and the band went into the studio of August 2005 and recorded Butcher The Weak. Ruben Rosas took over as sole guitar player in the band, and vocal duties are now handled by former bassist Mike Majewski. The album was released in November of 2005 and went on to gain critical success, as well as praise from Devourment fans all over the world. In 2006, the addition of a new bass player, Chris Andrews (former drummer for Texas based grindcore outfit Kill the Client)completed the current lineup, and Butcher the Weak was completely re-recorded from the ground up with the producer who the band worked with on Molesting the Decapitated, with the new version of Butcher the Weak being released on Brutal Bands Records. Devourment is currently working on their 3rd album to be released late 2008, or early 2009.

Wayne Knupp passed away in 2007 from multiple organ failure.

Dallas, Texas, United States
1995
2005

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Knights of the Abyss was formed in 2005 after drummer Andy Rysdam had left his former band Job for a Cowboy. They have recorded two full-length albums, which were released by Siege of Amida Records and Ferret Records. Early songs featured the original vocalist Phil Noriega, and later his replacement, Mike Manheimer, but whilst recording their first album, Juggernaut, Manheimer injured his throat.[1] Dustin Hadlock, a friend of the band who had provided some guest vocals on some older tracks, stepped in to record the rest of the album and toured with the band throughout January 2008, until Manheimer returned.[1] The band announced its signing to Ferret Records.[2] A new song, titled "A New Darkened Faith", from their first Ferret albumt, Shades, was posted on the band's MySpace page in early April. All vocals on Shades were by Dustin Curtis of the band A Breath Before Surfacing from Tucson, Arizona. The band has toured in the United States and the United Kingdom, playing alongside bands such as Elysia and Arsonists Get All the Girls. Elysia's vocalist, Zak Vargas, was featured on the song "Decaying Waste" from the album Juggernaut.

With the start of 2009, many of the original members of Knights of the Abyss had left, many to return to school. Dustin Hadlock was once again appointed vocalist, and drummer James Gillespie, guitarist Brian McNulty, and bass guitarist Griffin Kolinski were added as well. Kolinski and McNulty also play in the Arizona metal band The Blood Countess. Hadlock and Gillespie were recruited from Nick Florence's side project, entitled Decessus. Florence is currently the only original member of the band. Knights of the Abyss recently announced that they had returned to the studio to demo and record a follow-up to Shades. [1] On May 3, 2009, at 10:25 p.m., the band posted a new song in pre-production dubbed as Pandemic, as a sign they are now recording their newest album. As of May 1, 2010, the band has completed recording their 3rd full length album entitled The Culling Of Wolves.

Knights Of The Abyss launched the first single for The Culling Of Wolves entitled, "Deceiver's Creed" on both their myspace and facebook page in July of 2010. As stated by their social networking sites, the album will be released August 17th, 2010 via Ferret Records. [3] They have also announced two seperate U.S. tours for the fall. "The Culling Of Wolves Tour" will feature Conducting From The Grave, The World We Knew, and Enfold Darkness. [4] "The California Blood Tour" includes Cattle Decapitation, Devourment, Burning The Masses, and Son Of Aurelius.

‘The Culling of Wolves’ contains 11 blistering, crushing tracks and, while a concept record, not your typical concept LP. There’s no story that runs through the disc, but there was definitely a major inspiration behind songs like “The House Of Crimson Coin,” “The Swine Of The Holy Order,” and the first single, “Deceiver’s Creed”: The U.S. Treasury Department.

“I am afraid it probably is a very opinionated record, but we’re not slamming anyone; we’re just making our opinions known,” the bassist says, before explaining that some songs focus on the creation of the Federal Reserve while others revolve around The Bilderberg Group (an unofficial, invitation-only conference of men of influence in the fields of politics, banking, business, the military and media) and Bohemian Grove, a 2,700-acre campground in California that hosts an annual three-week encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world.







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