Choking in the ever churning miasme of the growing planetary ash-heap, standing in awe of the schism cut between life’s dawn and the inescapable darkness ahead Bilbao, Basque Country-based experimental death metal trio ALTARAGE cut a toothed channel between the old world in its ancient groove and the mass death under tread on this angst-ridden seventh full-length album. Stinging with impossibly weighted existential dread yet implied without outright nihilism in purview ‘Cogwheel‘ embraces pensive liminal spaces in crafting its atmospherically rich, irrational and outsized presentation. In stirring untapped potentiate their work here gives offering of the band’s bleaker than thou experimental side now in direct fusion with the monstrosity of blackened dissonant death they are known for. It is the band’s most extensive and completely realized work to date.

Since forming back in 2015 the realm envisioned by Altarage‘s eclectic-minded trio formation has purported an unreal, surrealistic black-mirror’d reflection, scowling sight upon the mundanity of existence under the cosmic wheel. Within depictions of colossal horrors and dystopian enslavement the sonic excess they’d conjured was immediately notable for its oppressive lustre, a modern hi-fi take on dissonant blackened death metal abstraction. Though their work lent itself to the experimental punish of the ear as point of purpose, particularly within their their first three or so full-length albums in the late 2010’s, it would (arguably) be ‘Succumb‘ (2021) that’d outlined ambitions beyond the widespread cloak of innovators Portal. I’d gone into such thorough detail of the band’s total trajectory in review of their sixth full-length album (‘Worst Case Scenario‘, 2023) that I won’t repeat said exploration here beyond the suggestion that they’d reached a limit on returns per their noxious, aggressive material and in some ways underfed their experimental side where drone, industrial and noise added to their cold machinelike whirr (re: the live recorded droner ‘Sol Corrupto‘, 2022). This new album essentially collects their best instincts and experimental currents into one massive ~75 minute double LP.

After a decade in action and six albums of celebrated material in skull the most surprising thing Altarage could do is alter their authorship in some profound manner. Here on album number seven the first step taken is a matter of point of view. Within the sprawling bounds of ‘Cogwheel‘ their work’s mandate is decidedly human in its depiction of angst, the droning psyche of the existential suffering experienced by the prole. How this manifests musically is a matter of both sound design and obsessive construction wherein the bulbous, downtuned hi-fi clobber of their work is now given to a more atmospheric render (re: ‘Swarth‘) and compositions reach for a more patiently extruded form of action. The heft and hammer of the trio is yet propulsive and damning as ever but here the abysm is deeper and the pace less eager to punish rather than degrade. The ~fourteen minute stretch of “Wielder” is probably the best example of this change outright.

‘Cogwheel’ managed to be enough of a breath of black air outright that I’d fixated upon its first two pieces, opener “Peso Muerto” and the aforementioned “Wielder”, for some time before letting the album advance. This wasn’t for the sake of Altarage‘s work being totally unheard-of but rather the humming dread of its atmosphere and the industrial elements fed and fusion’d within the opener in particular. The immersive value of their sound design and the tension-riddled patience running through each composition immediately set the work in a class of its own. It is a wild feat to find dissonant death metal today managing both force, equilibrium and drone without relying upon carelessly randomized spasticity. In fact as we pass along to the no-less imposing “Future Wreck” and its mid-paced ‘Pure‘-era Godflesh fed pulse through we get a full widescreen view of what these folks are capable of bringing to atmospheric metal beyond knotted dissonance and the whirring of machines (see: “1988”.)

If you’re already lamenting the chaotic indoctrination offered by ‘The Approaching Roar‘ as a fading light or miss the more confrontational chunking of ‘Worst Case Scenario‘ traits of each are yet manifested within the three columnar pieces which finalize the experience. “Not a Proper Burial” is the breaking point in this regard, a great doomed hammer of storming and churning movement yet informed by the stoic dynamism which courses through ‘Cogwheel‘ and its sense of purpose. It is probably the most expected sort of movement from Altarage here but also a much needed wrathful upset in the mix. “Ichor” by comparison is the least expected transformation on offer, the slowest paced and most barren expanse characterized by soaring clean vocal outbursts with their wavering chest-deep vibrato echoing over swelling dissonance. It isn’t necessarily a full-on Candlemass moment but the dramatic, ‘epic’ station achieved is a revelation I’d only wished they’d applied more than once in the span of the album. If this type of vocal is possible then so much more potential is left there on the table in terms of expression.

Without a lyric sheet in hand all is shadowy implication and stylized fusion in mind as ‘Cogwheel‘ speaks well enough for itself as a deeply immersive, experiential sitting. From what I gather the prose within aims to depict the individual’s compression under societal structures, governmental oppression and the removal of individual value but again I can only speculate within careful listening and song titles. Based on the themes of the three prior releases this is both markedly different in (again) perspective and rooted in realism but not at all a step away from Altarage‘s point of view beyond potentially trading nihil for angst, depicting a struggle for meaning while identifying the foot upon one’s neck. This general concept paired with the tonal shift it carries through their work easily props it up among the best “dissonant” death released this year.

In most every respect ‘Cogwheel‘ manifests an elaborate, outsized version of what I’d imagined ‘Sol Corrupto‘ would be as I’d waited for it to arrive in the mail several years ago (as there were no digital options or previews afforded it.) In the process of infusing the drone, dark ambient and industrial/post-industrial portion of their vision unto most thorough fusion Altarage make a case for longevity where I’d previously seen a sort of blunt, dead-ended factory floor for dissonant death-riff aggression. Every choice made here speaks to great care and curation taken in realizing a divergence in the trio’s path which still manages to speak to their signature as a heightened, advantageous mutation. A very high recommendation.

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