If there is to be any question as to the very state of the underground when it comes to how healthy the many different forms of heaviness are in their current state, I feel as though it’s a fair but an utlimately pointless question. Sure, quantity does not equal quality in every instance by any stretch of the imagination, but just to gaze into the modern landscape of death metal is to find myself absolutely swarmed with intensity, intrigue, and splendor should you simply open your eyes to what’s happening. Plenty of acts are able to thrive on the very floor of the underground where their darkness cannot be denied, but that’s simply not enough for some names who seek to truly dominate. Their first album was a force to be reckoned with, but it is with their sophomore full-length that Outer Heaven cracks their knuckles and unleashes any and all possible fury to make sure the performance is seared into the very fabric of the soul.

Death metal like this can easily feel like a dime a dozen, especially since the arrival of the current digital age, but the devils are in the details when it comes to performances like this. It’s not a mere reproduction of a death metal sound that many of us have heard time and time again such that its repetition is as stale as it is sadly expected. In cases like Outer Heaven, though, the sheer ferocity that comes in the mixing of heralding the death metal of decades path while constantly seeking to carve a path forward delivers a performance that is not to be denied its share of blood. Where their debut laid the foundation for offensives to come, “Infinite Psychic Depths” stands as the frantic follow-up offensive that seeks far more than to coat the land in blood, but rend the very cosmos itself. No one is safe once they enter the otherworldly storms of these eleven tracks with Outer Heaven perpetuating their brand of caustic death metal that can often feel schizophrenic yet always remains its focus and center through tremendous riffs and a singular vision of decimation well beyond the horizon. The flames of “Infinite Psychic Depths” seek to consume the very souls of all who come into the path of Outer Heaven with the power and presence that’s on full display throughout the entirety of the record showing us that this band is far more than a creation that deliver one solid album and that’s it. Rather, Outer Heaven establishes itself as a name that demands respect more than ever before with the ferocity of this record unable to be overstated with all that it dares to be, all that its hunger dares to absorb, and all that this power manages to dominate.

The roots of “Infinite Psychic Depths” are well-defined and surely to be found in the very origins of the sound, but Outer Heaven has certifiably made their sophomore effort wholly their own. This is what happens when death metal becomes tenacious and unyielding in its carnivorous tendencies with the very future of Outer Heaven beyond this record offering us a vision drenched in blood, writhing in unending suffering, and able to bathe the very whole of the cosmos in viscera.

LISTEN to “Infinite Psychic Depths” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Outer Heaven on Facebook here.