Six Feet Under - Unborn (2013)

   When Chris Barnes formed Six Feet Under, it became clear that it's going to be way more audience friendlier by its retired, middle speed groovy themes than Cannibal Corpse. Party compatible music in the Obituary way, so to say. But despite the slowly but determined uprising success and mainstream status that the band earned eventually, it was also clear that this style cannot offer many opportunities, especially if a band is formed by Al Bundy-like boomers. With time the whole thing collapsed into forgettable boredom, and not even the "Graveyard Classics" albums have been able to change that, though the idea seemed to be interesting and funny at first. 

   However, after reaching the very depths, something happened to Six Feet Under that allowed the band to rewrite unwritten rules: a lineup change that had very advantageous effect on their music. Getting rid of the former rhythm section (Greg Gall - drums, Terry Butler - bass) turned out to be the best thing that happened with the band so far. It might be not an exaggeration to say that the band's 11th full-length album (Graveyard Classics included) "Undead" became the best Six Feet Under album so far. On the following album "Unborn" this line was continued but extended even further, and embedded into better sound. If it's about old bands with longer discography, usually the early albums are the best ones (with a few exceptions, like Pantera), and lineup changes also rarely leading to such refreshing results. And a musically uprising series of albums are even less likely to happen, but this is exactly what happened. Previously their repetitive, monotonous groovy themes have been so dead, that the band's name sounded pretty accurate from other perspectives too, but since "Undead" yet unheard diversity filled these themes with life. Such a drastic drastic change is one thing, but so diverse groove metal is also pretty unusual. Stepping back to the more complex themes of old school death metal, and involving other, more technical influences by the new band members worked just perfectly alongside the groovy basics. "Unborn" (and "Undead") are recommended even for those, who haven't been impressed by older Six Feet Under records. 
 

Dream Death - Somnium Excessum (2013)

    Dream Death was formed in 1985, and during their short active period in the '80s they've released one full-length album, that sounded quite unusual at the time, especially compared to other coetaneous American bands. Their themes and sound strongly reminded to Celtic Frost, and their music in general was like a mix of hardcore/crossover thrash and doom metal. Even if "Journey into Mystery" didn't receive wide attention back then, with time the album got rediscovered by underground audiences and gained a cultic status because of its genuine sound. 

   Probably this outcome of events (on the side of the necessarily occuring nostalgia wave of aging musicians) led the band members to resurrect Dream Death two decades later. They've recalled their old style with success, but this time focusing more on the contrast of hardcore/crossover thrash and doom themes. The Celtic Frost influences are still there, but their importance reduced a bit. By this step, the narrative, shouting vocal style have lost its only validating holding ground, and it's ineffectiveness is floating above heavier than before. Especially since the '80s have been over since a long while. Honestly, this style mix have never been an absolute win, since these two styles are kinda difficult to merge and perform by leaving behind something unified and enjoyable. The song structures and musical solutions are interesting though, but the same time they just making the songs harder to go into. Back then the old Celtic Frost influences did have unifying role, while their strong presence took a lot from the band's genuineness, but by their reduced role, this unity was damaged. "Somnium Excessum" sounds like a less advantageous form of an early Carnivore influenced Type O Negative album, that was lost somewhere between two exaggerated points. For the fans of special and unusual music experiments it might be worth to give it a listen.  

Vastum - Patricidal Dust (2013)

   There have been 2 frequently returning trends at newly formed bands in the underground scene from the late '00s, as it was often mentioned before. By the New Wave Of Old School Death Metal, plenty of bands showed up to rediscover and recall the feeling of the early '90s death metal scene. And there was a wider tendency too, that was focusing on musical minimalism by operating with only basic themes and making sound as their main priority. In Vastum's music, both trends seemed to show up intensively, but it's debatable how intentional and how advantageous steps they have they been. 

  Old school orientation could validate to live with very simple and basic themes, and this usually worked out well in other styles, like in stoner/doom, when drone metal was taken as an influence. And that instantly led to the importance of the depths of noisy sound. But In case of old school death metal, oversimplified themes could lead to total boredom. Even though death metal is notorious about it's primitive approach, even most of its basic themes used to be more technical than thrash or black metal themes. The very simple themes that could be heard in Vastum's music are more remindig to Impetigo, which band switched from punk to death metal, and even though they've also earned some cultic status, somehow they didn't become too influential. Vastum also didn't seem to intend referring to Impetigo, since they did pay attention on sound and production quality, such as on the quality of the album art (the album art was most possibly painted by Paolo Girardi, his characteristic style is easy to identify). The analogy happened because of the oversimplified themes, but in tempo they also didn't go for diversity, the occasional speed ups didn't even reach thrash speed. The "eventless" drum play makes the monotonous feeling even more severe. It might fit well to AC/DC, but not into death metal. The positive sides of the album that came mainly from the production, basically got neutralized by the poor musical performance.

Witch King - Conjuration of Bestial Forces (2013)

   Previously it was mentioned that war metal is a style in which it's difficult to fail if a band keeps its strict rules and borders. But that doesn't mean that it would be easy to play war metal, it definitely requires skilled musicians. 

   It's a lesson that probably had to learned by Witch King in a hard way. The band's intentions about the genre were clear even by the visuals, and they did try to sound as devastating as possible, however, they haven't been enough skilled to do that on the required level. That suggests young band members who have been strongly inspired by the roughest direction of black metal, but it could have been too early for them to get dropped themselves into the whole thing, or their productiveness haven't been sufficient. Lower productivity usually leads to practice less, to play live less, and then improvement goes slower, or there's no improvement at all, like in case of many younger European black metal bands. Fortunately Witch King did improve themselves eventually, and later on they've released a decent full-length album, but the whole progress of evolvement went slower than usual. "Conjuration of Bestial Forces" musically was more like on a level of rehearsal demo records as the following step after jamming. It does include promising ideas and intentions, also it could be sensed, that the band catched the right feeling and attitude, but they simply haven't been ready yet. 

   For war metal fans it might be still an EP worthy to add into the collection, since it could serve as a document of the first steps of a war metal band. 

Stomach Earth - Stomach Earth (2013)

   Thanks to the wider availability of technical possibilities (if it's about studio recording, or various music programs) compared to the '90s, or even the early '00s, one man projects became quite common in less popular styles, such as death/doom. In areas where the metal scene is poor, the circumstances could lead to the same thing. About Stomach Earth probably both cases could have been accurate. 

   Mr. Mike Mckenzie, the man behind Stomach Earth, showed up in several other bands before, and his own project he seemed to endeavor to do by high quality production, in fact the highest that was actually reachable. By the sound, the atmosphere and the song compositions he surely succeeded. The album became a stunning death/doom record, filled with catchy melodies and very heavy, down pulling themes. The noisy, grim approach is working pretty well with the melodies and the melancholic atmosphere, by creating nice contrast. In fact it includes everything that could make a death/doom album enjoyable. The small aesthetical issues lying in the details, and these often occuring at one man projects. Like it's pretty rare if someone can play well on all instruments and also good at vocals. In "Stomach Earth" most possibly programmed drumming could be heard, and not the most suitable beat style was selected, cause the beats sounding kinda artificial. Also too strong effects were used at the vocals, which suggests that deep growling vocal style also isn't Mr. Mckenzie's strongest point. Among his other projects, in Nightkin the same issue came up, and to melodic black/death, this solution was even less advantageous. Probably the hardcore/metalcore-like screaming vocals are his thing, like what could be heard in The Red Chord or in Umbra Vitae. However, using technical support is still a better option than trying to play on drums if someone is simply not good at it, or trying vocal styles beyond personal capabilities. Things like these could completely ruin everything, and that happens often at one man projects. Stomach Earth partly avoided this issue, but the artificial impression is still there instead. Anyways, for the fans of death/doom it still could have things to offer by its strongly demoralizing obscureness. 

Reproacher - Nothing to Save (2013)

   It wasn't surprising from old school crust punk bands to turn so intense that the difference between thrash metal and their music was negligible. Even the vocal style and the lyrical concept had strong analogy like if the two styles were step siblings. Meanwhile at newer bands this analogy switched from thrash to sludge metal or even to sludge/doom, like in case of Reproacher. 

   Reproacher from Wyoming was a quite short lived, underrated, but pretty stunning band. By their debut album "Nothing to Save" they showed such heaviness, that wasn't usual at crust punk bands. Even if noisy sound, heaviness, and extremely aggressive tone are kinda essential features of the style, Reproacher stepped a bit further in all of these. This was possible to make by involving more metal influences than usual. The simple, but devastating mosh pit-compatible punk basics stayed, but the common speed and theme switches they've operated with had another advantageous effect on the side of reaching hell deep heaviness: bigger diversity in themes. By this step, they've easily avoided the commonly occurring problem at crust punk bands to turn too monotonous. The obscure and strongly demoralizing feeling they've reached is comparable to most sludge metal bands, not to mention the rehearsal room-like noisy sound and effects. Also the slow downs increased the effectiveness of their intense themes. It seems more possible that the wider involvement of other styles wasn't made on purpose, but did just came by instinct, however the results turned out to be more than great. Thanks to the previously mentioned convergent analogy, the various influences worked out together fine by their natural compatibility.  In total "Nothing to Save" was a strong debut, potential favorite for the fans of crust / hardcore punk and sludge metal.

Bones - Sons of Sleaze (2013)

   Bones debuted in 2011 with their self-titled album, that even though sounded like something very familiar, still had quite unusual approach - at least in the American scene. Punk influenced thrashing death metal isn't something common to find.  

   By "Sons of Sleaze" they've continued the same line. It's not quite clear if the style pick was just a coincidence, or a determined decision, influenced by the current tendencies of the underground scene. Their music could better fit into the British of Swedish scene, since as it was mentioned before, it became a trend at Swedish bands to take on the "vintage coat" and to recall the feeling of the '80s by turning back to the very roots of extreme genres. Bands like Witchery, Death Breath, Paganizer, Mordant, ect. all did something similar (of course, since we're now talking about an American band, here are no black metal influences), but even though among them only Death Breath involved punk directly, this step would be definitely a very Swedish thing to do, by their overwhelming attraction to the British scene. Also, Japanese bands had similar tendencies too, that probably they've developed independently, by analyzing their preferred styles to the depths. However, Bones had a slightly different approach, and therefore their music also had different main impression. Instead of trying to reproduce the sound and feeling of the '80s, they seem focusing on to play something pretty raw, dirty and essentially intense. By involving punk influences, the vintage feeling came instantly, but by the current noisy sound and heavier themes, the whole thing drifted further to become hardcore / crust punk. The song compositions and speed/theme switches are enough raw and compromise-less, to compensate the simple, and lighter punk riffs, that are giving the very basics of their songs. This kinda "archaic" approach also could be comparable to Nunslaughter.  At the end of the album a few songs even reaching the intensity of grindcore, making their British influences even more evident, if the listener might have any doubts. In total "Sons of Sleaze" is a pretty decent and sick record, potential favorite of the fans of old school musickness.