September 2021 Feature Release – The Horde Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Horde has been nominated by Vinny. It's the brand new fourth album "Succumb" from Spanish blackened death metallers Altarage.

https://metal.academy/releases/27047

OK, so this release has left me thoroughly devastated (in a good way). I first approached "Succumb" a couple of months before Vinny submitted it as a feature release & remember thinking to myself that it'd be totally up Vinny's alley. We're very much kindred spirits when it comes to ultra-savage & super-intense extreme metal & this release is absolutely that with a murky death-swamp of a production only further accentuating the cripplingly dark atmosphere.  I have absolutely no doubt as to the records that Altarage grew up listening to because I was right there with them. Morbid Angel's "Covenant"? Tick! Classic Incantation? Tick! Bestial Warlust's "Vengeance War 'til Death"? Tick! There are huge intimidating tentacles protruding out of this fucker with the sludgy down-tuned guitar tone seemingly engulfing the listener in pure blasphemy & violence. Carlos' vocals are nothing short of monstrous too & I love the war metal streak that runs right through the core of Altarage's foundations with the swirling guitars having seemingly derived their textured aesthetic from black metal.

Despite completely rocking my world, there are a couple of things that could have further improved "Succumb". The inclusion of some psychotic shred-tastic guitar solos would definitely have added to the mayhem. The quality does dip a little through the middle of the album too. But wait! What's this at the end of the record?? A twenty-one minute cerebral drone metal excursion of the highest order? Count me in like Flynn guys. This is my album of the year thus far & I'm placing another 666 blackened stars next to Vinny's name. I would post a review however Vinny's one already highlights everything that needs to be said.

For fans of Portal, Adversarial & Mylingar.

4.5/5

I think Altarage's Succumb provides the perfect affirmation of why I shouldn't seek membership of The Horde for my fourth clan if or when I am in a position to choose. It is obviously a release that presses all the buttons for true death metal devotees such as Vinny and Daniel and I can hear why that would be, but in truth I just found a large proportion of it to be a cacophonous noise that seems to push at the boundaries of extremity for the sake of it.

I am not unfamiliar with Altarage, this is the third of their four albums that I've tried to get along with but every time I come up short. There are passages and the odd riff that I enjoy and the cavernous, necro side of their sound I appreciate, but it too often seems to descend into over-distorted chaos. Maybe I'm just too much of a pussy when it comes to death metal!

Obviously this really isn't for me at all and as a consequence I don't think The Horde would be either.

I wish I like blackened death metal more. For a genre that so blatantly implies the crushing sounds of death metal with the atmospherics of black metal, far too often in my experience has this simply resulted in groups resorting to technical death tropes in order to imply a high level of brutality. And Spanish blackened death metallers Altarage are no exception. 

With this album being a newer release I felt obliged to at least give it my due diligence. And what I ended up discovering was that this is more of a sludge metal album with obvious death metal overtones. Nothing about Succumb makes me think of black metal; the guitars are far too coarse and crushing, meanwhile the melodic patterns are frankly non-existent. The percussion is heavily influenced by tech death, but the album has some really slow passages that harken back to a certain type of doom, sludge, or in the case of the closing track "Devorador De Mundos", drone metal. And as a result of this, I feel like the purely death metal tracks that primarily open the album: "Negative Arrival", Magno Evento", "Watcher Witness", etc. are crushing and brutal from a purely technical perspective. However, with the vocals so held back in the mix, and anything that can closely resemble a tune is devoured by the blast beats and furious rhythm guitar.

Furthermore, Succumb has a pacing problem. The albums most crushing moments are put on display right out of the gate and leaves you with very little room to recoup. Then at track four, the nearly eight minute "Foregone" hits, and while the song is an adequate hybrid of death and sludge metal, it becomes noticeable that Altarage are going to follow this abysmal path towards more downtempo tracks with less blast beats, and slightly more prominent vocals. It is too bad that the vocals couldn't follow suit. I was quite relieved when "Inwards" came on and had a heavier death metal influence near the albums end, which, at the very least, gave me a little bit of hope for the conclusion. And being further disappointed by a twenty plus minute noise piece that carries on for far too long to leave any impact. This album doesn't feel like a journey from destination A to B, but rather the cliff notes version of an album.

If there was an artist that could blend the intensity of death metal with the atmospherics of black metal, I would fall for this genre. But far too often this genre is occupied by bands like Altarage. I guess the biggest problem with that is too many would just become melodic death metal wouldn't they? An Abstract Illusion tried this with Illuminate The Path in 2016 and I really enjoyed that album. As it stands, Altarage's Succumb is an okay project that is meant for the tech death freaks out there, but provides more than enough elements of sludge and doom to make it stand out amongst a crowd. But I have to agree with Sonny that cacophonous noise just for the sake of it is a major turn off for me. I guess this just isn't really my thing.

6/10

Well then, this thing is a beast, isn't it? You'd think I'd have the same reaction as Saxy and Sonny considering my disposition towards the more brutal, suffocating, and fiery styles of Death Metal, but this one caught me off guard. Although some of the more ruthless sections didn't exactly keep my attention past the first listen, I personally think this is a very complete album in what it tries to do. There's a ton of depth and massiveness to the production that absolutely sound messy and chaotic, but I found that to be a positive at the end of the day in the context of Succumb. The lack of clarity really helps the standout riffs to pop out of the mayhem in cool ways. It's sort of a shame that the vocals are completely lost behind everything else, serving as another slightly different layer than actual vocals. The drumming is in the perfect spot for me too, being powerful enough to be felt but not being absolutely piercing like so many other albums like this. 

Compositionally Altarage nails it because while the 21-minute closer is admittedly a bit of a snooze-fest after the first listen, Succumb sets up for it extremely well with tracks like "Foregone", "Lavath", and "Vour Concession" containing hints of the coming Drone Metal excursion. Those slight hints do a ton to have the eventual transition feels like it fits in with the rest of the album. Even though I'm capable of giving a ton of praise to this one, I can't say that I'm in a rush to go back and listen to it though. It's one of the more captivating brutal walls of chaos I've listened to, but I don't think I'd be able to get any extra enjoyment out of it past the 3 or 4 listens I've given it. So although this started out as a 4/5 for me, I feel like I can't keep basing my rating off of my first experience with it alone. 

3.5/5