Album Review: Act of Impalement – Profane Altar (Caligari Records)

Brutality is the name of the game with Act of Impalement’s third album, Profane Altar, set for release on the 28th of February via Caligari Records.

Act of Impalement formed in Nashville back in 2012 as a power-trio and have staunchly remained that ever since. They released their debut full length, Perdition Cult, in 2018 before their second album, Infernal Ordinance arrived in 2023. It’s a slow delivery of music, but those years have allowed the band to really sharpen their sound and hone their style ready for now as we head into Profane Altar. Here with the new album, Act of Impalement get even darker and even more aggressive. Still looking back at their past, and their inspirations from bands like Autopsy, Incantation, and Cianide, but also getting more filthy with added inspiration from bands like Possession, Belial, and Archgoat.

Profane Altar has lyrics that include historical themes throughout, but the main overarching theme is occultic ritual violence with intensified vitriol towards bearers of the cross.

Act of Impalement is founding guitarist Ethan Rock with longtime collaborators Aaron Hortman on drums and Jerry Garner on bass.

Profane Altar brings us 8 new tracks and a runtime of around 32 minutes and it all kicks off with Apparition. Dark, dirty, distorted death, the opener sets the scene with a filthy slamming beats chock full of deep gutturals, bassy riffing and blasting drums. It’s slower, thick pace adds to the weight in a beastly track. Despite it’s venom, it has moments of rhythm, but they are minor in what is predominantly an intense assault on the senses. Piercing the Heavens picks the pace up, adding a bit of a different tone to some of the vocal shouts as well. The drums are great, lots of cymbal crashes and real intensity. The muddy production mixed with the distortion really give the impression of filthy darkness.

Sanguine Rites threatens to actually get catchy at points. Okay, maybe I am pushing it a bit with catchy but there is a definite bit of groove there that catches you and keeps that head banging. The riffs are great, and I love the doomier drawn out notes. Vocals do get a little monotonous at times but it works for the style which is continuing to be extremely dark and extremely visceral. Adding an extra bit of spice here through a guitar solo is a nice touch and helps the track stand out.

Deities of the Weak uses the extra tone on the vocals a bit more which is welcome and comes packing some mad lead guitar moments – a solo of squeals and screams in amongst a cacophony of utter chaos. The drums, bass, riffs all start blending into one, such is their fury, that you feel wholly swallowed up by the darkness surrounding you. So much so that when the lead guitars start screaming through the darkness, you almost welcome them before realising they are just as threatening as the rest of the song. Act of Impalement deliver some nice change ups in the pace with this one too. Slower, thicker sections suddenly switch into high speed monstrosities, then back again. It keeps Profane Altar feeling fresh despite the similarities in sound on every song.

Final Sacrifice is next up on Profane Altar and no surprises for guessing that it is heavy. It’s a really strong death metal song though with a nice repetitive riff, strong vocals and crushing drum blasts. Some extended chaotic instrumental sections would go down well in a mosh pit. Gnashing Teeth is yet another hard hitting eats of a track with strong extreme vocals and even stronger riffs. The drums are fiery but the bassy riffs really shake you to your core. Chuck in some neat lead guitar solo work too and you have a very strong track. A sudden stop, just for a second, is used to drop the pace down into a stomping section. This stuff is seriously dark.

Zenith of Barbarism is our penultimate track and doesn’t really change up the formula at all. Extreme vocals, thick and murky riffing with heavily distorted and bassy tones combined with intense drumming is how we started and how we continue. Act of Impalement utilise the slightly higher vocal shout a bit more again and that is a weapon they use well to fend off any risk of things become too samey. There is a really cool guitar solo here too. It’s short, but impactful and signals a switch from blasting intensity to slower, but still ferocious, doom tones.

The album closes on the title track, Profane Altar. If you were hoping for some mad change up in styles – you aren’t getting that. I started off this review by saying that brutality was the name of the game here, and that hasn’t changed. Act of Impalement do drop the pace down significantly for a drawn out intro though. A pace that continues into the verses were the vocals continue to be extremely guttural, extremely low and extremely extreme. The verses are bridged by speedier instrumental sections where the drums really lead the charge. These moment sin all of the songs where the vocals drop back and leave the crescendo of ferocious riffs and drums really slay. Here we get that again, but also another fiery little solo before the drums and riffs have us banging our head through to the close.

Act of Impalement’s goal was to hit us with some dark and brutal metal full of vitriol and venom and that is definitely what you get here with Profane Altar. It’s very heavy, very dark and definitely not one for the faint hearted. This is death metal, on the extreme edge, violent, angry and relentless in it’s assault across the whole album’s runtime. It makes you want to hit the pit, makes you bang your head as within all of the darkness and dirt, there is a lot of really cool music. Great riffs, great drums and neat pace changes.

Being the style it is though, there is also a lot of bleed from track to track. Act of Impalement do everything they can to prevent that through solos, slight variations in vocal tone and pace but it is inevitable really. You hit a listener with 8 tracks of heavy music, with deep tones and distortion throughout and there will be bleed. Still, take it for what it is and you will be happy – 8 slamming tracks of brutal death metal. We all need that in our lives at times.

Tracklist:

Apparition
Piercing the Heavens
Sanguine Rites
Deities of the Weak
Final Sacrifice
Gnashing Teeth
Zenith of Barbarism
Profane Altar

Act of Impalement Links

Facebook – Bandcamp – Instagram – Spotify – Apple Music – Caligari on Bandcamp – Caligari Records