Prepare for the most harrowing musical ordeal you have ever had to survive. We are about to make you endure a plight you never thought possible. It was like witnessing a mammoth beast crawl out of hell and carve craters in the earth at its passage when Spain's Altarage released MMXV - their monstrous debut demo that we released last year - in late 2015. Just two songs - less than ten minutes of complete aural annihilation that raised many questions in the mind of the poor listener who had encountered such horror, and provided few, if none, answers to what in the world could ever have materialized such immense and punishing sonic glory. When the MMXV demo was released in late 2015, long and unquestionable shadows were cast across the underground extreme metal scene, the possibilities of violence in aural form redefined, the scope and reach of death metal destruction, re-written completely. Now we find our selves against the complete absurdity of Nihl, the debut full-length album of Altarage. The multiplication, full-blown spawn, and sublimation of the MMXV demo - an ordeal in sonic form that will destroy people’s perception and cognition about what sonic violence and complete aural annihilation means. Nihl raised the bar so high in artistic craft and musical brutality that one is left to wonder how such a peak of madness could be accomplished simply from the first album. Continuing in the path of bands like Portal, Auroch, Deathspell Omega, Mitochondrion, Teitanblood, Knelt Rote and the such, Altarage have created a massive and oozing void in the perception of all avantgarde death metal fans - they have opened a portal to another dimension revealing levels and sub levels of technicality, inhuman songwriting, visionary madness, and of endless sonic brutality that will demolish even the most trained and prepared minds. No one - and we mean no one - is ready to hear what Altarage have accomplished in Nihl. Human ears were not made to bare such an atrocity and that is why when this record is released the perception of death metal will be changed inside of us forever.
Read the review and stream the whole beast over at CVLT Nation.
ALTARAGE - Nihl
1. Devicet
2. Womborus
3. Graehence
4. Baptism Nihl
5. Vortex Pyramid
6. Batherex
7. Altars
8. Cultus
Nothing is essentially known about Altarage. The band live somewhere in or around Bilbao in Spain and seemingly live locked away from the world, making the most cruel, punishing and diabolical music you will ever encounter in your lifetime. Nihl was produced and recorded by the band and by their own means and features incredible artwork by renewed New Zealand-based artist Nick Keller.
Nihl will be released on February 27 2016 on Cassette tape by Sentient Ruin and Sol Y Nieve (as was for the MMXV demo), on digital by Sentient Ruin, on CD by Doomentia Records and as a vinyl LP at a later date by Iron Bonehead Productions. Prepare, for the most surreal and fucking incredible sonic torment your ears have ever had to endure.