photos by Kei Mowry
“This has got to be one of the fastest and most technically demanding songs CARTILAGE have ever recorded…” – No Clean Singing
After four bloody years and a quick taste-test in 2025’s Tales From The Entrails EP, San Francisco’s CARTILAGE will deliver their third full-length slab of sinewy gore metal, Operating Altar, through their allies at Everlasting Spew Records on September 11th.
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 Teresa 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.
Guitarist Michael Flory says of Operating Altar, “With this album, we sought to compose one large piece instead of simply a collection of songs. We’ve combined more influences from the likes of both brutal death metal and classic heavy metal, yet we pushed ourselves to faster tempos that we’ve never done before. Operating Altar is uniquely formulated to leave your ears bleeding with pleasure, our Maggot O-Pus if you will!”
No Clean Singing is hosting the exclusive premiere of the album’s lead warning shot, “The Operating Altar,” writing in part of the carrion-coated banger, “Even if you knew nothing about the album’s hideous story you could guess from this song alone that it is a manifestation of blood-letting madness. That comes through in the strangely squirming and darting main riff, which really doesn’t sound remotely sane, and in the hair-on-fire screams of co-vocalist Ria Flory, which add scalpel-wielding violence to the lunacy… This has got to be one of the fastest and most technically demanding songs CARTILAGE have ever recorded, and hence it is a real eye-popping freakout, but make no mistake, it definitely is a blood-rushing freakout – maniacally berserk, yet thoroughly exhilarating to hear.”
Deploy CARTILAGE’s “The Operating Altar” first at No Clean Singing HERE.
Everlasting Spew Records will release Operating Altar on CD, cassette, and digital formats on September 11th. Find preorders at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE. A vinyl pressing will follow this Winter.
Operating Altar Track Listing:
1. Metal, Bone And Sinew
2. S.C.D. (Sudden Cardiac Death)
3. The Autopsy: A Surgical Sonata
4. The Sanguine Fiend
5. A Lymphatic Labyrinth Of Roiling Rot
6. Among The Offal
7. Anatomical Incantations
8. The Operating Altar
9. Stitch By Stitch
CARTILAGE will waste no time in putting Operating Altar through its paces on the road. In September 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. Flory adds, “We’ve known Goetia from our past tours on the East Coast, we’re ecstatic to host them here and spread our sickness throughout the West Coast.”
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 TBA – 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)
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