photos by Chris Johnston
Decibel Magazine is hosting the premiere of “I Skin You,” the latest slice from San Francisco goredealers CARTILAGE and their impending second LP, The Deader The Better, nearing May release through Creator-Destructor Records.
Produced under the watchful eyes of Exhumed’s Matt Harvey, The Deader The Better was recorded by Alejandro Corredor (Pounder, ex-Nausea) in January 2020 at Darker Corners Studio in San Luis Obispo. The album all at once features friends, peers, and gore metal grandmasters Ross Sewage (Impaled, Exhumed), Leon del Muerte (Murder Construct, Terrorizer LA), and Tom Draper (Pounder, ex-Carcass) who all make guest appearances, sharpening CARTILAGE’s hemorrhaging stabs of grind for the masses. The Deader The Better is completed with cover art by Matt Slime, and includes a cover of Impetigo’s “Boneyard.”
With the new premiere of the LP’s “I Skin You,” the CARTILAGE faction collectively offers, “Grit your teeth and hold onto your flesh. ‘I Skin You’ is exactly what the title suggests. You can’t spell ‘degloving’ without ‘loving!’”
Decibel writes in part, “‘I Skin You’ delivers all it promises — 2:45 of blast beats, sideways riffs, and horrific descriptions of human depravity.”
Let CARTILAGE’s “I Skin You” rip at Decibel Magazine RIGHT HERE.
Creator-Destructor will release The Deader The Better on LP – 200 on Doublemint/Purple Swirl, 200 on Bone w/ Blood Red Splatter, and 100 on Mustard w/ Magenta Splatter – as well as cassette and digital formats on May 13th. Find preorders at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp where “Cellar Full Of Stiffs” is streaming HERE.
CARTILAGE has announced a run of California shows, playing San Francisco, Long Beach, and Santa Cruz May 20th through 22nd. The band will also perform at Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle June 30th through July 2nd, joining Ludicra, Repulsion, Suffocation, Acephalix, Panopticon, and many others. Watch for additional live news to post throughout the year.
CARTILAGE Live:
5/20/2022 Thee Parkside – San Francisco, CA
5/21/2022 Supply & Demand – Long Beach, CA
5/22/2022 Urbani Cellar – Santa Cruz, CA
6/30-7/02/2022 Neumos & Barboza – Seattle, WA @ Northwest Terror Fest [info]
Whether you call them deathgrind, goregrind, or gore metal, some things are certain: the Bay Area’s CARTILAGE bleeds in blastbeats, rips out gut-twisting riffs, and spews idiomatic viscera with delight. Spawned from original members featuring sibling duo, guitarist/vocalist Ria and vocalist Mark Wallace along with guitarist Michael Flory (Logistic Slaughter) and drummer Adam Houmam (Terrorizer LA), came one that delighted in the flesh-searing death metal that the likes of Impaled and General Surgery claim as their own.
In 2019, the band added bassist Kienan Hamilton to their ranks and has held the low-end buzz since. Not content to rest on their blood-soaked laurels, CARTILAGE wrote, recorded, and independently released the Gore-Met EP as the morbid darkness of 2020 ended. And now, the quintet is primed and ready to unleash their second LP The Deader The Better via Creator-Destructor Records.
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