Cattle Press

New Yorkers Cattle Press bring together influences from death metal, hardcore, grindcore, and crust punk to create their own dense, pummeling, and ultimately hard-to-pigeonhole sound. The overall anger and aggression of their music puts them in line with punk and hardcore, but their lyrical philosophies -- inspired by such sources as Anton LaVey, Frederick Nietzsche, H.P. Lovecraft, The Necronomicon, and self-improvement guru Tony Robbins -- give them more in common with the death metal likes of Morbid Angel (another influence on the band). They formed in the early '90s and have since gone through several lineup changes, but at the helm has always been guitarist/vocalist Eddie Ortiz. Cattle Press recorded their first demo in 1993, followed by an EP (Showered in the Love of the Abhorer) in 1995 for the small Devastating Soundworks label. A split LP with grindcore band Agoraphobic Nosebleed for Bovine Records followed in 1997 on the heels of several compilation and 7" appearances. Cattle Press' first full-length, the interestingly named Hordes to Abolish the Divine, finally came out in 2000 and was released through the Hydra Head Records label. ~ William York