Enough with the poetry already, let's try to translate the sheer brutality and darkness of Outre into something readable. This five-piece black metal band from Krakow, Poland has just released a crushing debut, filled with chaotic riffs, dramatic passages, blastbeats and haunting vocals. Its main weapon is unpredictability. Everything on this album continuously changes and seeks new way of destroying everything in its path.
The album opens with 'Chant 1 - Departure', a droney intro with some mantra-like voices. This song mainly functions as a terrifying omen because what follows is as intense as Behemoth, Altar Of Plagues and Deathspell Omega combined. 'Chant 2 - Shadows' immediately kicks in with furious riffs and intense drumming, accompanied by both growls and screams. Outre maintains this intensity until they take a few steps back with 'Chant 5 - Equilibrium'. Yet, this song promises more malice.
And indeed, the final two chants are epic black metal anthems, perfectly combining all 'schools' in the genre. Ghost Chants is a furious album with an intensity I've rarely encountered. With almost continuous blast beats and double bass drums reinforcing the ferocious guitars, Outre creates a bleak but massive wall of sound and spews an impressive amount of misantropy over the listener.
So, be warned, this is about as extreme as black metal can get. This also is nothing else, nothing less or nothing more than black metal. There's no influences from anything besides the old and new school, but there is enough variety and energy to keep the listener in its grasp. Ghost Chants is just an outstanding black metal album and a very promising debut from this vigorous quintet, period.
Serge