Ronnie Lacey
I'd listened to this casually a few times last year, but after seeing them live this year at The New Dead Fest something snapped and I just can't get that sonic wall out of my head.
If you have the chance to see them live DO IT!
Favorite track: Luminous Jar.
heavymetal_disco
Love the prog elements they added to their sound without compromising on twistedness, heaviness and darkness.
Favorite track: Ascetic Reflection.
Second pressing of Ascetic Reflection on 180 gram coloured 12" vinyl. Interdimensional Vomit colour variant. Gatefold sleeve. Insert and download code included. Strictly limited to 150 copies.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 7 days
edition of 150
15 remaining
Purchasable with gift card
$45AUDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Second pressing of Ascetic Reflection on 180 gram 12" vinyl. Gatefold sleeve. Insert and download code included. Strictly limited to 350 copies.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 7 days
edition of 350
Purchasable with gift card
$40AUDor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Jewel case compact disc, featuring cover art by Adam Burke and liner art by Derek Setzer.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$20AUDor more
T-Shirt/Shirt
Ascetic Reflection short sleeve t-shirt printed by Fury M&S Production S.R.O. Metallic silver screen print on Gildan Ultra Cotton blank stock.
ships out within 7 days
edition of 26
6 remaining
Purchasable with gift card
$30AUDor more
T-Shirt/Shirt
4-sided Ascetic Reflection long sleeve printed by Fury M&S Production S.R.O. Screen printed on Gildan Ultra Cotton blank stock.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$50AUDor more
T-Shirt/Shirt
Ascetic Reflection 4-sided long sleeve. Printed on Gildan Ultra Cotton blanks in Pittsburgh, PA by Pyre Press for our 2023 North American tour. Note that the red used on this print run is a slightly darker shade than our previous European and Australian print runs.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$50AUDor more
T-Shirt/Shirt
Luminous Jar T-Shirt design by Lev Sloujitel, featuring our 'Live Ouroboric' tour dates for Europe and North America 2023 on the back. Two colour front and back print on Gildan Ultra Cotton blank stock. Printed in Pittsburgh, PA by Pyre Press.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$30AUDor more
Button/Pin/Patch
Woven logo patches printed by Fury M&S Production S.R.O. Image of actual patch.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$10AUDor more
Button/Pin/Patch
Altars logo metal pin manufactured by Fury M&S Production S.R.O.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$15AUDor more
Ascetic Reflection long sleeve shirt, black
T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album
Ascetic Reflection long sleeve, released to coincide with the release of Ascetic Reflection on vinyl.
4 side red on black print including additional art on the back and sleeves of the shirt by Stewart Cole/Rotten Realm art. Screen printed by hand in Melbourne, Australia by Gauntlet Press.
Printed on Gildan Heavy Cotton long sleeve shirts.
Classic midweight fabric
2.2 cm rib collar
Taped neck and shoulders
Double-needle sleeve and bottom hems
Classic fit tubular body
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Embroidered Logo Patch
Button/Pin/Patch
10 cm, embroidered logo patch, iron-on backing. Logo by Christophe Szpajdel, patch designed by the band, printed by Brilliant Emperor merch. Image of actual patch.
Sold Out
Ascetic Reflection Die Hard CD Bundle: CD, T-Shirt and Patch
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Limited time bundle offer to help us raise some much needed funds to get us on tour. You will receive: 1 x copy of Ascetic Reflection on CD, a short sleeve shirt in your size of choice, plus an embroidered Altars logo patch.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Ascetic Reflection LP, 'Black Vinyl'
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Ascetic Reflection gatefold LP, featuring cover art by Adam Burke and liner art by Derek Setzer. 180 grams, limited to 350 copies.
Please note, this is a preorder item. Begins shipping on or around January 13 2023. Items ordered alongside this preorder will be shipped together.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Ascetic Reflection T-shirt
T-Shirt/Shirt
Screen printed by hand at Gauntlet Press, Melbourne Australia.
Ascetic Reflection design featuring a metallic silver print, front and back, on black Gildan Heavy Cotton T-shirts.
Features a select portion of Adam Burke's cover art and one of Derek Setzer's three liner art collages.
Classic midweight fabric
2.2 cm rib collar
Taped neck and shoulders
Double-needle sleeve and bottom hems
Classic fit tubular body
Sold Out
Ascetic Reflection long sleeve shirt, white
Ascetic Reflection long sleeve, released to coincide with the release of Ascetic Reflection on vinyl.
4 side red on white print including additional art on the back and sleeves of the shirt by Stewart Cole/Rotten Realm art. Screen printed by hand in Melbourne, Australia by Gauntlet Press.
Printed on Gildan Heavy Cotton long sleeve shirts.
Classic midweight fabric
2.2 cm rib collar
Taped neck and shoulders
Double-needle sleeve and bottom hems
Classic fit tubular body
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Altars enamel pin
Button/Pin/Patch
Soft enamel pin featuring the Altars logo. Dyed-black raised metal edges, white enamel fill, dual clasp back. Approximately 4.5 cm in diameter. Printed on backing cards.
Flat rate express shipping within Australia via Aus Post.
International orders are shipped at regular parcel rate via Aus Post.**
**Express shipping from Australia is quite expensive, and around double the cost of the regular parcel rate. If you want a faster shipping option, or want to combine multiple items to make it cheaper/worth your while, please email us first and we will find you an exact cost for your country.
Sold Out
*PRE-ORDER BUNDLE 1*: Ascetic Reflection LP, shirt (white or black) and enamel pin
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Pre-order bundle including:
Ascetic Reflection gatefold LP, featuring cover art by Adam Burke and liner art by Derek Setzer. 180 grams, limited to 350 copies. Includes enamel pin plus Ascetic Reflection long sleeve, released to coincide with Ascetic Reflection's appearance on vinyl.
4 side red on white or black print including additional art on the back and sleeves of the shirt by Stewart Cole/Rotten Realm art. Screen printed by hand in Melbourne, Australia by Gauntlet Press.
Printed on Gildan Heavy Cotton long sleeve shirts.
Classic midweight fabric
2.2 cm rib collar
Taped neck and shoulders
Double-needle sleeve and bottom hems
Classic fit tubular body
Please note, this is a preorder item. Begins shipping on or around January 13 2023. Items ordered alongside this preorder will be shipped together.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
Ascetic Reflection gatefold LP, featuring cover art by Adam Burke and liner art by Derek Setzer. 180 grams, limited to 350 copies. Includes enamel pin plus Ascetic Reflection short sleeve t-shirt.
Metallic silver print on front and back, featuring a selection of the cover and liner art by Adam Burke and Derek Setzer. Screen printed by hand in Melbourne, Australia by Gauntlet Press.
Printed on Gildan Heavy Cotton shirts.
Please note, this is a preorder item. Begins shipping on or around February 1, 2023. Items ordered alongside this preorder will be shipped together.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Limited Edition: Ascetic Reflection T-Shirt
T-Shirt/Shirt
Limited edition screen printed Ascetic Reflection design featuring a two-sided, two-colour print in tangerine and Aerospace Material Specification AMS-STD 595 26176 (blue-grey) on white Gildan Heavy Cotton T-shirts.
Features a select portion of Adam Burke's cover art and one of Derek Setzer's three liner art collages.
Classic midweight fabric
2.2 cm rib collar
Taped neck and shoulders
Double-needle sleeve and bottom hems
Classic fit tubular body
Sold Out
Ascetic Reflection Cassette
Cassette + Digital Album
Cassette edition of Ascetic Reflection featuring a clear UV printed cassette, cover art by Adam Burke and liner art by Derek Setzer.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
*PRE-ORDER BUNDLE 2* Caustic Splatter LP, long sleeve plus enamel pin
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Pre-order bundle including:
Ascetic Reflection gatefold LP, featuring cover art by Adam Burke and liner art by Derek Setzer. 180 grams, limited to 150 copies. Includes enamel pin plus Ascetic Reflection long sleeve, released to coincide with Ascetic Reflection's appearance on vinyl.
4 side red on white or black print including additional art on the back and sleeves of the shirt by Stewart Cole/Rotten Realm art. Screen printed by hand in Melbourne, Australia by Gauntlet Press.
Printed on Gildan Heavy Cotton long sleeve shirts.
Classic midweight fabric
2.2 cm rib collar
Taped neck and shoulders
Double-needle sleeve and bottom hems
Classic fit tubular body
Please note, this is a preorder item. Begins shipping on or around January 13 2023. Items ordered alongside this preorder will be shipped together.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
Ascetic Reflection gatefold LP, featuring cover art by Adam Burke and liner art by Derek Setzer. 180 grams, limited to 150 copies.
Please note, this is a preorder item. Begins shipping on or around January 13 2023. Items ordered alongside this preorder will be shipped together.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ascetic Reflection
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Void Mirror T-Shirt
T-Shirt/Shirt
Screen printed 'Void Mirror' T-shirt featuring the Altars logo, and two of three collages created by Derek Setzer for Ascetic Reflection. This is a two-sided, two-colour print in red and white on black Gildan Heavy Cotton T-Shirts. The Altars logo and 'Void Mirror' adorn the the front, while the 'Void' and lyrics from Opening the Passage consume the back.
Classic midweight fabric
2.2 cm rib collar
Taped neck and shoulders
Double-needle sleeve and bottom hems
Classic fit tubular body
Temporal womb rejects
Permutated being
Ripped from cosmic bowel
Bound in rags
Corrupted excrement
Scales ulcerated vessel
Withered and ossified, swathed in pall
Profuse with ripening sores
Foetid icon enshrined in ash
Ascetic self-affliction
Pulping mass
Heaps a mound of broken clay
With which to scrape itself
Perpetual anathema
Sulphurous anatomy
Derelict sapience
Perverse lust
for obeisance
Eagerly consumes pestilent spoor
Murmuring pithos
At austere nexus
Itself having swallowed
All miseries of flesh
So have I beheld it
Solemn and profane
Radiant with gravity
Forments desire
Insatiable
To perceive
To penetrate
To pierce me
Subsume (unto me)
Obscure luminescence
Pours from sacrosanct orifice
Arcane malevolence
Bilious maledictions
Flow vessel to vessel
Until all are filled
The way of souls is lit
Time is
Time is
Time is
From conception to being
Time is
Time is
Time is
From energy
To energy
To energy
To conception
To being
To vision
To light
To fire
To black
To being
To conception
To energy
From energy
To black
To black I bring the light
And the air and the fire and
The word and the sound
That is black
I deny carnal weakness
Impurity, putridity
Pull of basal impulse
Abhorrent hedonism
I flay my skin
My flesh, mortification
Dispose of frail rot
Transcending thresholds
To commune with inner worlds
Buried beneath mortal façade
Transcend thresholds
In hermetic martyrdom
The path to divinity
Is laid upon the bones of dreaming dead
Viscera coalesce
Transmute into being
Homunculus
Receives
Immaculate
Breath
Awakening in squalor
Wet in shallow pool of melted bodies
Obtains its gift
Of unending mortality
Haemorrhagic entity
Thrust out from barren caecum
Pustulent corpse reanimate
Steeped in putrescence
Tows defleshed to zenith
Flaccid limbs raze the shrine
Observes in dominion
Pathetic miasma of human waste
Unmoved by artifice
Considers its judgment
Pentacle of horrors
Exhume squalid tomb
Black bile dissolving bonds
Heaving odium
Rejecting banishment
Crawling swollen with effluvium
Seeking the gateway
Spewing forth from the aperture
Opening of the passage
Dredged up within decayed utmost chasm
The mortal curse escapes futile confinement
Its ouroboric cycle perpetuated
Thick with sour redolence of recomposed godflesh
The revealed shall be hidden
What is closed shall thus be opened
Ignominious forms
Rising from foul abyss
Gathering relentless
Seeping coagulant of eldritch putrefaction
Viscid caustic fluxion
Interdimensional vomit
[B. Sloan/ L. Fischer/ B. Sloan/ L. Fischer]
Quickening toward the seal
Manifest eidolon grasp the boundary
Ruptured bowels of contagion
Spewing forth from the aperture
Opening of the passage
Altars is...
Brendan Sloan – Vocals, bass
Lewis Fischer – Guitar
Alan Cadman – Drums, percussion
Additional vocals on Slouching Towards Gomorrah by Cale Schmidt. Soma Labs Ether on Black Light Upon Us, slide guitar on Opening the Passage, bowed cymbal and Soma Labs Dvina on Inauspicious Prayer by Lewis Fischer. Additional guitar leads on Opening the Passage by Brendan Sloan.
Ascetic Reflection was recorded and engineered by both Brendan Sloan and Lewis Fischer at Twin Earth Studios in Adelaide, Australia — January, 2022.
Mixed by Brendan Sloan and Lewis Fischer at their respective studios in Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia. Mastered by Brendan Sloan.
Cover art by Adam Burke. Liner art by Derek Setzer. Layout and graphic design by Lewis Fischer. The Altars logo is drawn by Christophe Szpadjel.
Altars would like to thank Cale Schmidt for his voice and eternal support; Giorgio Magalini and Tito Vespasiani for their trust and belief in the project; Anastasis Valtsansis for his wisdom and guidance; Jon Nicol for the use of his studio and assistance throughout our session; Mariah Anzil for her photography; Adam Burke for his cover piece, which perfectly expressed our vision; and Derek Setzer for channeling this vision and making it whole.
We extend our gratitude to Ally; Helen Vassilopoulos (1929-2021); H, Boss Koss, Frog, Tiberivs Rex, Ax5, Lev & Telemachus, Dan Swanö, Aldrahn, Mercyful Fate and the unfading memory of Kay Bartlett.
supported by 26 fans who also own “Ascetic Reflection”
The album description mentions an “emotional apex.” That’s really the difference between Stare and the band’s previous albums. Ulcerate was always supremely technically proficient. I just didn’t care all that much. Their growth has come from making music you will feel. Metallurgical Fire
supported by 26 fans who also own “Ascetic Reflection”
An outstanding Extreme doom death album, in the best tradition. The funerary atmosphere reminds of Evoken ('Centuries of ooze" bears striking similarities, for my delight). It is overall sharp, dark, hypnotic and unrelenting. One of those rare convincing new bands that hold proud the legacy of the biggest names. Bertrand Marchal
An assembly line of crushing doom, blistering death-rock, and misery-laden black-metal, powered by a one-man torture machine. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 30, 2018
Blistering, brutal “Australian Barbaric Death Metal,” the latest from Cemetery Urn is as thick, black, and enveloping as a tar pit. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 5, 2017