Belligerence - Heartfelt (2012)

   After a quite interesting but excellent debut, Belligerence have returned with an even more stunning second album.

   "Heartfelt" followed the same unique mixed concept that have been introduced on "Out: Red", but on a bit higher level. Like if the band tried to highlight all of their determining musical features the same time, and it just worked out perfectly. The sound was now more death metal compatible, and this didn't have disadvantageous effect on their different influenced musical features. The contrast with their melodies and occasional electronic music related effects increased. It turned out similarly back and forth supporting like in case of nu metal bands, except in this case the musical diversity and productiveness is incomparably higher. The band probably also tried to show their musical capabilities at their best, even if it's about vocals, frontwoman Miss Appia performed in three different vocal styles. This, on the side of some sudden, unexpected electronic elements might result some weird, totally abstract moments for the listener, but they're not breaking the songs unity, and by being well composed, they turn out to be relevant as border breaking intentions. The whole thing never becomes autoletic or attention seeking. The album in total is overwhelmingly intense, and by the various themes and musical solutions offering plenty of exciting moments to discover even for long time listening. 

  Despite Belligerence have been a quite underrated band, for their potential and musical creativity it wouldn't be an exaggeration to sort them to the best melodic death metal bands ever. And last but not least: unlike most bands sorted to the same category, they didn't lose their death metal influences, and therefore stayed accurate to the name of the subgenre. 

Inheritage - Morbid Grace of Death (2012)

   The music and concept of Inheritage's one and only EP is straight to the point in a simple and expressive way such as it's album cover might expect. Merciless brutal death massacre and destruction with some old school references.

   Even though the concept, sound and most themes are definitely reflecting the modern aspect of brutal death, there are some quite evident signs of older influences, for instance the starting theme of the song "World of Soil" is kinda the same like how "Killing Spree" by Death starts. Similar moments on the side of the sexual references in the intros that probably came by the influence of the porn grind era of the late '00s, and are hardly compatible with the main concept, are showing that the band didn't develop yet their style completely. Most themes are basic but effective, enough to fill the short song lengths without turning monotonous. As a rageful outbreak they're functioning well, while the not too original old school switches supposed to be responsible for the diversity. However, in this early and half-finished state it's still clear that the band did have potential, and this short EP still could be entertaining for the fans of brutal death. 

Deep Desolation - Rites of Blasphemy (2012)

   Deep Desolation's activity isn't interesting only because they're playing black/doom, a rarely appearing and therefore yet untapped subgenre, but their approach is also unique. 

    On their first album they've already experimented with confidence, and its sound was more black metal compatible. By "Rites of Blasphemy" they went further, the themes are more diverse, and by the sound drifted closer to a more modern approach, that might include some drone influence. This mixed sound is definitely not usual in black metal, but from the '10s further bands tried themselves this way, usually bands with mixed styles, like black/death or crusty-sludgy black. In case of Deep Desolation the wide range of themes could be one of the reasons why they've selected this path, cause a less sizzling sound might be more advantageous for their more traditional solo themes. But another possible reason could be the various musical influences of the band members. The fact that the whole thing didn't turn out in some incoherent tangle, and the band didn't only found common ground and created unified albums, but was also able to develop their style further, proves the work of practiced musicians. In total "Rites of Blasphemy" is an excellent record and could be a milestone in the lesser known and underrated style of black/doom metal.

Call ov Unearthly - Blast Them Away (2012)

   Call ov Unearthly formed in 2005, but their full-length debut came out only in 2012 which is (except a demo compilation) their one and only album so far. But meanwhile 2 of their members played in a band called Ulcer Uterus too, that also played brutal death and had the same style.

   The music of both Ulcer Uterus and Call ov Unearthly wore the marks of the technical brutal death era of the mid '00s, and both bands practiced the style with excellence, releasing high quality records. The influences of bands like Vital Remains, Dying Fetus and Vader could be easy to discover in their music, especially Vader's influence by their simple song structures that are mainly relying on the overwhelming effect of frequently appearing and long lasting blast beats. These also serving as a unifying feature, giving frames firm as rock for all songs. At one hand it's advantageous, cause despite the technical or often switching guitar themes the unified sound never gets even slightly broken. But the other thing is, that the same time this solution cuts off any further possibilities to sound different, or to express anything else. Moreover there have been a nearly endless line of bands from the mid '00s whose music relied on the same thing, and it became challenging to identify certain specific features that could have served as differences between the music of these bands- if there was any. These could have been the main indicators why many of these bands tried to involve music such elements or very different music features and influences that had nothing to do with brutal death or with metal in general (Fleshgod Apocalypse for instance). The other way was to go in production quality as high as possible, such as Call ov Unearthly did. However, until the late '00s both paths had tremendous amounts of bands, and the whole technical / progressive brutal death wave was collapsed and forced into background. Therefore "Blast Them Away" was a late came release from this perspective, but illustrates well the several years earlier tendencies of the extreme underground. For brutal death fans this short, but purely devastating album might be strongly enjoyable.

Embrional - Absolutely Anti-Human Behaviours (2012)

   Embrional formed in 2003, and probably the nearly decade long period until their full-length debut wasn't passively spent, since "Absolutely Anti-Human Behaviours" became a musically quite mature and strong record.
   Their music had both technical and brutal death influenced tendencies. This alongside some very familiar guitar themes, album's sterile sound and the vocal style strongly reminded to early Immolation. Despite the returning references, the endeavours of creating their own specific sound could be sensed, mainly by their experiments of various song structures. In total the mix of the continuously coming diverse themes and sudden, frequent tempo switches resulting some pretty crazy main impression. But all compositions turned out so well, that it makes questionable if the band truly just experimented with the whole thing, or everything was so well written and calculated. Quite often it feels like if the main leads just trying to break the unity of the songs to live their own lives, but the some balance always keeps returning in some form - by a sharp riff, or by insane hammering, or even by a calm and slow melody. So actually it sounds like if the disharmony would get broken frequently by balance. The great variety of themes and musical solutions at one hand making the album challenging to go into, but the same time they having unifying effect. In general the production is great and all-round high quality, from sound to visual elements. The only thing that could keep "Absolutely Anti-Human Behaviours" from the masterpiece status is the too evident and frequently returning Immolation influence, cause it might take too much from the music's genuineness. But for prejudiced Immolation fans and for those who prefer insane brutality in any form, this is a must-listen-to album.

Assumption - Mosaic of the Distant Dominion (2012)

   Similar to Into Darkness, Assumption also debuted with a stunning demo with great sound and production quality. 

   Unlike most death/doom bands, their music might be difficult to sort to either of the two most common directions of the genre (the audience friendlier romance based, mainly melancholic direction, or the less popular, rough, classic form of death/doom). It does include some features from both, since melancholy and melodic themes having determining role, and very heavy approach is also usual, especially alongside the vocal parts. Funeral doom influences are significant, and in this mixed form the demo might keep reminding to Esoteric. However, Assumption didn't go too deep into elemental heaviness, and the combination of the mentioned features are not resulting something such complex, and endlessly desperate feeling like Esoteric does. The way how the band composed their songs, sounds more careful, that could have happened for two possible reasons. They could have focused more on keeping some balance, cause balance they've found the most reasonable tool to frame together various influences. Or in their early, still kinda experimenting period they just didn't want to go too far into any specific directions. The main impression is therefore softer and more moderate compared to most death/doom of funeral doom bands, but the mentioned balance also generates some elegance, that refuses to merge too deep into the dirty filth of depressive depths.

Into Darkness - Into Darkness (2012)

   Since in the late '00s it became widespread that demo releases often having so great sound quality like ordinary album releases, and sometimes even sounding better than some (black metal) studio records. This tendency had stimulus effect by the way more enjoyable sound quality, cause more fans became interested to add demos into their collections, and it wasn't only the intention of the most obsessed collectors anymore. Furthermore, demos started to have further releases, on CD and vinyl too. The same happened with Into Darkness' first demo, even though it was basically released on tape by following pretty old school fashion.

   Not only it's sound, but the music in general had made it reasonable that the interest kept staying around the self-titled demo. The band operated with quite simple, repetitive themes, but they've been embedded into such catchy sludgy / blackened atmosphere, that the main impression didn't become monotonous. Also the mixed influences had quite good and (according to this musically minimalist style) diverse effect. Similar to old school death/doom bands, their music doesn't lack intensity either, in the second and fourth songs they show, that slow, heavy themes and devastating speed do not exclude each other. Maybe because some specific features, like the basic themes, the higher toned female vocal style and the almost narrative vocal performance, their music might remind to Mythic. But Into Darkness is far not that primitive and their music is introducing a wider perspective to the listener. Since it was not only a pretty stunning demo for a debut, but musically diverse too, it could become a potential favorite for wider extreme music fan audiences too.