Outergods - A Kingdom Built Upon The Wreckage Of Heaven

Outergods – A Kingdom Built Upon The Wreckage Of Heaven
Release Date: 1st September 2023
Label: Prosthetic Record
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Black Metal, Metal, Grindcore.
FFO: Late 80s to mid 90s Death Metal, Morbid Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad, Full of Hell.
Review By: Mark Young

What I am loving at the minute is the resurgence of British metal, in that we are now spoiled for choice with new releases, all of which lie in that upper level of quality and extremity. This week is no exception, as I have Outergods with their debut full length release courtesy of Prosthetic Records.

Nocturnal Death starts proceedings with a short number that doesn’t prepare you for the stone-cold future classic that is Into the Howling Void is possibly one of the best songs Morbid Angel never wrote. I mean that in the sincerest terms because Covenant is one of my go-to Death Metal albums….and there is no let up as they tear into Faceless Entities, a furious start that replaces with riffs that are being stretched beyond their natural state. It’s blast beat mayhem and is just glorious as it doesn’t give you room to breathe at all. Tangled in The Cogs of The Nightmare Machine changes its attack to a Blacker Metal approach, but with let up in focus or intensity. This has all the hallmarks of being one of the songs of the year, its arrangement is spot on as they mix in some ‘slower’ moments (they aren’t really that slow) before coming back with the final push. This will be an absolute cracker live, especially the closing moments, with some storming bottom end chug coming through. Exceptional stuff!

Abandoned at The Centre of A Celestial Hell sounds like it could have been used as a Nightmare soundscape from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so unsettling and then onto another album standout: Nothing But A Fetid Worm, is 2 minutes and twenty-two seconds of prime death metal, blast beats to the max and some absolute riffing and whammy bar abuse. Love it. Catacombs of Madness enters the arena with that same urgency they have manifested with each track, this one has a fiendish melody line that ends up as the worse earworm and adds so much to the overall arrangement. The break-down is a sweet respite, with that earlier melody line given some flesh, and it really bolsters the song. Flesh Prison is all jagged chords that dissipate into the most traditional sounding track here until they turn it on its head, changing tack and tempo. The earlier blasts give way to a more controlled direction and lure you into that false sense of security and then pull the rug from underneath you. It’s a measure of how good each song is, because I had this one down as being the weakest in that it sounds similar to other Black Metal, and then they change it all round, it’s just class.

And then we reach the end. A Kingdom Built Upon The Wreckage of Heaven comes in, with siren like guitars against a slow, lumbering riff build that really amps up the music that follows. This, like Into the… is prime Morbid Angel in arrangement. Fearless, full of anger and murderous intent. It rumbles along, occupying that mid-tempo range, so it’s like teeth grinding on a metal railing. This is a supreme slice of Death Metal, no matter the country of origin, and closes out the album in that special way as the song moves gears, upping the speed and the intensity even further whilst maintaining that controlled focus. On an album of stunning tracks, it is unbelievable they left the best for last.

I didn’t expect this to be as good as it is. It is just brilliant, each track is pure quality from start to finish, with no let up in attack or intensity. How many albums are you allowed on your album of the year lists? This is one of them.