UMUR
"Into the Outside" is the first demo recording by Norwegian death metal act Cadaver. The demo was independently released in November 1988. It´s a rehearsal tape recorded by the duo lineup of Ole Bjerkebakke (drums, vocals) and Anders Odden (guitar). So it´s a demo recording devoid of bass, but it´s not a huge issue.
Considering that this is a "live-in-the-rehearsal-room" recording "Into the Outside" features a lot of quality elements. The sound production is predictably lo-fi, noisy, and savage beyond savage. The raw and murky sound production values actually aren´t an issue though, as the violent, almost crusty sounding brutal death metal assault of Cadaver only benefits from the gloomy and filthy sounding production.
Cadaver are a well playing band too. It´s amazing that a band who only formed earlier the same year as recording this demo already sound as confident and convincing as Cadaver do here. Although the music naturally features some thrash metal riffs and rhythms (given the fact that this is a late 1988 death metal recording), this is to my ears 100% old school death metal, and considering the time of release, this must be one of the earliest Norwegian demos featuring a pure death metal sound.
Not everything is aligned perfectly though, and it´s obvious from a "fun" track like "Fisken Skrek I Vannet" ("The Fish Screamed In The Water") that Cadaver were at this point still very young guys, who also needed a bit of silly fun in their lives. But tracks like "Maelström", "Hypertrophyan", and "Into the Outside" perfectly show what Cadaver are capable of. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.