Abysmal Grief - Feretri (2013)

   If I was ever asked to name the ultimate doom metal album, that represents the style at its best, without thinking I would say it must be "Feretri" by Abysmal Grief. Even though for similar questions those bands used to be the best answers, who are one of the earliest of their styles and therefore the core basics are easy to distinguish. And Abysmal Grief's music is kinda mixed compared to '80s doom metal bands.

   However, even if decades have been passed and therefore slight changes might be needed for younger audiences to experience the same or similar heavy and down pulling effect nowadays like '80s audiences did in their times, the extra added influences didn't drift Abysmal Grief's music too far from classic or epic doom metal. That happened because the two extra music features they involved are quite relatable to the genre. First: the post punk-like gothic influence came by the singing vocal style and the atmosphere. Fits perfectly to both doom metal and to the occult, funeral-based main concept. It could also make the band a potential favorite for gothic audiences if they would bother to focus on music even half as much as they're focusing on their personal fashion show endeavours. Second: the stoner rock based noisy sound, that made "Feretri" probably the best sounding Abysmal Grief album. Stoner rock by its constant old school references is quite a doom related direction. Previously and after they preferred more ordinary doom metal sound, but they've never reached so heavy impression like on "Feretri". The involvement of keyboards and strings (most possibly cello) making great contrast with the distorted sound, and also creating some classic, elegant atmosphere, that's also melancholic the same time (dark aesthetics). Even if the band couldn't offer anything new and extraordinary that haven't been made in the genre before, compared to Abysmal Grief, no other bands have been able to highlight the essential features of the genre on such heavy level as they did. And did that without becoming a stoner/doom or death/doom band. Frequent switches to growling vocal style was also an absolute win, cause many things have happened since the '80s that couldn't allow clear or gothic styled singing as heavy or impressive as before, plus it just fits better to noisy sound. In total: by creating an alternative for a modern update that sounds "good as old", Abysmal Grief managed to make the impression that they play doom metal as it always supposed sound like, and "Feretri" is the heaviest aspect of their music. It's an all-round excellent record!

Necromessiah - The Last Hope of Humanity... - (2013)

   Necromessiah debuted in 2004 with "...Instar Gladii in Corporem Christi" a raw, aggressive and rehearsal quality, but quite promising black/thrash album. Later on they continued to evolve further in the style to find the characteristics they're the most comfortable with.

   On their third full-length album "The Last Hope of Humanity" an already experienced, well practiced band could be heard. They confidently experimented with various aspects of thrash from simple, ancient punk influenced themes through Bay Area style to the most intense thrashing. Therefore it became a more chilling, party-compatible record. By turning heavier than before, the differences between black/thrash and thrash/death got blurred in their music, and the blackened themes and atmosphere also had drastically reduced role compared to the debut. Thrashing has absolute dominance on the album, and by focusing more on intensity and aggressive tone, it wouldn't seem a big mistake to call "The Last Hope of Humanity" as  thrash/death music. The blackened showing up only occasionally in form of extreme speed ups, and their higher frequency could definitely have advantageous effect on the record by offering bigger diversity. However, for thrash metal fans the album might be still pretty enjoyable. 

Casket - Undead Soil (2013)

   Maybe the most interesting thing about early '90s German death metal bands is, that they always tried to experiment with the style in some way, but mostly without slipping out from its borders. And this seems to be the factor that most reviewers with "wide spectrum" at magazines and mainstream metal sites are missing from the genre, cause "we heard this 1000 times before". But despite the pretended endeavor to always discover something new and extraordinary, the early German death metal scene still remained barely recognized. Casket is one of the few bands of the scene, who didn't change style or disappeared completely since then. 

   And their third full-length album haven't been disappointing either, the same experimenting ambitions could be heard in their music, that have been long lost from the scene, and in a way how only early '90s bands did. On the side of the accurate understanding of the genre, they still sound somehow different from other death metal bands. That means operating with the toolbar of musical minimalism, but not necessarily the most common death metal riffs could be heard in their songs, and the song compositions could be also slightly different. Some with different sound and vocal style could perfectly fit into more popular genres, and that suspects wider influences than usual. The production and the sound are great, and like in this case, if everything goes well, not many would even notice at first that some basic but unusual style features have been embedded into the music. However, hearing a System of a Down cover on a death metal album is similarly irrelevant like a well known radio or pop song's death metalized version. If it meant to be a joke, not many fans are having a good laugh as it might have been expected, and if it meant to increase the hipster factor, it's not really the right place to go after such things (try black metal then). And in both cases it tells about the lack of imagination, and that's quite a paradox if it's about a continuously experimenting band. But except this false step, "Undead Soil" is an enjoyable unusual old school death metal album for the fans of the early '90s extreme scene. 

Funeralium - Deceived Idealism (2013)

   Funeralium debuted with their self-titled album in 2007, and since it seemed like a side project of two members of Ataraxie (Frédéric Patte-Brasseur - guitars, and Jonathan Théry - guitars, vocals), sot surprisingly the music showed plenty of similarities with Ataraxie. And for the complete view, Vincent Buisson (bass) from Mourning Dawn is also mentonable. On the side of the references to both mentioned bands, the self-titled album was like a slower, more desperate version of Ataraxie, though Ataraxie was already quite strong in those features. But a more individual perspective led to further personalized depths, and a more broken tone. It's important to mention that both bands have been strongly influenced by Bethlehem, and this could be sensed in Funeralium's music with similar intensity like in Mourning Dawn. 

   Despite the similarities, a few distinguishing characteristics made Funeralium independent enough, and on their second album, "Deceived Idealism" the band focused more on these. The sound turned heavier, the music more diverse, the level of desperation, and the depressing features even stronger. This diversity is comparable to how both Ataraxie and Mourning Dawn are trying to take out the maximum from each theme and it's variations, and therefore even in case of extended song lengths, monotonous impression is possible to avoid. And more importantly: even though this genre and format isn't easy to go into, the slowly developing and ongoing themes are able to lead the listener with ease. From heavy riffs to gentle melodies, from anxious depths to intense outbreaks. It's a formula that drastically decreases the possibility of failures, but it needs pretty skilled musicians, and of course loads of melancholy and depression. Atmosphere has secondary role, not leading through the whole album, but often represented by blackened themes and sound and sometimes relying on the contrast of noisy heaviness and gentle melodies. It's like a direct connection between black/doom, death/doom and funeral doom, and in fact, the borders between these subgenres getting blurred and seem irrelevant in some way. The production and the sound are all-round high quality. Similar to both Ataraxie and Mourning dawn, Funeralium offers way higher complexity than what should be expected, and this makes "Decieved Idealism" a funeral doom masterpiece. 

Avulsed - Ritual Zombi (2013)

   Even though "Ritual Zombi" was only the 6th full-length album by Avulsed, the band showed impressive productiveness since the past 2 decades in form of various compilations, EPs and split releases. During this time, the band had an interesting musical journey, always trying to give a slightly different approach to their style, that could be described as gore and gross-out based old school death metal.

   This style they always preferred to keep, but they sometimes involved some elements of grindcore, or came up with surprisingly catchy and melodic themes. After the noisy heaviness of the previous album, it could have been difficult to exceed what was heard back then, and therefore "Ritual Zombi" became like an album that briefly summarized all features of the Avulsed discography, that worked fine before. From catchy riffs and melodies to wild brutality, from morbid humor to horror and gore. Unsurprisingly after the album title, a cover song with similar title also took place on the record, since covering old school death metal classics also could be commonly heard by them. If there was need for an alternate title on the side of "Ritual Zombi", probably "Putrid Death Metal For Fun" could fit to the album well. Another enjoyable hit from the masters of the genre.

Hanged Ghost - The Attraction of Oblivion (2013)

   Hanged Ghost debuted in 2011 by "Knowledge of the Occult", a rehearsal quality record. Their music showed kinda mixed influences, that's not the easiest thing to figure out for two reasons. 

   First of all because of their style pick, which is basically funeral doom. And the funeral doom they play is definitely not easy to go into. Extended themes during even more extended song lengths, monotonous, endless suffering in its most extreme form. At the other hand the poor quality is also not helping. The noisy heaviness based riffs doesn't prevail as they used to in funeral doom, and the sound is more relatable to black metal. Therefore by listening to the debut, it's difficult to decide if the sound was intentionally like that, or it just came from the rehearsal quality. Things are more clear on "The Attraction of Oblivion", since the sound was better, but kept the same tendency. Funeral doom's essential slow, down-pulling themes not necessarily making any specific distinguishing line between black and death metal features, especially if the selected sound is strongly atmospheric and echoing. So both could function next to each other unnoticed. On the side of the sound, occasionally some quite old school black metal themes showing up too, of course in slower version. To the more complete black metal influenced impression  the vocals are assisting too, when deep growling switches to higher toned cawing. And it happens quite frequently, therefore the blackened touch became one of the Hanged Ghost's main features. These characteristics working pretty well together to highlight desperate hopelessness, and able to easily bring up the most negative feelings from the listener. The album might be pretty enjoyable for the fans of funeral doom!

Venus Star - Nigredo Expulsion (2013)

   Venus Star has another feature that used to be common at extreme Finnish bands on the side of those that have been mentioned previously: the intention to not fall into self-repeating. '90s metal bands always tried new perspectives or experimented with something new. This tradition also could be sensed at Venus Star, because each album is different.

   Since these changes came step by step, and "Nigredo Expulsion" is already the third Venus Star album, for first listening it might be not even quite evident that it's the same band or have been made by the same person. There are some analogies, like middle speed is still preferred, and the vocal style might sound familiar, but the album definitely became less extreme. Tempo and theme switches have been nearly gone, instead of raw and aggressive tone more atmospheric sound showed up, and the themes became less diverse too. It seems like if unified sound became the main priority, and instead of expressing extremity, balance had framing role. The black and doom influenced themes were possible to distinguish previously, but now they're like fused together. The heaviness of doom riffs is combined with blackened atmosphere, but black metal themes having shorter presence. This solution is unique and sounds interesting, but the same time in this hybrid form the range of possibilities also decreased. More unified sound doesn't let as much room for rawness and extremities than before. Simplicity is still an important factor, but this perspective has also some restricting influence.