Oh my goodness...Outrage really is one of those well-used names in the Metal world, with at least 14 other bands (3 each from the US and Canada, two each from Germany and Australia, and one each from Turkey, Japan, and Finland) than this Death Metal act calling (or having called) themselves so!
At least (as far as I know), thís Outrage is the only one from Austria, where the Birkfeld based band was founded in the year 2000 (Birkfeld being a small village in the SE part of the country, situated some 50 km NE from Graz). With a very different line-up than today [the only certainty I have is that among the current members, which comprise singer Umax (real name Markus Ursöger), guitarist M. (full name Manuel A. Berger, whom also used to be active with the bands Evocation and Kissing Disease), bassist/ guitarist Gerhard Turk (whom is also active with the band Forsaken Lore), bassist Evil Ed (real name Erwin Forsthuber, and active with Low-Chi at the time of his May 2009 induction in Outrage's ranks, and currently also active in side-project Proll Guns) and drummer Michael Mittendrein (also active with Plenty Suffering; joined Outrage in Feb. 2008) only the singer was there at the start – the band having gone through two bassists, one drummer, and two guitarists before] the band made its debut with 2003's demo ;;;And Deeper, which they followed up with a split release (and I forgot to check with which other band) that same year. A next release had to wait for 2006, when the band issued their debut EP Switch Off The Pain. In late 2009 the band (by then already operating in its current line-up) signed to Berlin based label Maintain Records for the November '09 release of their debut full-length Contaminated. A vinyl version of the album was released (on a limited rotation) in Oct. 2010.
Meanwhile, the band had already gained a good live reputation with their self-acclaimed “Neckbreaking Death Metal”, which not only finds influences from the brutal '90s Florida Death Metal scene, but also from classic Hard Rockers AC/DC, and Metal legends Sepultura and Six Feet Under (hum...havin' taken that bit of text almost literally from the info at the new label's website, I can't help but wonder...aren't those latter two bands also somehow involved in the Death Metal scene? Yes? No?). Several high profile support slots (with the likes of Gorefest, One Man Army And The Undead Quartet, Hollenthon, Lay Down Rotten, Debauchery, Dornenreich, and Obituary, among others) and festivals (on which they shared stages with bands such as Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, Nile, Finntroll, Belphegor, Graveworm, Sworn Enemy, Amon Amarth, Unleased, and many more) brought the band ever more in the spotlights, resulting in a deal being signed with Massacre Records, upon the completion of the new album's recordings.
I must say, I wasn't overly impressed by what I heard, not even after a couple of listening sessions. Although naming their music “neckbreaking”, some of the songs have some welcome pace slowing towards a more thrashy Doom, but overall the pace is indeed...neck breaking, and it's a good thing that the guitarists allow for some short lead parts in the whole to keep up a semblance of complexity in the whole! There's a lot of chugga-chugga goin' on most of the time (a feats for your mindless headbangers, for sure), but very little in the form of overall melody. Ay...I guess there's people out there who actually wanna listen to that kind of music, after all! What really breaks my balls (pardon the expression) is the somewhat uniform way in which Umax brings his grunted vocals. Again, it's a lucky thing that one of the other guys in the band brings in an occasional blackened screech, but overall I have found this to be a pretty boring album where the vocals are concerned anyway!
Okay now, personal taste cannot help being personal, and I it gives me a good feeling being able to tell you that you can stream the album for a complete listening session in the “Download Store” section of the band's facebook page (www.) facebook.com/outrage666 (where, weirdly enough, the “Band Profile” section contains a presentation of bassist Evil Ed's side-project Proll Guns!?). At least, you'll be able to make up your minds yourselves!