In late July of 2010, New York quintet O’Death — singer/guitarist Greg Jamie, Gabe Darling on banjo and ukulele, drummer David Rogers-Berry, bassist Jesse Newman, and violinist Robert Pycior — returned to the stage after a year-long hiatus to play a critically-acclaimed set at the Newport Folk Festival. In many ways it was the perfect start to a new era in the band’s existence, and a logical precursor to their third LP. O’Death return to Ernest Jenning Record Co. for Outside.
 
After endless touring on the rollicking one-two punch of their debut Head Home (Ernest Jenning Record Co.) and sophomore barnburner Broken Hymns Limbs & Skin (Kemado), the band was sidelined in the midst of their 2009 tour when Rogers-Berry was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma. Ten months of chemotherapy and a shoulder replacement later, the group returned to the studio with a new outlook on life, and began work on their most fully conceived project to date — an affirmation of sorts. With the help of producer/engineer Billy Pavone (The Fall, Asobi Seksu, White Rabbits), the result is a record that is both the most subtle and massive accomplishment of the band’s career. Outside is a darkly triumphant and free-flowing album that represents exactly where the songwriters have found themselves in this moment. As Pycior notes, “I love the dynamic disparity in the album: the fragile parts of ‘Bugs,’ ‘Ourselves,’ and ‘Don’t Come Back…,’ the huge endings in ‘Alamar,’ ‘Look at the Sun,’ and ‘Pushing Out.’ …and I love ending on a different and demented tone with ‘The Lake Departed.’”