(written by Islander)
Any chance we have to expose more people to the music of San Francisco’s Cartilage is a chance we will seize, even if it means having to spend hours washing the blood off our gore-drenched bodies after reveling in the band’s musical horrors.
Their newest death-grinding horrors are barely contained in a new album named Operating Altar that’s set for release on September 11th by Everlasting Spew Records. Unlike the previous abominations of Cartilage, this album narrates a single nightmarish tale, which they describe as follows:
Photo by Kei Mowry
Matthew Krolmark has suffered his most vivid nightmare yet, one that would soon become all too real with the start of his final year of study at St. Petersen’s University Hospital.
His mother Arabelle, a resident physician, insists he shadow the newly hired and acclaimed surgeon Dr. Warwick Locke. After witnessing strange deaths and horrific incidents of medical malpractice at the surgeon’s hand, Matthew uncovers the hospital’s dark history of torture and inhumane experimentation. A dark history that he is convinced is repeating itself.
What we have for you today is the premiere of the new album’s nearly-title song, “The Operating Altar“, which is the record’s penultimate track, just before the closer “Stitch By Stitch“.
Even if you knew nothing about the album’s hideous story you could guess from this song alone that it is a manifestation of blood-letting madness. That comes through in the strangely squirming and darting main riff, which really doesn’t sound remotely sane, and in the hair-on-fire screams of co-vocalist Ria Flory, which add scalpel-wielding violence to the lunacy.
Photo by Kei Mowry
The insanity manifests more feverishly when the drums start galloping and the guitars accelerate into spidery frenzies. Monstrous gutturals vomit hatefulness; blast-beats ensue; the bass bubbles like a vat of boiling viscera; the guitars undergo rapidly changing convulsions.
The nightmarish vocal tandem is thrilling to hear, as the voices call and respond and join together in rabidly barking choruses. The fleet-fingered fretwork and the drumwork are technically impressive, even though they’re being put to diabolical blood-spraying uses.
This has got to be one of the fastest and most technically demanding songs Cartilage have ever recorded, and hence it is a real eye-popping freakout, but make no mistake, it definitely is a blood-rushing freakout – maniacally berserk, yet thoroughly exhilarating to hear.
CARTILAGE is:
Mark Wallace – Cankerous Larynx Invocations
Mike Flory – Oscillating Vein Necromancy
Ria Flory – Strung Fascial Divinations and Tracheal Exertions
Adam Houmam – Tremoring Transmutations on Taut Epidermises
Vocals, guitar, dialogue, and bass for Operating Altar were recorded at Casa Carti by Mike Flory; drums were recorded and guitars reamped at Antisleep Audio by Scott Evans; the album was mixed at Antisleep Audio by Scott Evans; and it was mastered by Leon Del Muerte at Beastman Audio. The ghastly cover art is the work of David Romero (CinemaMind).
Everlasting Spew will release the album on CD, cassette tape, and digital formats on September 11, and they’re planning a vinyl release in the winter of 2026. They recommend it for fans of Exhumed, Impetigo, Carcass, and Pharmacist.
After the links we also have some other Cartilage news to share.
PRE-ORDER:
https://everlastingspew.com/
https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com/album/operating-altar
CARTILAGE:
https://cartilagegore.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CartilageSF/
https://www.instagram.com/cartilage_gore
OTHER GHOULISH NEWS: Cartilage have announced that in September they will join forces with Washington D.C.’s Goetia for their most extensive jaunt yet, spreading their disease all across the Western United States. The current dates are set out below:
9/15 San Diego @ Tower Bar
9/16 Tijuana @ Republica De Hops
9/17 Los Angeles @ Slipper Clutch
9/18 Fresno @ TBA
9/19 San Francisco @ Mabuhay Gardens
9/20 Eureka @ Savage Henry’s
9/22 Olympia @ The Crypt
9/23 Spokane @ Big Dipper
9/24 Seattle @ Central Saloon ^
9/25 Portland @ High Water Mark ^
(All dates with Goetia except ^ Cartilage solo)