Travis Ryan of CATTLE DECAPITATION Interview Page 5
By Greg Nalbandian

SW: I've never heard of them.
TR: They're amazing. They've done it perfectly. They got it right. I've always been a big fan of Carcass. I like mixing intelligence with blatant depravity.

SW: A lot of the songs have a cannibalistic element. Given this, I find it really bizarre that you are vegetarians. Is everyone in the band really a vegetarian?
TR: Yup, that's how it happened. I really don't know how it happened; it wasn't a prerequisite or anything. We're from San Diego. There's a lot of-I don't know what you want to call it-alternative lifestyles. We're all vegetarians and most of our friends are too. That's just how it is in the area that we live in.

SW: Some of your songs contain a clear political message like "Testicular Manslaughter", while others seem to be nothing more than descriptions of mutilation and cannibalism. Then you have songs like "The Long Pig Chef and The Hairless Goat" and my personal favorite "The Land of The Severed Meatus", which appear to be more cryptic. Is there a hidden message?
TR: They are all pretty much different things.

SW: The "long pig", is that supposed to be a human?
TR: The "long pig" is a human and the "hairless goat" is a human meant for consumption, obviously. They've been referred to that way by...I don't know, cannibals before. I've seen it a couple times so that's always just stuck in my head. So it was like, the "long pig chef"-the cannibalistic chef-and the "hairless goat" which is the body prepared to be cooked into an entrŽe.

SW: What is "The Land of The Severed Meatus" about?
TR: Caligula pretty much. A description from what I could remember about the story of Caligula from when I was a kid. It's not so much exactly him, it doesn't make any reference to him at all. It's open to suggestion but any kind of ruler of the flesh I guess you could say. Somebody that has power and uses it to their delight! The same way that we do with animals.

SW: I checked out your website. You have links to some other pages including two which I think could provide your fans with some insight into your mentality. I want to ask you if inclusion of the links is an endorsement, by the band, of the sites' contents.
TR: You're talking about People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)?

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