Ever since the early 2000s with the renowned Australian weirdos in Portal, experimental death metal has had its fair share of out-there bands putting out their own spin of things, and out of all places, the Basque area of Spain has two notable acts: Pestilength and of course Altarage, probably the second most well-known band in this extremely niche style of intentionally abrasive death metal. Altarage have released six albums in the past, with them reaching different levels of success on each one. Before Cogwheel, Succumb was one of the most difficult-to-listen albums I’d heard in quite a while, and while it’s not my favorite Altarage record, I can now appreciate the many different moving parts that make up that beast of an album. With Cogwheel, though, it didn’t take me over two years to truly appreciate, because this is my favorite Altarage album to date, and it’s probably the best melding of industrial hellscape noises with some of the most ridiculously heavy riffs I’ve heard outside of sludge metal.
There are a lot of moving pieces on Cogwheel, and opener “Peso Muerto” starts things off by grinding you down under a swarm of oppressive, monolithic riffs courtesy of Javier Gálvez and is a great demonstration of how Altarage put this beast together. Every single one of these songs are long, and the composition of each are incredibly deliberate and do a fantastic job of really making Altarage stand out more rather than write exceptionally solid Portal-core. Taking influence from post metal such as Isis, industrial metal such as Godflesh, and drone such as Sunn O))) make the entire soundscape of Cogwheel nothing short of a bleak, industrial hellscape. The drone works quite well, as it’s used rather liberally in outros of tracks such as “Wielder” and “Future Wreck”, and acts as a false sense of security before the next bout of disgustingly heavy riffs come in. It’s the back half of Cogwheel that shines the most, though, starting with interlude “1988”.
There are very few times where interludes work, but “1988” does a perfect job of setting the stage for the second half of Cogwheel, and it’s pure industrial ambient, with Altarage doing a fantastic job at conjuring lifeless, post-apocalyptic ruins while you’re sent through these gently pulsing corridors of sound. And then the two best tracks of Cogwheel are the one-two assault of “Ichor” and “Industrial Offering”, with the former adding Candlemass-ian clean vocals for the first time which definitely threw me off the first time I listened, but with repeated listens it stuck and I appreciate the vocal diversity present. “Industrial Offering” also sneaks in and gives you a false sense of security with an industrial ambient build-up, then forcibly makes you aware that there is no solace here with a final bout of massive crushing riffs and Galvez’ signature incomprehensible roars to bring Cogwheel to a close.
Cogwheel is the best Altarage album to date. They’ve really stepped above their previous albums with this, and it’s given me an appreciation for really giving extra attention to this highly layered, highly dense style of metal, because I really like everything that’s going on below the hood, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the drummer from Wormed behind the kit, as he’s a monster on here. Cogwheel is an album that rewards patience and multiple listens, and with there being drone and somewhat repetitive sounding passages I know it won’t be for everyone, but the sheer oppressive and draining nature of it make this one of the best albums in recent memory to sink into the abyss with.
