SODOM, KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, TANKARD, EXHUMER and ANGEL DUST. Do I even have to say the genre? Teutonic Thrash of course! The harsh spitting German accent screaming through a wave of the fastest, heaviest Thrash there is. What you don't hear about is new Teutonic Thrash bands and that is just what THE OUTSIDE is.

After a little research of THE OUTSIDE I had very high hopes for the band but when I put on the first track, "Empire" I was met with a high pitched riff that I can only describe as "Djent-like". I was quite shocked to say the least but I know I was foolish to expect a classic KREATOR riff. I must say that this riff actually could work very well if you give it a chance as the song becomes a devastating first track with guttural classic Thrash vocals.

This album does not let up for a second. From start to finish it is a relentless, politically furious, technical, melodic, Thrash assault. What makes this more impressive is that this is the band's debut album and if this is their "Kill Em' All" imagine the potential that they have to really make it into the foreground of the "NWOTM". (New Wave Of Thrash Metal)

In Thrash metal, probably the most important part is the energy and THE OUTSIDE have that in bucket loads; but the second most important part is probably the riffs and their riffs are very far removed from the Thrash norm. In their riffs you can hear a lot of polyrhythms, and I mean a lot. The band has obviously taken a lot of their influences from the Djent movement, ergo very downtuned, technical and palm-muted. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on personal taste and personally I don't really think that exploring the Djent road would be good as the world needs a good Thrash band more than another Djent band.

The production of the album, for me, is very lacking. The vocals occasionally get buried in the mix and it seems as if they put very little effort into actually capturing a mood. If they had turned the vocals up and brought the drums slightly more to the forefront this would be a very good album indeed. Nonetheless, this self-titled albumby THE OUTSIDE presents a bright future spark towards really bringing back Teutonic Thrash but if it ignites depends on whether or not they go any deeper into Djent.