Hot on the heels of theirIron Bonehead-releasedMMXV7" last year, Spain'sAltaragereturn with their highly anticipated debut album,NIHL, set for international release onFebruary 26thviaIron Bonehead Productions.Much like labelmatesHic LacetandSacrificio, the mysteriousAltaragehail from Spain and are a conjuration of musicians with veteran status in the metal underground. The band's openingMMXVassault was a quick 'n' consuming blast of blown-out bestial grind and juddering, volcanic down-tempo surges. However, the record was a mere two songs, and only suggested the synapse-destroying mastery to come. WithNIHL, Altaragehave created an even wider world-eating vortex that rips asunder the fibers of blackened death metal - and the listener's own comfort levels. The sound acrossNIHLis absolutely MASSIVE - every guitar tone rich with destruction, every drum hit the echo of war, the vocals once again less like anything emanating from a human and more the sound of a derelict factory's soul being torn apart - which then sets the stage for a full-scale sonic meltdown. Undeniably, the basis ofAltarageis firmly within death metal, but the band dutifully strive for the most alien hinterlands of the imagination, where riffs sound less like "riffs" and more like the mangled language of a lifeform both a millennium into the future and the past. Even the song titles themselves suggest as much (among them: "Batherex," "Graehence," "Drevicet," and the telltale "Womborous"), and the cold 'n' calculated, martial 'n' militant manner in whichAltarageplay likewise suggests life far, far removed from the "human." Taken together, the totality ofNIHLis a landscape unto itself, and the work of titanic death metal deviance.Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
"NIHL" Track Listing:
1. Drevicet
2. Womborous
3. Graehence
4. Baptism Nihl
5. Vortex Pyramid
6. Batherex
7. Altars
8. Cultus
