The new Sea of Shit EPs are available now to download or buy in our store or on bandcamp. Promo barf as follows:
Newest missive from Chicago’s powerviolence battalion. Bitter resentment and rancor straining under a harsh suffocating wall of brutish noise. Ruined and invalidated by the mundane carnage of daily existence. The demise of hope.
ALTAR24 - Sea Of Shit 2nd EP - Front and Back
ALTAR24 - Sea of Shit 2nd EP - Matchbook Jacket Foldout
ALTAR24
Sea of Shit - 2nd EP
Black vinyl, matchbook style card stock jackets, b&w offset print
Necrolysergic deathgrind exhumed from the sewers of Brooklyn. Raw and primal blasting through an acid soaked cosmic death trip burrowing into the inner filth of your psyche. This is howling putrid death hearkening back to the days of Repulsion and Autopsy.
ALTAR23 - WAKE "Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow" LP
Limited Edition Screen Prints by Rotting Graphics
Calgary, Alberta-based grindcore outfit, WAKE, has completed its humiliatingly devastating third full-length album,Sowing The Seeds Of A Worthless Tomorrow, for February release through an international alliance of independent labels. The band has also deployed the first single from the LP through an official video for the track “Burn Well,” and has released that alongside word of their upcoming Trans-Canada Deathwish tour in conjunction with the album’s release.
Far from being a grindcore band that fits any one mold, WAKE envisions the genre as a starting point from which to spawn their barbaric and completely unheard of sonic vision, made of savage aggression, void-opening dissonance, and spellbinding psychedelic dirges. Shards and splinters of black metal, crust, d-beat, noise, sludge, and post-hardcore will come at the listener like a firestorm, being hurdled at them with inconceivable violence, terrifying speed, and surgical precision. As the album unfolds, exposing a massive and oozing wound of dissonant and lawless horror, the album will reveal itself as a low-end monster that stands completely on its own, engulfed in the rising flames of a wretched sonic hell, and drawing precious blood from many different influences which reach far beyond grindcore.
WAKE’s Sowing The Seeds Of A Worthless Tomorrow was recorded and mixed by Joel Grind at Falcon Studios (Toxic Holocaust, Poison Idea, Lord Dying, Abyss, etc.), mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Nails, The Secret, Black Breath, Old Man Gloom etc.) and features mesmerizing art and layout by Hal Rotting of Rotting Graphics (Plague Widow, Napalm Raid, Atriarch, Barghest).
"This is a band with a frighteningly realistic and downright apocalyptic vision of the future and an album’s worth of blistering material to back it up." -metalinsider.net
"...scathing hardcore and toxic grind seething with pain and rage." - decibelmagazine.com
2/26 Edmonton - Local Omnivore
2/27 Saskatoon - Vangelis Tavern
2/28 Winnipeg - Handsome Daughter
2/29 Thunder Bay - Black Pirates Pub
3/1 Sudbury- The Asylum
3/2 - Toronto - Coalition
3/3 Montreal - Casa Del Popolo
3/4 Quebec City - Scanner Bistro
3/5 Boston - Non Factory
3/6 Philadelphia - Half Moon Cafe
3/7 NYC - The Acheron
3/8 Chicago - Livewire
3/9 Milwaukee - Quarters Rock and Roll Palace
3/10 Minneapolis - Hexagon Bar
3/11 Regina
Finally available after months of delay (all my fault finishing the cover art) this beast is finally released.
"An extinguished flame burns brightly still. Posthumous final gasp from Canadian stalwarts Column of Heaven coupled with LA's resolute psychedelic freaks, Suffering Luna. A swirling cacophony of grinding primitive shrieks erodes into waves of static noise, expanding endlessly into the void. Surrendering to oblivion, darkness into light."
ALTAR18 - Column of Heaven/Suffering Luna Split LP
ALTAR18 - Column of Heaven/Suffering Luna Split LP
Seething death/grind in the vein of ASSUCK and Excruciating Terror. Loathsome punishment and damnation in a gray world of scorched bodies and ash-choked skies. To be alive is to be a lie. Mems of Triac, Defeatist and ASRA.
ALTAR17 - Writhing Mass "Human Capital" EP
ALTAR17 - Writing Mass "Human Capital" EP - Front & Back
After weeks of unexplained pressing plant delays the excruciating wait is finally over!
Grinding Swedish noise from the front lines of the ongoing campaign of musical destruction. Twelve relentless blasts of ugly scraping pandemonium from former members of Widespread Bloodshed, Sewn Shut and Crowpath. Corrupting the common good!
ALTAR20 Överviolence "Rapturous Expulsion" EP - front and back cover
ALTAR20 Överviolence "Rapturous Expulsion" EP - handcut outer sleeve
ALTAR20
Överviolence - Rapturous Expulsion EP
Black vinyl, b&w offset handcut sleeve w/ color insert
Limited to 300 copies
Available now on Nerve Altar
Double release day... the SickMark/Constraint and Healer EPs are now available to purchase and name your price download. SickMark and Constraint are about to embark on their US tour starting in Philadelphia this Friday 8/28/15. Tour dates and info below.
Healer & SickMark/Constraint EPs
SICKMARK/CONSTRAINT
Crushing German powerviolence in a blood pact with Philly noise mongers Constraint culminating in their US Summer 2015 Tour. Twisted shards of incendiary fuselage rip and tear the dead walls of empty tombs of the blind dead. And some tough riffs.
STREAM/DOWNLOAD HERE: ALTAR19 SickMark/Constraint - Split EP Black vinyl, b&w offset sleeve Limited to 500 copies Available now on Nerve Altar Split release with Rope or Guillotine
AUGUST Fri 28 Philadelphia, PA @ KΔT Frat w/ Past Tense Sat 29 Ocean City, MD @ Swirled World Skate Shop w/ Mind as Prison, Queensway Sun 30 Greensboro, NC @ NTCC w/ BrainxToliet Mon 31 Nashville, TN @ Drkmtt w/ Act of Impalement, Subjects/Rulers
SEPTEMBER Tues 01 Athens, GA @ Bombs Away! books w/ Bathrooms Wed 02 Orlando, FL @ Uncle Lou’s w/ I'm an Intestine, Mindscar Thur 03 Jacksonville, FL @ the Shantytown Pub w/ Worsen https://www.facebook.com/events/453552208150178/ Fri 04 Tallahassee, FL @ TV Land / Rotten Fest Sat 05 San Antonio, TX @ Ritual Art Gallery Sun 06 El Paso, TX @ Lovesprout w/ Tantos Muertos, Glob Mon 07 Phoenix, AZ @ Apt 512 Tues 08 Day Off Wed 09 Los Angeles, CA @ Perez Tire w/ Life of Refusal, Teeth, Hate Thur 10 San Francisco, CA Fri 11 Eugene, OR @ Missing Time Records Sat 12 Portland, OR @ Blackwater w/ Carrion Spring, Emasculator https://www.facebook.com/events/1117103228319341/ Sun 13 Seattle, WA @ Black Lodge w/ The Helm, Griever https://www.facebook.com/events/1617054075243001/ Mon 14 Boise, ID @ High Note Cafe w/ Dysentery, Toy Zoo Tues 15 Salt Lake City, UT @ Dishouse w/ Low Cotton, Nelson Muntz , Apprehension Wed 16 Denver, CO @ Club Scum Thur 17 Bloomington, IL @ Alien Ant Farm w/ Gush, Kelut Fri 18 Chicago, IL @ Albion House w/ Sea of Shit, Clotting Sat 19 Cincinnati, OH @ Cide Central w/ Monitor Lizard, Boltcutter Sun 20 Cleveland, OH @ Now That's Class w/ Grin and Bear it, Rubbermate and Shit Blimp
HEALER
Healer live in Buffalo - credit: C. Fursy
Buffalo's latest come blasting out of the gate with their first self titled EP. 12 quick tracks of razor sharp anthemic riffing and abrasive larynx shredding. Far from new comers this quartet boasts members of regarded Buffalo bands Running For Cover, They Live and Inerds, etc. Over the top craft and execution provide beacon of light shining in the murky shroud of hc punk.
Pulverizing grindcore assault from these two enduring DIY stalwarts. Florida’s Sacridose (ex-Cellgraft) rip and shred through blasts of jagged chaos as incendiary frontwoman Jaydee indicts the the modern slave state with vitriol and contempt. Baltimore’s Triac new streamlined lineup mangles three blistering tracks of filth and fury with screeching feedback defilement and venomous loathing.
ALTAR16 - Triac/Sacridose Split EP
ALTAR16 - Triac/Sacridose Split EP - Random Vinyl Colors
It's only February and there are already three new releases on Nerve Altar. A wiser man would slow down and take stock of the situation but the release schedule for the rest of 2015 would suggest otherwise, The Doctor laughs at your feeble mind!
Look forward to new records from Overviolence from Sweden, Aussies maniacs Pregnancy demo on vinyl and the long awaited Column of Heaven/Suffering Luna split LP. Going to the plant now is the Healer EP and the masters and art just came in for the new TRIAC / Sacridose split EP, which is total ripper!
Kill the children. Take the money. It's a modern time!
The new split LP by Happoja and Dephosphorus is finally available in the Nerve Altar store and to stream on the bandcamp page.
Promo barf:
So a band from Greece and a band from Finland walk into a bar...okay, not really, but Greece's Astro Grinders Dephosphorus and Finland's rising stars of the Unparalled Sense of Violent Groove have teamed up to release "Collaboration" LP - a nine song, discordantly brutal masterpiece that explores the more tortured, emotional and existential side of the contemporary extreme underground. But don't worry, it still totally grinds and pummels (and there's even a slow jam for grandma!)
Far more than a mere split, this is a trve kvlt collab: each band exchanged singers on each opening song and guitarists – AND the solo by Haapoja’s Pekka Kivela on Dephosphorus' Shades of Reality, is dedicated to the late Jeff Hanneman.
Dephosphorus hail from Athens, Greece and play a unique musical style known as astrogrind: they endorse a cosmic, mind expanding aesthetic, striving to forge a creative damage path through the underground scene.
With “Collaboration LP,” Dephosphorus return hot on the heels of 2014’s “Ravenous Solemnity” with 5 tracks of their signature hybrid of grind, thrash and underground delights. Vocals dragged from the corpse of just-dead banshee, a multi-verse of blast-beats and glorious riffs that seize you like a rabid bear hug.
On the other side of the wax we have Finland’s Haapoja, who bring a bit more of a blackened approach to their fierce renditions. Contributing 4 tracks to the “Collaboration LP”, Haapoja return to form heard on their 2011 and 2013 lps, spitting angular, befowled and almost mathy riffs over nuclear-clock precision beats and raw-throated howls.
Borrowing musical sensibilities from black metal, hardcore, thrash and grindcore, Haapoja expound on themes of existential and cosmic plights – man lost in an unknowable universe with nothing but a few bleak stars to guide him.
Viral Graphics is responsible the stunning artwork, and the wax comes with a lyrics insert printed on gorgeous cardstock, with reverse board/uncoated paper jackets.
Available as a digital download directly from the bands, and on limited 180 gm vinyl from Handshake Inc. 7degrees Records and Nerve Altar!
Instrumental bass and drum grind prog duo comprising members of Defeatist/Anodyne alienate and demoralize with mathematic intention. Four new compositions likening to a monolithic figure floating in cold dead infinite space that is unable and unwilling to communicate. This release sees the duo expanding their sonic palette in terms of melody and tempo. Caustic mid tempo dirges erupt and ooze like an infected wound to lure the listener before violating them again with unrelenting blastbeat assaults. Masterful execution of repulsive rhythms from the intergalactic gutter.
Available now from Nerve Altar mail order or name your price download from the bandcamp site.
Radiation Blackbody "Maximum Entropy and the Nearly Black Object" front cover ALTAR14
ALTAR14 - Front & Back Packaging
ALTAR14 - Three Panel Gatefold Sleeve & Booklet
ALTAR14 - Select Booklet Pages
Track list (track order varies on vinyl)
1. Primitive Archives 03:15
2. Sliced Open From Inside 02:05
3. Shadow Chamber 02:13
4. Defined by Absence 01:12
Drums Joel Stallings
Bass Joshua Scott
Recorded by Stallings August 2014
Drawings: Joshua Scott
Design: Aaron Nichols
ALTAR14
Radiation Blackbody "Maximum Entropy and the Nearly Black Object" EP
Black vinyl, b&w sleeves w/8 page chapbook
Limited to 300 copies
Available now on Nerve Altar
RBB Upcoming Live Dates FEB 19 - Cleveland, OH w/ KEELHAUL & Nyodene D @Now That's Class FEB 20 - Indianapolis, IN w/ Corpuscide, more @5th Quarter Lounge FEB 21 - Chicago, IL Two-Piece Fest @ChiTown Futbol FEB 22 - Buffalo, NY w/ Gas Chamber, Black Iron Prison @Black Dots (matinee show) MAY 16 - NYC w/Full of Hell, The Body @ABC No Rio (matinee show)
Long awaited second LP from Norway's PSUDOKU is now available in the Nerve Altar store along with a full album stream on the bandcamp page.
The second deep space transmission from the crazed mind behind Parlamentarisk Sodomi and Brutal Blues. Pushing deeper into prog and kraut rock territory this is grindcore taking cues from Naked City, Magma and King Crimson. Four long tracks of space grind with guest appearances by Anders Hana (vocals), Inge Breistein (saxophone) and Wei Li (vocals). It was recorded next year in a parallel universe where grind didn't develop from hardcore punk and thrash metal but from 70s prog from the future.
"Light-years beyond our primitive earth notions of what grindcore can and should be." - avantgarde-metal.com
Radiation Blackbody 7" EP - Instrumental bass and drum duo comprised of members of Defeatist/Anodyne alienate and demoralize with mathematic intention. Four new compositions likening to a singular figure floating in cold dead infinite space that is unable and unwilling to communicate.
Stream their previous declaration:
Healer is a new Buffalo group of former members of Running For Cover, Inerds and They Live. Crushing hardcore/powerviolence that follows in the vein of said bands. Highly skilled musicianship and feral energy tip the scales on these tracks.
Preview a track here:
This is in addition to the previously (albeit vaguely) mentioned amazing new PSUDOKU (Brual Blues, Parlamentarisk Sodomi) full length that will be coming out in conjunction with 625 Thrash and Crucificados and currently at the pressing plant. A peak achievement by all accounts.
Preview of that release here:
Plenty more headaches to come but are still too early to announce. In the meantime, Brutal Blues just started their month long European tour and Gas Chamber is currently in the midst of their short trek down the East Coast of the US. Check the previous blog post for tour dates.
Gas Chamber will have the last remaining copies of the "Modern Vision of the Erect Nightmare" EPs on hand, as it is now SOLD OUT from the Nerve Altar vaults. First time for everything.
Busy week, the Facada LPs finally arrived yesterday and are available in the store now. Raging Brazilian grindcore in the vein of all the classics, mixed and mastered by William Blackmon from Gadget. Comes on black or white vinyl in a one color cover with printed inner sleeves.
The debut EP from Buffalo's V.O.C. is available now on the bandcamp and the webstore. Not much to say other than these dudes fucking rage. Saw them in Buffalo a couple years ago before Matt joined on bass and was taken by surprise. Inventive guitar riffs and killer drum work and now add that crushing low end that epitomizes the WT sound. Not looking to reinvent the wheel or anything but there's enough creativity and catchy riffs to keep things refreshing. The dudes just get it.
Black and white foldout sleeve with insert, comes on random colored vinyl that looks fantastic. No two are alike!
Promo barf: "The debut EP from Buffalo's grinding maniacs, Victim of Circumstance. Featuring members of Water Torture, this foursome screech and blast their way through 11 short assaults of grinding hardcore."
Water Torture "Pillbox" LPs are finally in stock. All the preorders were shipped out last week in the order in which they were received, thanks for your patience. Wholesale orders and trades are heading out currently so keep an eye out at your usual distros.
Next up is the debut EP from Buffalo's Victim of Circumstance. Blazing hc/grind from members of, you guessed it, Water Torture. Test presses have been approved and the packaging is already in hand so this should be out in a couple weeks.
Facada LPs have shipped from Europe and should be in stock very soon. So much still to come in the next few months from Nerve Altar including the second PSUDOKU LP! A co-release with 625 & Crucificados, this new outing from the mysterious mind behind Parlamentarisk Sodomi, Brutal Blues and BSR eschews the grindcore elements form his sound almost completely. A true prog deep space exploration conjuring the likes of King Crimson, Naked City and Magma.
Water Torture's first full length is now available to download. Vinyl is running a little late but should be in stock by mid-August. Preorders are available but not imperative.
Water Torture's long awaited first LP crushes all those foolish enough to stand in it's path. Low end grinding despair and cavernous noise collage fuse together in the Rustbelt collective's unique twist on grindviolence. Branching out from their previous work, down tempo sludge is juxtaposed with intense blasting and solemn interludes of mechanical noise. Feedback drenched hymns of self loathing in a desolate, futile existence.
Brutal Blues LP. Regular blue color and red variant.
Promo barf: "A maniacal duo comprised of guitarist/vocalist Steinar (Psudoku, Parlamentarisk Sodomi, BxSxRx) and drummer/vocalist Anders (Blodsprut, Moha!, Noxagt, Ultralyd), BRUTAL BLUES unleashes blisteringly fast, raw, cutting-edge grindcore, and those familiar with the members’ previous acts should expect nothing less than sonic devastation. Their self-titled debut release was recorded DIY at the legendary Rifferiet in Norway and mixed by Anders, and the artwork designed by Steinar and Leon Tomatis. Special LP packaging with three color silk screen on silver foil sleeves with a special color variant and screen printed PVC bag."
Water Torture LP is currently at the pressing plant, hoping to release in time for their UK tour in August. Cover art and an audio preview imminent...
WT Recording Session
Brutal Blues
Brutal Blues LP is in the middle of production now with Drid Machine finishing up screening the amazing looking packaging in Norway. Hope to have my half of the press very soon.
Brutal Blues cover - Two color ink screened on silver foil paper
In the meantime, youtube clips have been popping up of the crazy live shows from the Euro tour the band just finished a few days ago. Embedding has been disabled for these vids but check out this link here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHgXiK4Es7k
Facada
Facada "Nadir"
Also at the pressing plant is the latest full length ripper from Brazil's long standing blast machine, Facada. A split release with EveryDayHate and Läjä Records, this 20 track ripper is now streaming on our bandcamp
There is a lot more in the works as well, more info coming as things develop. As usual, you can follow the Nerve Altar facebook page which is updated much more frequently than this blog simply due to ease of use.
