Defenders Of The Faith, le forum Metal

French brutal djent metal mongers OUTCAST have inked a deal with Listenable Records. The band's third album, "Awaken The Reason", will be released in Europe on February 20, 2012. According to a press release, the CD will be the group's "strongest and most solid recording so far," which "genuinely capture[s] the band's musical madness." It features "a modern-sounding-yet-organic production spiced up by some frenzy extreme guitar and drums assaults."

Commmented OUTCAST: "'Awaken The Reason' was recorded between January and September 2010 at The Artist The Office Studio. It was mixed at Split Second Sound Studio by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in October/November 2010 and then mastered at West West Side Music by Alan Douches (MASTODON, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN). The album was composed between 2006 and 2009, mixing various influences, [including] Steve Vai, GOJIRA, DREAM THEATER, DEVIN TOWNSEND, TEXTURES and SIKTH. Our main goal was to stay away from traditionnal death music and produce a progressive album with personnal signature. Eighty percent of the album was composed by Nicolas [Soulat, guitar] but everyone was at work to improve melodies and songwriting. That's why the album sounds like a concept album even if it's not. This way of thinking music mixed with several aproaches of riffing and soloing constitute, in our opinion, the main guideline and would confer strong marks to the listener. So our minds were opened and focused on originality using old and new references in the whole metal industry."

Regarding how the new album compares to OUTCAST's earlier efforts, the band said, "The more obvious difference between 'Awaken The Reason' and 'Self Injected Reality', our previous album, is the production, which gives more space and organic feelings to the composition. The composition and songs themselves are more colored and progressive, more subtle in the ambiences are not just full-rooted in death metal."

OUTCAST's second album, "Self Injected Reality", was released in September 2008 via Thundering Records. The follow-up to 2005's "First Call / Last Warning" was recorded at Unmuted Studio with producer Aurélien Mauro (SKELETON CREW) and features guest appearances by Jeff Waters (ANNIHILATOR), Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) and Filip Leo (CORPORATION 187).

OUTCAST is:

Mathieu Santin: Drums
Clément Mauro: Bass
Wilfried Fagnon: Vocals
Nicolas Soulat: Guitar
Jean-François Di Rienzo: Guitar

"Comme vous avez probablement pu le constater, très peu de news autour du groupe ces derniers temps, il y a 2 principales raisons à cela : la première c'est que JF a décidé de quitter le groupe il y a quelques mois pour se concentrer pleinement sur les activités de son studio The Office / The Artist. La seconde c'est que Nicolas souffre d'une blessure handicapante à la main droite qui l'empêche de profiter pleinement de ses capacités techniques.
Dans ces conditions, nous avons décidé de mettre le groupe en pause pour une durée indéterminée.

Nous continuerons parallèlement nos différents projets musicaux personnels et ne manquerons pas de vous tenir informés de l'évolution de ces derniers sur cette même page. Nous tenons à adresser un remerciement particulier à tous ceux qui nous ont aidés et soutenus, de quelle manière que ce soit, durant ces 11 dernières années.