Band:	Outer Heaven
Album:	Realms Of Eternal Decay
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	October 2018

01. Vortex Of Thought
02. What Lies Beneath
03. Pulsating Swarm
04. Multicellular Savagery
05. Echoes From Beyond
06. Tortured Winds
07. Bloodspire
08. Sacrificial Evolution
09. Putrid Dwelling
10. Decaying Realms

Yes, this is death metal. Filthy death metal.

We've had quite a few death metal debut albums released this year that were absolutely filthy, like that Innumerable Forms or that Summon one. I'm just listing the ones I reviewed, but there are many more than that. They all had a few things in common. They were preceded by an EP, the music isn't entirely original but doesn't feel like just a rehash of what any band has done before, they were all between 30 and 40 minutes in run time, they all had bits of either hardcore, sludge, or black metal mixed in, and they all favored a crushing, raw atmosphere (and production) over technicality. If that's your jam, you're in luck; 2018 was a great year for old-school death metal, and Realms Of Eternal Decay is a pretty worthy addition.

Given the previous paragraph, I guess it is about time I told you what sets Outer Heaven apart from other bands, and quite honestly I would pretty much use similar words that I've used to describe similar albums this year. They were all slimy and primitive and crushing, but not in exactly the same way, though having to put that "not exactly in the same way" into words is harder than it should be without just ticking boxes of all the words I should use like "riffs", "gutturals" and "raw" and yada yada. Outer Heaven deserves a bit better than that, because they've made a beast of an album, so rather than describe the music, I'll try to imagine a plot line for the album so you don't feel like you wasted your time reading this.

This is the story of a day where there was all this slime. A man was walking around and slime started coming out of him everywhere. There was so much slime that it filled up an elevator. He went to the store and there was just slime all over the place! People were slipping in it and they were all grossed out. One time the slime got a kid and a dog. At the end of the day everyone decided they would send him to space so that he would stop getting slime everywhere. The scariest part is that the man was you!!! (or he was a lady if you are a lady) and you forgot that this happened. And then a skeleton popped out.

I hope you enjoyed this story I copied from a troll creepy pasta and just replaced blood with slime, so it would fit. Please don't sue me. Instead let's celebrate the fact that the death metal scene lately is so strong that such a good album feels less new than it should be. The slime is slipping under your door.