Spewing forth from the repulsive hate-filled rusty goblet of War Metal arrives this self-released full-length album from Germany’s Blood Altar. Saturated in uber-blasphemous misanthropic aggression from head to toe, this is the sort of anti-human statement designed to spatter its figurative blood onto the faces of all who listen to it. Formed in 2023, this record marks the only current release from this nihilistic quartet.
The record’s sound palette calls upon a highly compressed and congested vein akin to Beherit’s dense classic ‘Drawing Down The Moon’. The guitar tones are awash in a searing hot skillet sizzle distortion akin to the type found on many an Archgoat release, whilst the blunt and direct onslaught of riffs barely ceases throughout the record’s runtime. Of particular intrigue to me is the disconcerting shared vocal duties that sound as if a small gang of Satan’s blood-drunk minions are whisking you towards a suicidal battle for the underworld. The opening song ‘Iron Wings Of Baphomet’ plunges you straight into the fray with its hyper-frantic opening guitar solo and vocals that seep above the track like poison, beckoning you towards the violent realm of the Antichrist.
I love the filthy bass on a track such as ‘Nuclear Death Omen’ which is drenched in a sizzling distortion similar to the guitars and adds a very fierce rumbling element to this track among the others. ‘Bestial Defamation Of Christ’ offers an interesting change of tone during its initial moments with an enveloped synthy bass warble and some reverse tracked bell sounds before the band matches the musical intensity of the rest of the album.
At just shy of a brisk 29 minutes, ‘Inverted Recrucifixion Of Pious Martyrs’ wastes not a single millisecond in sucker-punching its anti-religion, ultra-hatred directly into your bloodstream. The band themselves claim that ‘this album is one ceaseless surge of violence that is not for posers’, and I must agree: so if any of you pussy Deathcore-kids, emo wusses and posers are reading, this one is not for you. Sacrifice your soul to the Antichrist and mainline ‘Inverted Recrucifixion’ directly into your deviant salvationless souls!
