photos by Kei Mowry
San Francisco’s CARTILAGE presents a grimy visual accompaniment to “S.C.D. (Sudden Cardiac Death),” found on their impending third full-length slab of sinewy gore metal, Operating Altar, nearing release on Everlasting Spew Records.
Despite being the first foray into the world of concept albums for CARTILAGE, Operating Altar sacrifices nothing in the way of blitzkrieg blast beats and riptide riffs. Lead vocalist Mark Wallace and guitarist/vocalist Ria Flory spew their signature pustulant grunts and shrieks with newly theatrical aplomb, sharing the tales of a mad surgeon hell-bent on continuing decades of misdeeds at his venue of choice: St. Petersen’s University Hospital. Recorded and mixed by Scott Evans (Neurosis, Exhumed, Autopsy) and mastered by Leon del Muerte, Operating Altar is completed with cover art by David Romero (Cinemamind).
Operating Altar is the logical next step for the Bay Area’s blood-brokers, their horizons expanding without losing the red-eyed fury that has become their signature. Operating Altar is the sound of a cauterizing wound. All at once scorching, hardening, and sealing their sound into a new and grander whole.
The band declares, “At St. Petersen’s University Hospital, nightmares become coursework and Operating Altar is the soundtrack to those horrors! CARTILAGE channel Matthew Krolmark’s descent into medical madness with a single, sprawling deathgrind opus: faster than a panicked heartbeat, sharper than Dr. Warwick Locke’s questionable scalpel, and dripping with enough gore to violate several ethical boards. A grand‑guignolesque blood ritual disguised as an album, ready to carve its way through the living, the dead, and anyone foolish enough to listen without anesthesia!”
Strap in and endure the slashing attack of CARTILAGE’s “S.C.D. (Sudden Cardiac Death) video HERE.
Operating Altar will be released on CD, cassette, and digital formats on September 11th. Find preorders at the Everlasting Spew Records webshop HERE and Bandcamp where “The Operating Altar” and “The Sanguine Fiend” are playing HERE. A vinyl pressing will follow this Winter.
CARTILAGE will waste no time putting Operating Altar through its paces on the road. Days after the album’s release, they will join forces with Washington D.C.’s Goetia alongside Degraved and Unidad Trauma for their most extensive jaunt yet, spreading their disease across the Western United States and into Mexico.
CARTILAGE Tour Dates w/ Goetia:
9/15/2026 Tower Bar – San Diego, CA
9/16/2026 Republica De Hops – Tijuana, MX
9/17/2026 Slipper Clutch – Los Angeles, CA
9/18/2026 Summer Fox Brewery – Fresno, CA
9/19/2026 Mabuhay Gardens – San Francisco, CA
9/20/2026 Savage Henry’s – Eureka, CA
9/22/2026 The Crypt – Olympia, WA
9/23/2026 Big Dipper – Spokane, WA
9/24/2026 Central Saloon – Seattle, WA (no Goetia)
9/25/2026 High Water Mark – Portland, OR (no Goetia)
https://cartilagegore.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/CartilageSF
https://www.instagram.com/cartilage_gore
https://linktr.ee/esrww
https://everlastingspew.com
https://www.instagram.com/everlastingspew
https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/user/thespew
https://www.youtube.com/everlastingspewrecords
https://www.facebook.com/everlastingspew