ALTAR OF GORE: Obscure & Obscene Gods

Release year: 2020
Label: Nameless Grave Records

With a cover like this, you know what you’re getting. That’s right: death metal. And of a certain kind, too. Not brutal, progressive or technical death metal. No, you’re getting that old school kind of filth that sounds like it was spawned in the primordial ooze of the late 80’s and early 90’s in some obscure country with a scene destined for cult fame in later years.

I know, I know, you’re just waiting for me to mention Finland, right!

And sure enough, US one-man project Altar Of Gore do have considerable influence from the classic, old school Finnish sound in their style of putrid death metal. But the talons of single member Acolyte Of The Foul Ones (who is helped out on the guitar leads by Joe Aversario, who’s Blasphematory we lavished much praise on recently) stretch wider than that: this is a veritable potpourri of elements from archaic death metal thrown into the proverbial witches’ cauldron and stewed until it’s a thick mass of runny meat.

With a crude, boneheadedly heavy-handed mid-tempo beat being the norm for Altar Of Gore, the album is a fine slab of rotten heaviness. Things do veer to both directions from there at times, to doom-laden lurching paces and sections of faster tempos, but even when raising the tempo, Obscure & Obscene Gods never blasts. It pounds with abandon.

Especially the vocals, a throat-tearing bestial bark, are replete with violence. The result is the vicious barking of a hellhound. Add to this riffs that not so much play but beat notes and chords out of the instruments, and you’ve got a convincing package of primitive, violent and obscure old school death metal on your hands.

Sure, there’s the odd thing here and there that could be tweaked. The guitar tone could be meatier and rawer, for one. But overall, Obscure & Obscene Gods is extremely solid. The minor flaws are compensated by the consistently brutal feel and the relentless barrage of classic death metal riffwork and charmingly violent vocalizations.

In a nutshell, Altar Of Gore are a fine piece of old school worship. If you want your death metal primordial, ugly and dark, this is it.

4/5

Visit Altar Of Gore on Bandcamp