Album Review: Outergods – A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven (Prosthetic Records)

Having inked a deal with Prosthetic Records, Nottingham, UK-based Outergods are preparing to release their debut album, A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven, on September 1st, 2023.

While they might be a new band on the scene, Outergods features members who are embedded within the UK underground scene. Members from the likes of Raised by Owls, Antre, and Evil Scarecrow. As far as talent goes, Outergods has it in spades and all that talent combined, results in a debut that has the potential to set the extreme world alight.

Setting their stall out and making it clear just what wares they have to sell with the introduction of Nocturnal Death, Outergods bury their way into the brain matter with a discordant and harsh explosion of horrible noise. Be under no doubts, this album is going to be extremely nasty, and this short opener is all the clues you need.

It’s good preparation for what follows, but even then, the absolute chaos that comes from Into the Howling Void is still startling. Outergods are sounding so mean here; riffs that will tear strips of flesh from the body, drumming that snaps and cracks bones, and vocals that scream and screech with fiendish intensity. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself head-banging to this stunning effort.

The bar now set, Outergods choose to set fire to it instead of trying to reach it with Faceless Entities. Any ideas that you had about their extreme limits are thrown out the window for this stupid slice of carnage. How about the guitars at the end though? Absolutely brilliant stuff.

Then there is Tangled in The Cogs of The Nightmare Machine, a more measured and focused blast of head-banging heaviness. Although this doesn’t mean it isn’t as crushing as always, Outergods layering in blacker tones to make this one stand out from the pack.

A single minute of haunting ambience changes the tone of the record momentarily with Abandoned at The Centre of a Celestial Hell. Before Outergods throw out any sense of order with the grinding and gnashing fury of Nothing but A Fetid Worm. A perfect showcase of the wild wickedness that Outergods are so good at, with experimental touches here and there.

Rigid and resolute when it comes delivering more extreme sounds, the band make more noise than humanly possible with the speeding trashiness of Catacombs of Madness and the manic atrocity of brash noise that is Flesh Prison. The latter is going to absolutely slay in the live environment.

Finally, and fascinatingly, Outergods cap of this impressive debut with a filthy tribute to all that is death metal. The title track, it finds the band changing the tempo, but not losing an inch of intensity. It’s foul, it’s harsh, it’s callous, and it’s f**king brilliant. Kind of like Outergods overall.

Outergods – A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven Track Listing:

1. Nocturnal Death
2. Into The Howling Void
3. Faceless Entities
4. Tangled In the Cogs of The Nightmare Machine
5. Abandoned At the Centre of a Celestial Hell
6. Nothing But a Fetid Worm
7. Catacombs Of Madness
8. Flesh Prison
9. A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven

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