Outcast
Mass Murder Fantasies
5.1
When a music critic struggles for words it usually means one of two things; he or she either can’t put words to how glorious the album at hand is, or the album inspires very little within him or her. Unfortunately for Belgium’s Outcast, this right here is an example of the latter.
Admittedly, grinding death metal doesn’t exactly allow for much experimentation, but Mass Murder Fantasies is generic even judged within that context. About half of this album consists of the kind of insanely frenetic, blastbeat-driven moments we have come to expect from gore grind bands, while the other half is a hell of a lot slower and rhythmic. The two are meant to complement each other, of course, but in this instance they very rarely do, instead resulting in a mish mash of parts as opposed to actual songs.
Not everything on Outcast’s debut is entirely generic. Buried right in the middle of this otherwise unassuming album is a ripping track, “In No God We Trust.” Listening to this song, one gets the impression this band is a lot more comfortable with (and has a more natural love for) hardcore-tinged death metal. That impression is cemented when listening to their take on Skinless’ “Crispy Kids,” tacked on to the very end of Mass Murder Fantasies. And even then, the song doesn’t get particularly good until about fifty seconds in, when the chorus breaks down.
