Outergods is a quintet from Nottingham, founded by guitarist and jack-of-all-trades Nathe Sinfield and vocalist Sam Strachan, two singles in 2021 heralding the release of debut A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven. It offers a vicious blend of black metal, death metal, and grindcore, with the rot of dissonance and ambiance aching in its bones. Influences range from the muscles of Morbid Angel, the mania of Strapping Young Lad, and the expansiveness of Full of Hell. While this combination comes across a bit like Calligram and Anaal Nathrakh had a child, it is edged by a dissonant and maddening riff-structure that recalls the far-off dimensions of Portal or Victory Over the Sun. A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven is not a game-changing album, but it illustrates in every way how capable Outergods is at making it – both chilling and violent, ominous and devastating, eyeing the infernal depths with a warped precision.
Outergods is largely the brainchild of guitarist Nathe Sinfield, whose unique interchange of meaty hardcore riffs and second-wave tremolo bent by axe-led dives into the abyss. Breakneck speeds dominate A Kingdom Built… as early Anaal Nathrakh a la Hell is Empty…, blazing riffs and terror coursing throughout especially the second act. Tracks like “Catacombs of Madness,” “Nothing But a Fetid Worm,” and the closing title track all black metal/grindcore rippers with a taste for violence, seared into the brain by these climactic crawling riffs. “Into the Howling Void,” “Faceless Entities,” and “Flesh Prison” are punkier tracks, driving rhythms and chugs contrasting the overlays of dissonance before punching in a horrifying Portal-esque riff slide. Tracks like opener “Nocturnal Death” and “Tangled in the Cogs of the Nightmare Machine” and interlude “Abandoned at the Centre of a Celestial Hell” feature more subdued atmospheric motifs that dwell in nightmarish synth sprawl, allowing its more violent attacks to dwell in darker places. Outergods’ variety is a clear highlight, as the deft fluidity between dissonant plucking, crushing chugs, and wildly otherworldly riffs is on full display, bolstered by furious drumming and Sam Fowler’s searing shrieks. A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven is a noisy album, but its ability to sound as icy as Mayhem, as bludgeoning as Morbid Angel, and as cutthroat as Strapping Young Lad warrants a solid recommendation.
The album structure and the wayward production quality are the only elements that keep A Kingdom… from truly soaring. While tones of density, scathe, and iciness are all present, there is no unifying measure or tone that represents a unified Outergods sound or trademark. This becomes more conflicting as the album continues, because it isn’t until well into “Tangled in the Cogs of the Nightmare Machine” that the grindy violence hits with a huge force, only to be cut short by ambient interlude “Abandoned at the Centre of a Celestial Hell.” While openers “Nocturnal Death,” “Into the Howling Void,” and “Faceless Entities” are solid in their own right, their more Calligram-esque punky beats pale in comparison to the more viciously grind-centered back-half. The violence of “Nothing But a Fetid Worm” is certainly a glorious shock to the system, but it highlights the two halves of Outergods’ admittedly formidable palette, distributed unevenly across their debut.
A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven is a debut loaded with potential, its creators undeniably destined for greatness. While Outergods may have not created its magnum opus here, its uneven tracklist and DIY guitar tone slightly hurting consistency, but it is an album as gleefully vicious as it is menacingly ominous, balancing the two dimensions of punk and grind neatly with dissonance and ambiance atop its foundations of dark, grimy death and alienated, icy black metal. Consider my ears effectively wrecked.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: facebook.com/outergodsuk | outergodsuk.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: September 1st, 2023
