The dead may rest, but Cartilage’s grind never stops and after four bloody years and a quick taste-test in 2025’s Tales from the Entrails EP, San Francisco’s Cartilage has returned with their third full-length slab of sinewy gore metal Operating Altar. Despite being the band’s first foray into the world of concept albums, 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 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! For fans of Exhumed, Impetigo, Carcass, Pharmacist