Inscrutable, is the word I would use to describe The Approaching Roar, Altarage‘s third album from 2019. With each listen, I feel drawn into the vortex of drowning people on its cover. Few bands can manage this kind of uneasy mystery, though the increasing amount of bands using the masked-up-and-anonymous gimmick certainly try. And as Altarage themselves have proven, sustaining this feeling in their music requires a certain balance that is easy to get wrong. They proved as much on the meandering 2021 album Succumb, with its lack of focus and 21 minute closer of out-of-place Drone. 2022’s Sol Corrupto did not fare much better, continuing this unexciting foray into Drone and ending up as a vinyl-only release. This proved to be another gimmick when it released digitally this year despite previous claims of exclusivity. A nagging worry started to set in for the next full length, yet Worst Case Scenario fortunately takes a step back to what works as well as incorporating the Drone influence only in moments where it does some good. Opener “Enigma Signals” shows this off well by going for an atmospheric hook right away, with a riff which sounds like a warning siren in tone, then settling on a familiar “whirlpool” tremolo riff that Altarage likes to use. At first patience straining, I have come to appreciate how this song prepares one for highlight song “Case Full of Putrid Stars” with its start-stop riffing and “wrong” sounding rhythms that evoke bands like Dodecahedron.
It eventually becomes clear that Altarage have shifted the focus of their formula a bit more towards the War Metal and Grindcore aspects previously present in their work. There is some furious riffing here, that is overwhelming in one moment and commandingly grooving in the next. The drums have been pushed higher up in the mix than before and every crashing cymbal makes it sound like something is breaking apart. The vocals, similarly placed in the mix, could have stayed where they were before since they distract a bit but this is a nitpick. All aspects of this album come together at the 9 minute center-point of “Gift of Awakening”: the unnerving riffs and groove give way after four minutes into five uneasy minutes of building Drone and Doom. The builds in “Exhaust” and the previously mentioned tracks almost manages take on an Industrial feel to them. Altarage seem to have found a good balance for their experiments in this way, measuring precisely how much development a song needs before it should end. They have produced something that is lighter on its feet than previous hits yet lands on a good balance for all of their inclinations. There is a feeling that the seams of the songs can be seen a bit better on Worst Case Scenario but I much prefer this to the music fading into an unintelligible mush. A gazing eye is again coming into focus in Altarage‘s visage, with the details around it taking on an aesthetically pleasing grime.
