Review by Jeger on October 10, 2025.

Outlaw - a German/Brazilian Black Metal duo - named after a Watain song and FFO Watain, Dissection, Mgła and Marduk… On paper, this looks legit. I mean, where can you go wrong? Well, there's this thing called cookie cutting it. It's what happens when a Metal band wants to pay homage to an older Metal band, but ends up just sounding exactly like that older Metal band; devoid of any identity of their own. In this case, we have Outlaw. To moniker yourself after one of the all time great Black Metal bands is a testicular move indeed. Time to back it up… On Hallows Eve, Outlaw will release their new album, "Opus Mortis", via AOP Records.

AOP Records is a Prestigious German Record Label, known for its many brilliant Black Metal acquisitions, so, I feel good about this one going in. And there is no time wasted on some pretentious intro that I always skip, as off we go into the current - a violent surge of blasts and pulsating riffs swirling like a vortex through an electro-charged atmosphere. Yep, sounds like Watain… But I would say that this hits with a little more urgency; a more thrilling and suspenseful version of Watain's "The Howling". A livelier atmosphere also sets our boys apart from the Swedes. Haunting chorales breathe a ritualistic wind into the music; providing a visual experience.

A little Dissection worship during the intro to the following track, "Through The Infinite Darkness" - that familiar medieval twang and that olde uplifting quality - the tone to the death of Angels, Black Horizons and Night's Blood. Other than these smartly placed parts that you'll find throughout the recording and outside of slower burning cuts like "The Crimson Rose", "Opus Mortis" is pure momentum. Most definitely a linear affair; something like traversing the Astral Plane or going down with a falling airliner. "A Million Midnights" is a nice example. Just racing along upon rapid double-bass currents, then blast-beats and then? The power of it… There's this palpable sense of intensity that radiates through just about every track on this album. Powerful stuff like "Κατά τον δαίμονα του εαυτού" or "Rituals" era Rotting Christ.

Straight outta 1998… New Wave of Black Metal all the way. But with this Emperor level of epic. The keyboards and the synths really stir up the imagination. Each track offers up more than one example of why we listen to Black Metal: the evil, the majesty and the rebellion of it. You could say that "Opus Mortis" also offers up everything that constitutes the perfect BM experience at one point or another and it would be hard to argue with you. I would compare it to Achathras' debut LP, "A Darkness of the Ancient Past", which is an album that was created with the idea of reliving some of those coveted post-Second Wave moments - the era around 1995 - 1999, when the Second Wave drama dust had settled. "Opus" and "A Darkness" complement each other nicely.

Okay, Outlaw backs it up… Nicely put together album on both sonic and visual fronts. I think that Outlaw does a fine job of capturing the essence of the New Wave of BM, all the while they project a strong and innovative sound of their own. With "Opus Mortis", Outlaw makes you think a bit about some of the greats for whom they've chosen to homage, and these are fine moments indeed, but they are overshadowed by the band's own unique strength. The music is powerful. Powerful in a way that makes it difficult to keep up, hard to compete with this level of energy and danger. It's enough to get you drunk… Looks good on paper, sounds better coming out of your speakers. "Opus Mortis" delivers the goods from start to finish - as quintessential as the Guillotine and as high-powered as the Electric Chair. Black Metal Militia!

Rating: 9 out of 10