From top to bottom, this is kind of a WYSIWYG deal. Let’s examine the facts to clarify. Band name: Cartilage. Band origin: San Francisco. Promo pic: band members bathed in “blood” wielding stabbing weapons and making agonized, menacing faces. Song title: “I Skin You.” (Sidenote, is there an emoji for the verb “to skin” that could potentially be substituted in here?) Album title: The Deader the Better. Album cover: Uh, yucky bodily fluids and weird medical stuff being performed on zombies, by zombies? [insert “I dunno” emoji here.] Conclusion: death-obsessed goregrind, that likely involves Matt Harvey.
Pretty crystal clear, no? “I Skin You” delivers all it promises—2:45 of blast beats, sideways riffs and horrific descriptions of human depravity. And yes it was produced by Matt Harvey. The Deader the Better was recorded by Alejandro Corredor (Pounder, ex-Nausea) in January 2020 at Darker Corners Studio in San Luis Obispo, and it features cameos from Ross Sewage (Impaled, Exhumed), Leon del Muerte (Murder Construct, Terrorizer LA) and Tom Draper (Pounder, ex-Carcass).
It’s set for release on May 13 via Creator-Destructor Records and will be available on limited vinyl variants—200 on double mint/purple swirl, 200 on bone w/blood red splatter and 100 on mustard w/magenta splatter—as well as cassette and digital formats. Preorders are available at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
Here’s the band’s take on the track:
“Grit your teeth and hold onto your flesh. ‘I Skin You’ is exactly what the title suggests. You can’t spell degloving without loving!”
Cartilage will perform live at Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle:
6/30-7/02 at Neumos and Barboza
