shEver - Ocean of Illusions (2007)

   Even though long ago the members of shEver declared that black metal was their main influence, they've debuted with an excellent death/doom album.
   To combine death and doom metal has a long history, but unfortunately most old bands disappeared or changed style after one or two albums. In the late '00s this style counted as something unexploited partly because of this, and partly because death/doom bands didn't spark wide attention, so plenty of similar projects showed up. The effectiveness of "Ocean of Illusions" lies in the good mixture of simple melodies and heavy sound. The repetitive themes during decent song lenghts with the assistance of a strong background atmosphere and clear female singing gave a deeply sad basic impression. By the screaming/growling vocal style and the heavy sound it turns tragic and desperate, but also gains a very powerful effect. The way how the songs were composed could serve as a good example for perfection inside the borders of this style. The appearence of female musicians in metal genres doesn't count as exceptional anymore, but in the case of full female line-up on the extreme metal field things are getting more interesting. Especially if they create something that gives a different perspective for a genre like shEver did, without experimenting with anything new. "Ocean of Illusions" is probably the best death/doom metal album that was released since the early '90s have passed.

Dethklok - The Dethalbum (2007)

     Somewhere deep within the virtual world of ironically self loathing death metal bands, your favorite nighttime TV show characters of Dethklok pull their shit together long enough to gift your meaningless lives with their explosive debut album The Dethalbum (no pun intended). What's cool about this album is that it's essentially a musical walk through of your favorite episodes from season one of Adult Swim's comedic parody cartoon show Metalocalypse. But instead of musical snippets abruptly ended with multiple macabre fan deaths, you're treated to extended full length versions of the songs from the TV series, including a couple of bonus/unreleased tracts.
     As any album worth listening to in the death metal community, sprinkled with tiny bits of hatred and controversy towards whether or not Dethklok should even be considered real metal or not, The Dethalbum is a mixture of melodic death metal and repetitive chugging. If you're able to look beyond the initial satire that is the entire essence of Dethklok's being, what you're left with is a band that is able to reach it's audience with what could be considered a type of visual audio that is it's music. Even if you've never seen an episode of Metalocalypse, listening to songs like "Bloodrocuted" or "Briefcase Full of Guts" leave an extremely purposeful aesthetic that is sure to melt the heart of any hardened death metal fan, as long as they aren't too hardened to enjoy a bit of self deprecating humor every now and again.
     

Abysmal Grief - Abysmal Grief (2007)

   If anyone may thought it's not possible to show anything new in doom metal that's different from the ordinary Black Sabbath, Candlemass or Cathedral influenced way, Abysmal Grief proved that it's definitely wrong. And they did it by not even showing up with anything extraordinary.
   Their debut starts with rain like if it was a necessary requirement in the genre, such as the strongly occult lyrical concept. But their way is closer to what occultism was in the 19th century, when similar "entertainment" didn't count as the opposite way of being religious, because they often involved Catholic mass features. On the side of short pray details, electric organ themes are leading the listener to a dark funeral mass that might end up in sacrilegious resurrection of the dead. The atmosphere of funerals are an important feature in their music, and they've mixed their feeling with doom metal in a genious way like nobody else before. All of these were made with such ease and simplicity like if pairing the two was the most evident thing on the world, and the question might stand in the listener: "Why nothing like this was made before? And even if something similar was made, why it wasn't so effective?" Occasionally stringed instruments are helping to wonder about the depths of passingness, and the ceremony master's high singing vocal style is often collapsing into mysterious whispering that foretells nothing nice about the afterlife, if there is any. The album is strongly recommended for the fans of the darkest doom metal and also in case of lonely cemetery walks.

The Art of Blasphemy - Penitence (2007)

   The Art of Blasphemy developed musically a lot all-round since the first album, and they've committed a quite effective return by "Penitence".
   "Use Your Idols!!!" was an audience friendlier album by it's musical simplicity that kept some distance from the Northern style, except the attention seeking features. In the followings they still preferred to stay on their own way as the wildness of Mediterranean bands showed up in their music. That was represented in the heavier sound to involve a second, deep growling backing vocal. In the themes the role of the traditional Northern black metal features increased (the returning guitar melodies strongly reminding to Mayhem), but their music also became more complex and diverse. On "Penitence" they played faster and speed changes are also common. By the intensity and the heavy sound they reached a sick animalistic feeling that's close to point through the borders of ordinary black metal. There are still some raw themes and musical solutions to find, but the band had a large progress that was able to open new perspectives.

Death Breath - Let It Stink (2007)

   Some old school death metal nostalgia showed up in the late '00s that was called as the New Wave of Old School Death Metal. It was nothing revolutionary new, only purposed to fill the emptiness that was left behind after the once very influental late '80s/early '90s death metal bands. All performed by newbies, so it didn't concentrate into scenes by location, similar bands just formed all around. One of these bands was Death Breath.
   Even though "Let it Stink" was only a short EP that also included 2 cover songs, the feeling that Death Breath summonned was outstanding, and defines perfectly what old school sound means. It's like if they've recorded the songs 20 years earlier, and to refer back to bands like GBH and Bathory gives a really ancient touch for the EP (and since they are Swedes, a British reference is inevitable to make). This kind of dirty, noisy thrashy sound was really something that wasn't common to hear since a long time in the main scene by new bands, and counted very vintage that time. On the side of the music, the lyrical concept is also the same horror influenced like decades ago. There's no need to form any high-toned message, the ghouls are coming, they're dead but walking and want to eat your brains... any questions? The intensiveness makes the EP party compatible too, though it's quite sick. Strongly recommended for the fans of dirty, ancient sound.

Diskord - Doomscapes (2007)

   The cover artwork may already suspect that "Doomscapes" by Diskord isn't an ordinary death metal album. It's just the same abstract like the music, so it definitely fits.
   In the late '00s dozens of progressive and technical brutal death metal bands appeared with weird ideas and style mixes. Diskord was different even from them, though the analogy cannot be dismissed. Their basic musical roots were closer old school death metal though, but it wasn't their purpose to seem special by an unusual style combination. The sudden theme changes were so strictly composed in their music that they are half technical and progressive, but for the same reason they aren't. It sounds like to create disharmony was their goal, not to pile up technical fripperies or to involve themes that doesn't fit in. It's more closer to the concept of the that time also uprising math metal scene. There are plenty of references to find about old school bands, but to mention any has no sense, because of the constant theme changes. These are nothing more than sudden déjá vu impressions without any important role. They are just part of the chaotic disharmony just like the weird elements that are enough effective to erase their influence. The album is definitely not easy to go into, but may cause enjoyable moments for musical gormands who are looking for challenges.

Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today (2007)

   Electric Wizard debuted as a strongly Black Sabbath/Cathedral influenced stoner/doom band, and after they've reached the possible borders of heaviness and extreme sound distortion on the album "Dopethrone", they seeemed to laid back and chill.
   The psychedelic atmosphere stayed the same remarkable, and their music didn't lose anything from it's obscure demoralizing effect, but "Witchcult Today" is more like a levitation into oblivion. The album doesn't sounds so tired of life and desperate like the previous ones, but it's still not recommended for cheerful "long time no see" gatherings. The hidden goal of the levivation and the slow, heavily bouncing themes is still to end up in some black hole to get rid of the miserable parameters of existence. Electric Wizard was always like if their albums were recorded in the '70s, only the strongly distorted sound counted as a warning. By turning the noise a little bit down, "Witchcult Today" had pretty vintage main view, maybe more than previously, and that gave some "long time durable" effect to their music. Another masterpiece, but by the well-tried recipe it's hard to fail.

Scatha - Keep Thrashing! (2007)

   Scatha showed up with a very promising demo, but unfortunately they have gone after. It's sad, because they had quite big chance to break out even from the depths of underground.
   Their music referred back to the '80s thrash metal, but without copying the features of any scenes or exact bands. It was like a new fresh swing of a young band who tried themselves in an old school style that was long forgotten. They've wrote pretty good themes, and their song structures didn't even suspect that all was made by a totally amateur band, though the members were so young that time. All songs were composed good and the vocals were quite aggressive to be effective too (reminds to the growling style of Sabina Classen from Holy Moses). The fact that Scatha was a band with full female lineup would have been also enough to spark attention, especially in the not so feminine genre of thrash metal. From the late '00s more females appeared in the main metal scene, and nowadays it's not even a big deal anymore, except if the whole thing is not slipping into a melodic-emotional collapse. The band has returned after a decade with a different lineup, but in that form (and after such a  long break) they couldn't reach their early level.

Hellfire - Hellfire (2007)

   Hellfire was formed in the early '90s, but after a short and not so eventful active period they've gone. After a long break the band have returned to keep playing thrash metal.
  Strange, but even though they doesn't count as newbies, their music completely lacks the genuinely mixed style of South American bands. Hellfire was strongly dedicated to play "Teutonic thrash", and about their intense hammerings and themes the influence of Sodom and Kreator are the most mentionable. This one sided ambition is more usual at newer bands, but anyways, Hellfire didn't leave anything to chance. The reference to German thrash metal is also represented in "Hellfire's" excellent sound quality, and  especially in the clear sound, that's also less usual to find at the oldies of the local scene. It's also the advantage of clear sound is that it's able to increase the effectiveness of simple and repetitive themes. The album holds plenty of enjoyable surprises for the fans of traditional thrash metal by it's nostalgic features. It's simple, aggressive and rude, just like how this style have to be.

Death Yell - Morbid Rites (2007)

   By formed in the late '80s and being one of the first extreme metal bands in South America, Death Yell probably counts as a cultic band. Similar to Sarcófago, they've also played a raw genuine mix of death and black metal.
   The band was short lived, "Morbid Rites" is a compilation that collects their early works and live records. It could be crearly sensed that they didn't have exact imagination that time how they wanted to express the infernal chaos they've planned to illustrate with their music, so there were plenty of occasions when they improvised. They just wanted to play something so aggressive and insane as possible, like many others that time. Their drummer couldn't keep up with the intense speed they've played, so just like at many old bands, he did snare drumming at the fastest parts. The chaotic lead guitar themes, the slow downs that are like silence before the storm, and the occasionally artificially distorted vocals together creating a main view that's reminding to Bathory's "The Return..." The concept seems similar too, and the effectiveness lies in their not yet materialized, raw style and powerful swing. "Morbid Rites" is like a lately discovered long forgotten gem from the golden age of extreme metal.