Brazil’s Outlaw adds new essential black metal to their canon with their third album, Reaching Beyond Assiah.

Outlaw started in São Paulo, Brazil in 2015, and they have already made an indelible impression on heavy music with their two previous albums and the 2021 EP Death Miasma. Mixing and merging traditional black metal formulations with more melodic passages and temperate stances, they have over the years, created music that is immediately recognizable. The band has seen a number of lineup shakeups, and now, according to The Metal Archives, is founder Daniel Souza (vocals, guitar), with Amilcar Rizk (bass) and Tommi Tuhkala (drums).

The first of seven songs on the new album is “Bliss of Soul.” The music rises from a deep pit, bursting to the surface with edges and spikes. After the initial flurry, the rhythm settles down into a steady crunch, punctuated by sudden eruptions. “To Burn This World And Dissolve The Flesh” is a charging attack from the beginning, and as the battle engages, the ferocity intensifies. In between the surges, the steady romp keeps the momentum headed in a determinable direction before and after the melancholic cooldown in the middle. “Beyond The Realms of God” holds a different mirror up at first. Quiet, pondering, lyrical. We know that can’t last, though, don’t we, and true to our expectations, the black metal standard takes the reigns. Excellent.

“The Unending Night” and “Everything That Becomes Nothing” sound very much like traditional formulations along genre lines while “The Serpent’s Chant” diverges notably in vocalizations and with a short, calm interlude. The final plank in the coffin is the album’s namesake, “Reaching Beyond Assiah.” This song encapsulates what the band stands for musically and can be taken as a wrap-up to the set and, more generally, a mission statement of the band. The melodic elements enhance the black metal underpinning here and throughout the record, elevating the compositions. Recommended.

Reaching Beyond Assiah is out on Friday, March 31^st through AOP Records. In the US, Bandcamp is a good place to pick up the physicals.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://outlaw218.bandcamp.com/album/reaching-beyond-assiah

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/OutlawBlackMetal

AOP Records, http://www.aoprecords.de/

© Wayne Edwards