RSS Feed


ALTARS
Paramnesia

Nuclear Winter (2013)
Rating: 7.5/10

I think it’s fair to say that since their birth in 2005, Australia’s Altars haven’t been up to much except for a few split projects and their 2008 debut demo. However, this formidable trio have clearly been keeping their cards close to their chest.

The time has now come for them to reveal their magnum opus, and what a fantastic record it is. Altars really have taken death metal to rather peculiar heights, their sound best described as a wintry, twisted, doom-laden old school style of death metal that is able to feast in more modern dynamics, all the while remaining decrepit and ghastly throughout.

The band consist of vocalist / bassist Cale Schmidt, guitarist Lewis Fischer and drummer Alan Cadman, and the sound these guys make is a hideous one at that.

Opener ‘Mare’ is a breath of foul air as the trio lurch into a writhing beast of a rhythm that blends black metal-styled drums with demented guitar curves and deep, harsh vocal growls. This is rather striking death metal; although there is an expected injection of pace, the combo quickly go against the grain, opting for some rather sinister structures that mainly come to light with those rather bleak sounding drums and gnawing guitars.

Altars are always heavy with whatever route they choose, but ‘Mare’ really does evoke rather blustery landscapes which clearly contradict the band’s birthplace. ‘Terse’ follows; a marauding beast ravaging livestock, the drums again work in cohorts with those frothing guitars and stampeding bass lines. The composition is laced with silt, rumbling with the snarling arrogance of Morbid Angel.

‘Terse’ is an extremely short track, yet it leads us to the doomy sludge opening of ‘Khaz’neh’. Nearly eight-minutes of cocksure, monolithic death metal, ‘Khaz’neh’ is delivered at a slow pace and boasts remote, cavernous vocals. The drums are king here, the track even featuring a staggering drum solo before the band resort back to their deranged death / doom styling.

‘Solar Barge’ has an icier feel; delivered with more pace, the track borrows frosty black metal aesthetics with those spitting drums and sneering guitars, but there’s also that element of surprisingly sludgy melody too. The same can also be said for the maniacal ‘Husk’; the track again boasts those Morbid Angel struts of self-assurance, although the vocals are far more extreme in their indecipherable gloom.

Altars lead us away from their debut experience with a three-part assault, starting with the pacey ‘Descent (Paramnesia Part I)’. This is separated from the closing ‘Ouroboros (Paramnesia Part III)’ by a brief interlude, that being the instrumental white noise of ‘Gibbous (Paramnesia Part III)’.

The band have saved the best for last with ‘Ourobos (Paramnesia Part III)’, a ten-minute scathing epic of unorthodox shifts and patterns that melt together almost groove-based modern metal dynamics with harsher, more cutting old school death ideology.

Overall, Paramnesia can make for quite a tough listen – mainly due to its bleaker, sludgier avenues – and I could certainly grow rather agitated and possibly tired of this rather quickly. That’s not to say that this album hasn’t peeked my interest; it’s always good to hear bands experimenting with their sound, and injecting new life into stagnant formulas. Altars are certainly a band to watch.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share