![Altar / Cartilage – Ex Oblivione / The Fragile Concept Of Affection [Split / Re-Release] altar / cartilage – ex oblivione / the fragile concept of affection [split / re-release]](https://www.vm-underground.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Altar-Cartilage-Split-Cover.jpg)
Info
- Band(s): Altar [SWE], Cartilage
- Label(s): Xtreem Music
- Release Format(s): 12" vinyl, Re-Release, Split
- Release Year: 2022
- Review Date: October 19, 2022
- Author(s): FelixS
Despite the fact that the original material from this cult split LP had already been reissued by Xtreem Music in 2015, it had only been made available on a double CD. Vinyl fans still had to rely on the exorbitantly high-priced originals via eBay or Discogs. This has changed since last summer, Xtreem Music has now finally re-pressed this much-sought-after piece of Death Metal history on vinyl.
Altar opens with their heavy tuned Death Metal, which in tone and melody occasionally resembles early Paradise Lost (‘Lost Paradise’ and earlier), Amorphis and some more well-known Swedish Death Metal bands like Dismember. The melodic pieces, in which even the use of piano and keyboard (courtesy of Dan Swanö) is not shunned, give the band quite a different character from most other Swedish Death Metal bands of the same period. In any case, Altar was among the earliest bands on the Swedish scene, with their roots going as far back as 1988, and the line-up featured a lot of familiar names, of which Perra Karlsson (Nominon, In Aeternum, ex-Deströyer 666, ex-Suffer, ex-Toxaemia) and Miezsko Talarczyck (most notably known from his work with Nasum) are the most appealing. Musically, the alternation between the heavy, massive guitars and the more melodic and atmospheric pieces is the most appealing. It’s because they don’t always play at neck-breaking speed that there is room for those tasteful doomy vibes.
Cartilage, on the other side of this LP, sounds a lot flatter than Altar with the production also sounding a lot blunt and square. But the Finns do offer a solid slab of Death Metal. Perhaps not quite typically Finnish due to the use of a bit more melody, both in the form of keyboards and Maiden-like guitar tipping, but still, the soul of Finnish Death Metal is deeply ingrained within Cartilage’s music. The crunchy guitar tone and the somewhat more ingenious way of song writing, still makes it overtly different from Death Metal in the well-known Swedish fashion. The heavy and massive sound is also of a distinctly different quality, counterbalancing the (admittedly somewhat simple) Heavy Metal leads and atmospheric keyboards.
While browsing Discogs or eBay, you sometimes come across certain items that are charged extremely high amounts, which makes you wonder whether they are really worth that money. Whether or not that is the case for this LP, I’ll leave open. But in addition of it being an historically important release in the development of (Scandinavian) Death Metal it is also simply a great LP on which two massively overlooked bands team up. So, as far as I am concerned, this re-release was more than justified.
Altar [SWE]
Related Articles
Cartilage
Related Articles
Xtreem Music
- Country: Spain
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Other
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Youtube
Related Articles
Reviews
- Abythic - Conjuring the Obscure {2019}
- Ade - Carthago Delenda Est {2016}
- Adramelech - Psychostasia [Re-release] {2014}
- Adramelech - Grip of Darkness [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- Aggression [CAN] – Fragmented Spirit Devils {2016}
- Aggression [CAN] – The Full Treatment [Re-release] {2016}
- Altar / Cartilage - Ex Oblivione / The Fragile Concept Of Affection [Split / Re-Release] {2022}
- Amputory - Ode to Gore {2015}
- Anialator - Rise to Supremacy [EP] {2018}
- Aposento - Aposento {2014}
- Aposento – Bleed to Death {2017}
- Aposento - Conjuring the New Apocalypse {2020}
- Ashcloud - Abandon All Light {2015}
- Ashcloud - Children of the Chainsaw {2016}
- Ashcloud – Kingdom of the Damned {2017}
- Asphyx - Crush the Cenotaph [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- Atomic Aggressor - Bloody Ceremonial [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- Aurora Borealis - Worldshapers {2014}
- Avulsed - Carnivoracity [Re-release] {2014}
- Avulsed - Altar of Disembowelment [EP] {2015}
- Avulsed - Stabwound Orgasm [Re-release] {2015}
- Avulsed - Eminence in Putrsescence [Re-release] {2016}
- Avulsed – Deathgeneration {2016}
- Benefactor Decease - Anatomy of an Angel {2015}
- Bizarre - Inner Necropolis [EP] {2016}
- Bloodhunter – The End of Faith {2017}
- Canker - Physical {2014}
- Canker – Earthquake {2017}
- Carnifex [FIN] - Pathological Rites {2018}
- Catacomb - When The Stars Are Right {2023}
- Christ Denied - Christopsy {2024}
- Coffinborn - Beneath the Cemetary [EP] {2014}
- Corrosive Carcass - Forsaken Lands {2015}
- Cruentator – Ain’t War Hell {2018}
- Cryptic Brood - Wormhead [EP] {2015}
- Cryptic Brood – Brain Eater {2017}
- Cryptopsy - Ungentle Exhumation [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- Daemoniac - Lord of Immolation [EP] {2015}
- Daemoniac - Spawn of the Fallen {2017}
- Daemoniac - Dwellers of Apocalypse {2019}
- Dead Sun - Night Terrors {2021}
- Death Vomit - Gutted by Horrors {2014}
- Deathevokation - Blood [Demo] {2005}
- Deathevokation - Chalice of Ages {2007}
- Decrepid - Endless Sea of Graves {2020}
- Deimler - A Thousand Suns {2021}
- Desecresy - The Doom Skeptron {2012}
- Desecresy - Chasmic Transcendence {2014}
- Desecresy - Stoic Death {2015}
- Desecresy - The Mortal Horizon {2017}
- Desecresy - Towards Nebulae {2019}
- Desecresy - Unveil In The Abyss {2022}
- Détente - Recognize No Authority [Re-release] {2014}
- Deteriorot - In Ancient Beliefs [Re-release] {2016}
- Deteriorot - The Rebirth {2023}
- Dråp - Roten Till Allt Ont {2017}
- Eruption - Cloaks of Oblivion {2017}
- Eternal Darkness - Ceremony Of Doom [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- Famishgod - Devourers of Light {2014}
- Famishgod – Roots of Darkness {2016}
- Famishgod - Rotting Ceremony {2021}
- Fleshcrawl - Festering Flesh [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- Frozen Dawn - Those Of The Cursed Light {2014}
- Fuck Off - Hell on Earth II (Revisted and Faster) {2015}
- Funebre - Children of the Scorn [Re-Release] {2004}
- Funeral Vomit – Monumental Putrescence {2023}
- Goat Worship - Blood and Steel {2016}
- Goat Worship - Shore of the Dead {2018}
- Golgotha [ESP] - Erasing the Past {2019}
- Gravecrusher - Morbid Black Oath [EP] {2014}
- Gravecrusher - Resurrection Of Deathly Visions [EP] {2022}
- Gravesite - Horrifying Nightmares... {2015}
- Gravesite – Neverending Trail of Skulls {2017}
- Grim Fate – Perished in Torment {2020}
- Grisly - The Spectral Wars {2018}
- Grond - Worship the Kraken {2016}
- Holycide - Toxic Mutation [EP] {2015}
- Holycide - Annihilate... Then Ask! {2017}
- Holycide - Fist to Face {2020}
- Human Waste - Harvest Remnants {2015}
- Impetigo - Giallo [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- In Thousand Lakes – Age of Decay {2017}
- Incantation - Demo 1990 [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- Infest - Cold Blood War {2014}
- Infestus - Origen {2017}
- Itnuveth - The Way of the Berserker {2014}
- Killing Addiction - Omega Factor [Re-Release] {2018}
- Körgull the Exterminator – Sharpen Your Spikes {2020}
- Korpsesoturi – Korpskrist {2020}
- Macabre End - Consumed By Darkness [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- Malevolent Creation - Demo 1990 [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- Massacre - Aggressive Tyrant [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- Master - Demo 1985 [Demo / Re-release] {2020}
- Misanthropic [GER] - Soulreaver {2003}
- Moondark - The Shadowpath [Re-release] {2015}
- Mortal Scepter - Where Light Suffocates {2019}
- Mortician – Demo #1 1990 [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- Nailgun Massacre - Boned, Boxed and Buried {2015}
- Nangilima - The Dark Matter {2014}
- Nasty Surgeons - Exhumation Requiem {2017}
- Nasty Surgeons - Infectious Stench {2018}
- Necrophile - Dissociated Modernity [EP / Re-Release] {2021}
- Necrophiliac - Maze of Forking Paths {2016}
- Necrophiliac - No Living Man Is Innocent {2020}
- Necropsy - Buried in the Woods {2015}
- Necropsy - Exitus [EP] {2020}
- Neocaesar - 11:11 {2017}
- No Amnesty – Psychopathy {2017}
- Obscure - Back To Skull {2016}
- Onirophagus - Endarkenment (Illumination Through Putrefaction) {2019}
- Oppression - Scars 1988-1990 {2015}
- Ossuary Anex - Holy Blasphemition [EP] {2018}
- Purtenance - Sacrifice the King [EP] {2012}
- Purtenance - …to Spread the Flame of the Ancients {2015}
- Purtenance - Paradox Of Existence {2017}
- Purtenance - Buried Incarnation {2020}
- Putrefied Corpse - Left to Rot {2019}
- Putrevore - Macabre Kingdom {2012}
- Putrevore - Tentacles of Horror {2015}
- Putrevore - Miasmal Monstrosity {2021}
- Putrid Evocatation - Echoes of Death {2014}
- Pyrexia - Liturgy Of Impurity [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- Ravens Creed - Ravens' Krieg {2015}
- Ravens Creed - Get Killed or Try Dying {2018}
- Reincarnation - The Beginning of the End {2015}
- Reincarnation - Void [Re-release] {2015}
- Revenant - Distant Eyes / Exalted Being {2021}
- Revolting - Born To Be Dead {2022}
- Ribspreader - Suicide Gate - A Bridge to Death {2016}
- Ribspreader - Crypt World {2022}
- Ribspreader – Reap Humanity {2024}
- Rottrevore - Hung By The Eyesockets [EP / Re-Release] {2022}
- Sacrophobia - Dark Requiems {2015}
- Severance - Afterbirth Of Infamy [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- Sinister - Perpetual Damnation [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- Sönambula - Bicéfalo {2018}
- Sorcery - Arrival at Six {2013}
- Sorcery - Garden of Bones {2016}
- Sorcery - Necessary Excess of Violence {2019}
- Soulskinner - Crypts of Ancient Wisdom {2014}
- Soulskinner – Descent To Abaddon {2017}
- Soulskinner - Seven Bowls of Wrath {2020}
- Stormvold - Third Bestial Mutilation {2014}
- Stormvold - IV-Kataklismo {2016}
- Tenebro - Liberaci dal male [EP] {2020}
- Tenebro - Carne Umana [EP] {2022}
- Tenebro - L'inizio di un Incubo {2022}
- Tenebro - Tracce di violenza carnale [EP] {2023}
- Tenebro – La Bestia Dell’Isola Maledetta [EP] {2023}
- Tenebro – Ultime Grida Dalla Giungla {2023}
- Terrorizer - Demo '87 [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- Thanatos - Omnicoitor [Demo / Re-Release] {2020}
- The Grotesquery - The Lupine Anathema {2018}
- Thrashfire - Into the Armageddon {2019}
- Torture Pulse - God Leash {2015}
- Totengott - Doppelgänger {2017}
- Totengott - The Abyss {2019}
- Ululate - Back to Cannibal World {2015}
- Unbounded Terror - Faith in Chaos {2020}
- Verminous - The Unholy Communion {2013}
- Vibrion - Bacterya {2016}
- Vital Remains - Excruciating Pain [Demo / Re-Release] {2021}
- Vorkreist - Sabbathical Flesh Possession {2003}
- Vorkreist - Sublimation XXIXA {2006}
- Warlord UK - We Die As One {2013}
- Weaponry - Everwinding Slaughter {2022}
- Wrong - Pessimistic Outcomes {2014}
- Yskelgroth - Bleeding Of The Hideous {2023}
News
- Deteriorot to release new album via Xtreem Music: "...shows the band's at its best, as dark, heavy and haunting as ever." {June 22, 2023}
- Funeral Vomit signs with Xtreem Music: "formed in 2020 that since then has been consolidating its name in the dirtiest and most rotten Death Metal underground..." {June 24, 2023}
- Paganizer re-signs with Xtreem Music and announces new EP: "...that continue the band’s legacy of relentless Death Metal" {September 2, 2024}
- Revolting signs with Xtreem Music; "a great album of heavy, powerful and catchy Death Metal full of excellent melodies" {November 24, 2022}
- Tenebro releasing a new digital only EP with Impetigo cover {November 24, 2022}
- Xtreem Music signs Catacomb and will release new album: "An exceptional work that will undoubtedly meet the expectations of all the fans of the band." {December 27, 2022}