Those strange nameless figures have emerged from their dungeon prisons to mount their skeletal steeds and gallop spreading terror across the lands of The Basque Country once more. Nope we are not talking about The Blind Dead although did you know a new film spreading their Curse once more is on the way? Until that arrives, this scary musical equivalent will do very nicely and I simply cannot seem to listen to Altarage without thinking of Amando de Ossorio’s ghastly fiends. It was not that long ago that we were crawling in terror through the cataclysmic triada of last album Endinghent attempting to escape their clutches and we only just about got out of that one with our lives intact. Will we be so lucky with 3rd album The Approaching Roar?
I love the way this starts off with a guitar line that could almost be leading into a traditional flamenco dance from the group’s homestead but it leads not into joy but a huge chasm dropping explosion of hate and terror. ‘Sighting’ sees the roar not so much approaching but sneaking up behind and ripping your head completely off. There is power, might and dread served up in a seething metal of death cauldron that from hereon in leaves little respite from claustrophobic horror. Vocals growl away in a beastly fashion, do not try deciphering them they are hardly human. The drumming is panic inducing primitively thumped out and the guitars grind and grate like razors coated in venom. Yep it is not pleasant in the slightest and lovers of the likes of Portal, Mitochondrion, Ulcerate and their ilk are the only souls who are likely to prostrate themselves and bow down to this altar, the others will flee for their lives. The first couple of attacks are short and sharp, ‘Knowledge’ is gained in scalpel like guitar work peeling off skin layers and then flinging it at the face of a hungry demon rising from the abyss; it’s all incredibly ghastly. As the lid is pulled off the ‘Urn’ and a formless evil trapped spirit takes form to reap revenge things are surprisingly unravelled in the form of painful droning notes. You can catch a quick breath as the doomy tendrils unfold but it’s not long before all hell breaks loose and the clattering clamour foully belches forth.
I guess the downside here is that it will all be too much for many but Altarage are hardly the sort of band who seem intent on selling bucket-loads of albums, more likely spreading their contagion on those who heed their call. For those that do the 42 minute running time is just about perfect and as we storm headlong through the labyrinth of death clutching like limpets to occasional doomy morasses I have strangely found myself hungering for repeat listens.
At their fastest pace which we witness frankly a lot of the duration of this it would be no surprise to learn that the players were also involved in some sort of vicious Spanish grindcore act when not reaping souls with Altarage. Like much of the background facts, strange titles of songs such as ‘Chaworos Sephelln’ and those inhuman lyrics, much here will have to be left to the imagination. If you have that and are listening to bands like this yours is no doubt diseased to weather this nightmare and its one that with the dying strains of ‘Engineer’ ringing in ears we only just escaped once more by the skin of our teeth.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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