Cartilage is a real cool death/grind band out of San Francisco, California. They’ve had a few albums and EPs prior and this new EP Tales from the Entrails: A Necrology, appears to be a stop-gap release before their third album hits.  Their second album, The Deader the Better, from 2022, was pretty damn good.  The line-up has remained intact for the last several release,s and the title track opens as a spoken word intro, as if introducing us all to a new Tales from the Crypt episode – see the cover art for reference.

It’s a very fun intro and then “Frothed Vomit Slosh” starts with a very cool guitar opening and this is very riff driven and after the slow moments and James Murphy influenced guitar solo the song gets into a vintage 90’s gallop with Mark Wallace showcasing his dual vocal techniques, of old Carcass.  The highs and lows will have you thinking Carcass during their Symphonies of Sickness era.  The blast beat then erupts ,then back into the galloping.  Damn good stuff.

“Globs of Glimmering Gore” has more of the Carcass-lead blasting, and the drum production brings out Adam Houmam’s sound even more so.  Punishing drum sound and Teresa and Mike’s guitar sound is incredible, sounding a tad like Captain Cleanoff – if you like that Grindcore acts guitar tone, you will enjoy this, as well as older Carcass.  After the monstrous blast beats, the groove hits super hard and Kienan’s bass guitar tone is there, with that undercurrent of heaviness.  Definitely helps out, especially when the band rips into guitar solos.

That is one of the things you will notice – Cartilage is unafraid to throw in solos, then right into monstrous grind whirlwind blasting.  There are a lot of galloping moments, as well, then right into more grind blasts.  The tempo shifts are never one-dimensional, and the end of this song features a killer drum solo too.

“Pulled Inside Out” is a hysterical song title, which has a great opening with the dual vocals chiming in, as if we are hearing two separate singers.  This song has so many headbanging moments and the 1.30 gallop is quite a lot of fun.  Check out the pinch harmonics too, which the band uses at various moments to slice and dice our faces to smithereens.

“Tales from the Entrails: A Necrology” is a fun and short release.  Which is the point of EPs as this is shy of 12 minutes.  The production works well, and this is not over-the-top non-stop grindcore.  There is a fair amount of death metal, so that is why I lump them into the death grind territory.  There is plenty of melod,y and the band continues excelling as musicians.  Cartilage is a real fun band, who, while having tongue-and-cheek moments, with their lyrics and song titles, when it comes down to the music – they are here to slay!

[Visit the band's website]

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