I have a friend who posts fairly regular updates on [redacted shitty social media platform] as to how many days remain until Halloween, and that shit starts in the spring. That’s commitment, and to him and everyone else psyched for the most ghoulish of holidays, we hope you have as hell of a weekend. If you need some extra help with your festivities, we have the perfect thing.

Quebecois death metal maulers Outre-Tombe have returned just when he needed them most with their horrific and deadly third record “Abysse Mortifère” that should fill you with horrific joy. The band is as relentless as ever on this album, and trying to take notes on this thing was a challenge because everything blows by so fast, tearing the breath from your lungs. These nine tracks rip over 37 minutes, a perfectly proportioned serving of the vilest, mangiest death you’ll tend to find crawling out of the local graveyard as this band—vocalist/bassist Crachat, guitarists Cobra and Désastre, drummer Vitesse—regurgitates sounds that bubble in old pools and new, letting you know they respect the rotting path that got them here, but they also intend to shed new blood.  

The title track starts with noise zaps before it pounds the shit out of you, hammering and charging as the vocals smear your blood. The pace is punishing as it blisters before its abrupt end. “Cenobytes” lands at a perfect time as it’s ghoul season, and it smothers with great force and it drives nails into your muscles. Soloing lights up as the tempo explodes, the drums pelt, and the hellraising rage leaves you in a heaving pile. “Coupe Gorge” delivers power that quakes the earth as the vocals splatter with guttural growls and wild shrieks. The soloing goes off as we enter a hellish stampede, claiming piles of fallen bodies as they bring the final hammers down. “Desossé” stomps and brings thrashy goodness and raspy growls as the punishment is dumped in heaping piles. The guitars go off the rails as the pace blinds, smashing and gurgling as it disappears into the void.

“Exsangue” is thrashy and wild, numbing your senses with their devastating servings of chaos. The playing steamrolls hard before the shift changes violently, ending its reign of penetrating death. “Tombeau de Glace” stomps as the guitars whine, and vicious playing adds to the collecting bruising. The guitars go up in flames as the pace takes no prisoners, ripping hard and ending in piles of ash. “Hautet Court” brings the drums crashing down as the tempo smashes sanity while the vocals rub insults in your face. The guitars slaughter as heavy blows connect with their targets, pulverizing as the final shots spray recklessly. “Nécrophage” bludgeons you with vicious howls encircling and the soloing exploding with colors. The rage continues to build amid lathering leads that spiral into a fast and delirious finish. “Haruspex” ends the assault by bleeding in and then taking you apart by the limbs. The vocals corrode as the playing gets deadlier, growing vicious and heavy as the guitars begin to boil. The playing hammers, the fires spread, and your lungs are coated in ash.

It’s hard to really convey just how blistering and heavy this record is, and it also sounds redundant as hell on a metal site, but here we are. “Abysse Mortifère” continues this band’s onslaught of unforgiving death metal that, even while it feels like you’re being beaten to a pulp, the music also is perversely infectious and stunning. This is one of the gnarliest death metal bands going right now, and you have to work awfully hard to match their violent intensity.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063647946549

To buy the album, go here: https://templeofmystery.ca/new-arrivals/

For more on the label, go here: https://templeofmystery.ca/