If there’s one subgenre that’s underrepresented on this here webzine, it’s goregrind. It’s not because I’m not a fan. Catch me blasting early Carcass, Exhumed, and Dead Infection as loud as the next sick horror freak. However, similar to second wave black metal worship and stoner/doom, goregrind has grown (or rather devolved) into the musical equivalent of beating a dead horse, becoming reduced from its once high and mighty, medical textbook-obsessed peak to a cheap Bandcamp tag co-opted by every asshole with a guitar, microphone, and pitch shifter pedal. Like every case, there are exceptions to the rule, such as today’s band in review, Cartilage.
According to their Metal Archives page, Cartilage have been terrorizing the Bay Area since 2014, although it’s only just now that I’ve become acquainted with them, so shame on me. Wait, hold up…are we seriously reviewing two San Franciscan bands in one day? I swear, this wasn’t planned, but Paul Baloff would sure be proud! 40 years since Exodus unleashed their “Metal Command” and Fog City is still producing a bevy of noteworthy metal bands, each delivering their own unique attack. In the case of Cartilage, it’s quite the gory assault that lurks within their latest EP, Tales from the Entrails: A Necrology. And as the title foreshadows, this release is NOT for the faint of heart or stomach.
Par the course for an extreme metal release in 2025, Tales opens with an intro, but not just any intro; this might be the most inventive and amusing intro I’ve heard of the ’20s thus far. Instead of going for the usual horror synth prelude or ambient soundscape that’s come to be expected for a release of this nature, Cartilage open Tales with an “Official Trailer”, complete with a voiceover and scenes from each song acted out like a real life movie trailer. As the horror unfolded, I couldn’t help but boast a stupid grin on my face, my anticipation for the metal itself growing with each teaser.
Before we know it, it’s off to the races with the gloriously gory “Frothed Vomit Slosh” (how appetizing). Cartilage wastes no time whatsoever, brutalizing the listener with an intense array of grinding death riffs and Carcass-esque guitar lines incorporated amidst the carnage. “Globs of Glimmering Gore” continues the madness, its riffs being both hooky and mosh-friendly, at times channeling the murderous death/thrash of Ghoul. “Ape-u-tator” bounces to and fro with primal gore-grooves that properly suit a song about a chimp on Xanax (based on a true story…what could possibly go wrong?), while “Pulled Inside Out” closes the EP with a violent splat, leaving us disemboweled and begging for more.
I can’t recall the last time I heard a goregrind release as memorable and compelling as Tales from the Entrails. There’s no doubt this all too brief Necrology could’ve been turned into a full length feature if Cartilage saw fit, but alas, they did what was right for this release, and for that I give them a severed hand. Besides, I’m sure the studio (in this case, Everlasting Spew) is pressuring the bunch for a sequel as we speak. Hopefully the follow up will be more Dawn of the Dead than Halloween II!
8 out of 10
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Genre: Goregrind
For fans of: Carcass, Exhumed, Impaled
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