During all this, CHARNEL ALTAR became a prolific force on the live
front. Their first show was supporting Uada, and they went on to play
with the likes of Incantation, Krisiun, Integrity, Primitive Man,
Faceless Burial, Gutless, Ignivomous, and Vile Apparition. A tour with
CARCINOID was planned for 2020, but was unfortunately cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, CHARNEL ALTAR make their full-length debut with the slimy
'n' stultifying Abatement of the Sun. Horrific and harrowing, churning
and gestating with utter dread and doom, CHARNEL ALTAR's death metal is
like a slo-mo melting of mind and matter. One could arguably qualify it
as death-doom, but the band's version of such evades easy categorization
and aims more for hovering tension and paradoxically spacious density -
indeed, like old(er)-school death metal dragged through tar but
trudging forward like a tank. That all three members previously played
together in the cult Tombsealer - who toured nationally in support of
Mournful Congregation and played with such acts as Dead Congregation,
Portal, Fetid, Windhand, Cough, Inverloch, and Nocturnal Graves to name a
few - shows in their seemingly effortless execution, that these
dreadful 'n' doomed-out ruminations have been simmering in their hearts
for time eternal. Or, put another way, Abatement of the Sun is
all-too-perfectly titled: the end is not just nigh; it's NULL.