Few bands embody
sonic hostility like Altarage.
Emerging from Bilbao’s shadowed depths, they’ve built a discography that
doesn’t just challenge listeners — it punishes them. Their music is faceless,
formless, and fiercely uncompromising, a testament to death metal’s most
experimental fringes.
Their journey began
with “MMXV”, a demo that snarled with intent, followed by the
suffocating debut “Nihl”, where dissonance and decay reigned
supreme. “Endinghent” pushed further into the abyss,
layering industrial dread over tectonic riffwork. With “The Approaching
Roar”, Altarage refined their assault — sharper, more immediate, yet no
less punishing.
Then came “Succumb”,
a descent into ritualistic noise and mechanical rhythm, followed by “Sol
Corrupto”, which blurred the line between death metal and sonic
architecture. “Worst Case Scenario” and the EP “Cataract" continued the
evolution — chaotic, abstract, and hostile to convention.
Altarage don’t
perform music. They construct sonic monoliths and let them collapse on top of
you. No names. No faces. Just pure, unrelenting extremity.
THE SLUDGELORD: Cast
your mind back, when did Altarage first become conceptualized because now that
you’re no longer anonymous, people may not know this, but you were the founder,
principal songwriter, singer and guitarist for HOTR. While you might not view
your writing as markedly different, there is an obvious and dramatic shift in
tone from that band to Altarage.
I started this as a personal project at
the same time I was writing the final HOTR album,
in early 2014 but the seeds were planted about 2010, I think. I was revisiting
the two demos I did with my band Burial back
in 1992 and approached my two old bandmates to get those songs recorded for the
album that never was recorded, but they
were not into it so I kind of dismissed that option and started to write a more
brutal album for HOTR,
being “Grengus”. A
friend told me that I should start a Death Metal band again but I was
comfortable doing this mix of things in HOTR. And so “Grengus” came as
a very heavy record and Summoning Deliverance was even heavier and the next
batch of songs was too much for HOTR so
that´s when I decided to put them aside and create a proper environment for
them in Altarage.
There was no plan at all beyond recording an album but, slowly, the project
became what it is today.
THE SLUGELORD: You
mention you just write music and perhaps see yourself as having more in common
with bands outside the sphere of extreme metal, maybe even more of a rock band.
However, you must listen to a lot of dissonant rock bands, because your debut
album 'NIHL' is certainly not as accessible as say Boston—or perhaps it
is, if you’re a fan of dissonant music, haha. Can you say a few words about the
conception of that record? Did you finish HOTR and go straight into that
record? Also, forgive me for saying so, it sounds a little rough around the
edges (was that by design) compared to 'Succumb', which seems more
polished?
Well, I see ourselves having more in
common with bands like The
Melvins, High
on Fire, Confessor or Soundgarden than with black metal
bands out there, because I think we do things our way and try to not stay in
one place all the time. Of course, Death Metal is our root but there´s so much
going on. The “NIHL” album was recorded in early 2015 and HOTR was still functioning
until the break up in December of that year, so I was doing both for a couple
of years or so. Xanpe worked on the last three HOTR albums and did “NIHL” too but I needed to direct
him on this new approach, doing an over the top production, totally on purpose,
yes. I remember him trying to understand the sounds in the first Impetuous Ritual album was like a mindfuck!
I love Boston, by the way.
THE SLUDGELORD: You’re
five albums deep now and it has been nearly ten years since your debut. Did
your approach to each album change from one to the next? I’m guilty of failing
to read liner notes, so it may be there in black and white—but did you change
producers, mixers, studios, guitars, amps, and perhaps aim for something
different album to album?
6 albums, since “Sol Corrupto”
is a full length. Every time the songs are different and no matter what you do,
the sound will be different too. We always try to do the best albums for us but
the approach is always the same: we record live in the studio seeking the best
performances and sounds. Sometimes we work with different engineers and studios
just to try new things.
THE SLUDGELORD: You
may not want to nor be able to answer this, but what would be your personal
rating for each album? Can you say a few words about each album and what do you
think AI would say about them?
Actually, I don´t give a flying fuck about
AI.
I cannot rank the albums but I can tell
you this:
“NIHL”
I don’t know where it came from but the
riffs started to flow nonstop, although there was a huge work and changes in
the actual songs until we hit the studio in spring 2015. The production was
over the top, just getting away from cleaner sounds
“ENDINGHENT”
We down tuned the key to make it weirder
and heavier, but the mix was something that differed from the actual sound in
the studio, hat was monstrous. The
overall production is something we despised in the beginning, but the songs
were huge. We are at peace with its clarity now.
“THE APPROACHING ROAR”
Here, although the majority of the songs
are fast, with blasts and all, there is a sense of something breathing
underneath, roaring, with a pulse of doom, and the first hints of drone. A good way to forget the bit of deception we
had with the previous album.
“SUCCUMB”
This was planned as a shorter album than
it was. I kept writing songs, at first destined for the next record but, in the
end, decided to include it here, because they were ripping. It was recorded and
mixed by Xanpe, who did “NIHL” too and it can be noted for the
over the top nature of it, culminating with the huge drone piece at the end.
“SOL CORRUPTO”
This was a long time coming. Since 2017 we
were talking about doing something doomier and different. The drone tentacles
were everywhere. One of my favorites LPs.
“WORST CASE SCENARIO”
I remember hearing in my head a lot of Confessor and Atheist at the time of writing
this collection of songs. The production was cleaner than it was intented at
first but, in the end, it was perfect for what it was.
THE SLUDGELORD: Recently
you decided to play two shows as a regular band. Did you find the anonymity and
being in a box present a challenge, hence the decision to become unmasked? To
the eagle-eyed, many of us have speculated that current Wormed drummer Gabriel
'V-Kazar' Valcázar is in the band?
In recent times there has been like a
flood of hooded or masked bands, as it was a genre in itself. At first we did
it to get the focus on the music only, not saying where we came from regarding
bands, but you know what? Nobody cared because they see a masked band picture
and they get to the conclusion that you play the same music as this hooded or
that masked band! Blackened whatever… A
lot of people listen to music with their eyes.
You almost hit the jackpot but no. Our
drummer is the vocalist of Wormed,
Phlegeton.
THE SLUDGELORD: Finally,
now that you’re unmasked, what can we expect from Altarage 2.0—a new album,
tour?
2.0? Haha, all stays the same. We have a
new album about to be released that will speak for itself, and some live
activity for 2026, it seems.
Check out my favourite Atarage albums below, let me
know your thoughts, do you agree and how would you rate them? (I didn’t include
“Sol Corrupto” because I thought
it was an EP)
5).
⚔️ “Worst Case Scenario”
issued September 15th, 2023
🩸Stand out track(s) “Enigma
Signals”, “Case Full of Putrid Stars”, “Cataract”, “Gift of Awakening”,
“Verdict”, “The Rigid Subject”
4).
⚔️ “NIHL” issued February
26th, 2016
🩸 Stand out track(s) “Devicet”,
“Womborus”, “Graehence”, “Baptism Nihil”, “Vortex Pyramid”, “Batherus”,
“Altars”, Cultus”,
3).
⚔️ “Endinghent”
issued October 13th, 2017
🩸 Stand out track(s) “Incessant
Magma”, “Spearheaderon”, “Cataclysmic Triada”, “Rift”, “Orb Terrax”,
“Weighteer”, “Barrier”
2).
⚔️ “Succumb” April 23rd,
2021
🩸Stand out track(s) “Negative
Arrival”, “Magno Evento”, “Maneuvre”, “Foregone”, “Drainage Mechanism”,
“Watcher Witness”, “Lavath”, “Forja”, “Inwards”,
1).
⚔️ “The Approaching Roar”
issued January 29th, 2019
🩸 Stand out track(s) “Sighting”,
“Knowledge”, “Hieroglyphic Certainty”, “Cyclopean Clash”, “Inhabitant”,
“Chaworos Sephelln”, “Werbuild”, “Engineer”,
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