San Francisco deathgrinders Cartilage have never exactly been known for practicing restraint, but on third full-length Operating Altar, the Bay Area gore merchants have found a way to make their particular pathology even more elaborate. Rather than assembling another collection of individual incisions, the band conceived the record as one sprawling deathgrind operation—a concept album chronicling medical nightmares, malpractice and a surgeon whose Hippocratic oath appears to have been misplaced somewhere near the bone saw.
Due September 11 through Everlasting Spew Records, Operating Altar follows Matthew Krolmark, a medical student beginning his final year at St. Petersen’s University Hospital. After his physician mother insists that he shadow acclaimed new surgeon Dr. Warwick Locke, Krolmark witnesses increasingly horrific deaths and incidents of malpractice before uncovering the hospital’s history of torture and human experimentation—and realizing that history may be repeating itself.
Appropriately, Cartilage treat the record less like a conventional sequence of songs than one extended descent into St. Petersen’s.
“With this album, we sought to compose one large piece instead of simply a collection of songs,” guitarist Mike Flory tells Decibel. “We’ve combined more influences from the likes of both brutal death metal and classic heavy metal, yet we pushed ourselves to faster tempos that we’ve never done before. Operating Altar is uniquely formulated to leave your ears bleeding with pleasure—our Maggot O-Pus, if you will!”
Recorded and mixed by Scott Evans (Neurosis, Exhumed, Autopsy) and mastered by Leon del Muerte, Operating Altar expands Cartilage’s usual Carcass/Impetigo-informed deathgrind attack without cleaning any of the viscera from it. Blast beats, surgical riffs, theatrical dialogue and vocalist Mark Wallace and guitarist/vocalist Ria Flory’s competing gutturals and shrieks turn the album’s hospital setting into something considerably less concerned with healing than dissection.
Cartilage will take Operating Altar on the road beginning September 15, joining Washington, D.C. deathgrinders Goetia for most of a Western U.S. run before wrapping with Cartilage-only dates in Seattle and Portland.
“We’re elated to finally unleash the sonic spectacle of insidious surgeries known as Operating Altar, featuring nine malicious tracks that combine to tell a tale of unfathomable terror,” the band tells Decibel. “Listen if you dare!”
You heard them. Stream Operating Altar below before Everlasting Spew Records releases the album September 11.
Tour Dates
9/15 — San Diego, CA @ Tower Bar
9/16 — Tijuana, MX @ Republica De Hops
9/17 — Los Angeles, CA @ Slipper Clutch
9/18 — Fresno, CA @ Summer Fox Brewery
9/19 — San Francisco, CA @ Mabuhay Gardens
9/20 — Eureka, CA @ Savage Henry’s
9/22 — Olympia, WA @ The Crypt
9/23 — Spokane, WA @ Big Dipper
9/24 — Seattle, WA @ Central Saloon *
9/25 — Portland, OR @ High Water Mark *
All dates with Goetia except * Cartilage only.
The post Full Album Stream: Cartilage — <i>Operating Altar</i> appeared first on Decibel Magazine.