Massacre - Back From Beyond (2014)

   As Massacre had to wait for their debut back then in the early '90s despite being one of the earliest death metal bands; so they had to wait for a while for their return decades later when the style had its Renaissance by the New Wave of Old School Death Metal. The band also had a less fortunate style changing intention in '96 after the collapse of death metal by their second album "Promise", that not only most fans, but also the band wishes to forget about. Though the kinda Pantera-like groove metal experiment with private life drama based lyrics basically wasn't a bad idea, especially compared to the lately formed nu metal scene. But it definitely wasn't the cup of tea of the band's old audience and it would have been better if it was released under a different name. 

   However, even though if the delayed retun didn't impress the audience as much as it was expected, "Back From Beyond" was a decent album with great songs, excellent sound and production. Except the album art and the old logo, the presence of Terry Butler and Rick Rozz from the original lineup are referring to the old times, and many probably had right if they didn't find this sufficient for a real continuity. Cause basically the music wasn't different from what any other death metal bands were doing at the time. Like anyone else could have done this album under a different name. The old logo, the album art, and Mr. Rozz's short noisy solos just didn't seem enough, though Edwin Webb's vocal style also did fit well. Their concept was also definitely better than what most old bands used to do after their return by trying to imitate what they did 20+ years ago and becoming their own tribube bands (what actually did happen with Massacre later on and the band was also photocopied by Inhuman Condition thanks to Terry Butler). And in case of radical style change the audience becomes unsatisfied again, so big returns are always difficult, and not many bands can find their countings if they expect more than some nostalgia led by the side effects of midlife crisis. Anyways, "Back From Beyond" was a good direction, not an intention to remake everything exactly how things have been back then, and also no drastic changes were included. Only one thing was missing. That tiny plus that's always pretty difficult to describe. That something that gave Massacre its own identity back then, and despite everything else was at its place, this tiny something proved to be enough to not receive the welcome that was desired. Except that "Back From Beyond" is quite enjoyable as a Massacre album or even as a random death metal album, and still it could be a potential favorite for the fans of the genre.

Serpentine Path - Emanations (2014)

   Serpentine Path debuted with their self-titled album in 2012, that despite its unified, simple and obscure form, showed mixed influences.

   On the side of death/doom and sludge/doom features there have been features frequently appearing that are more common in stoner/doom, or in the mix of stoner, sludge and doom metal to be more accurate. Serpentine Path did a pretty good job by using these related features and forge them into unified sound. "Emanations" strictly continued this line, and similar to the first album, it was again an excellent heavy, noisy and down-pulling record. Since the band preferred to keep the same slowly rolling heaviness, that could express well endlessly lasting agony without any hope of relief, the album might sound be monotonous after a while, but the great production made it sure that for the lovers of stoner/sludge/doom and death/doom metal it's a potential long term favorite.

Fórn - The Departure of Consciousness (2014)

   Fórn has debuted with a stunning and pretty obscure demo (or EP), that served well as a self-introduction and as an accurate description about what should be expected from the band in the followings. 

   The same line was continued on their first full-length album "The Departure of Consciousness". It could have been expected even at the self-titled demo that Fórn isn't just another ordinary sludge/doom band. The depths that they've reached on their first album are incredible and suddenly they've become one of the best bands of the style. The excellent sound and high quality production had great assistance in reaching that level. The songs usually drifting between slow, melodic down-pulling melancholy and noisy, overwhelming heaviness, creating strong contrast. But probably the most effective parts are when these two features are combined and their showing their effectiveness together. A perfect combination of desperate feelings and the oppressing weight of hopelessness.

   Strongly recommended for the fans of sludge/doom!

Keeper - MMXIV (2014)

   Keeper formed as a sludge/doom in 2014, band and shortly after they released an impressive demo, that gave a taste about their potential.
   Despite the very noisy, aggressive and rough first song, the record in total prefers to express a strongly down-pulling and endlessly sour feeling, that's closer to hopeless melancholy than to noisy heaviness. This line was continued on their late releases as well, though the heavy rawness didn't disappear completely.  Sad that they didn't focus more on raw heaviness in the followings, since the combination of their pretty basic themes and strongly distorted sound proved to be a pretty effective tool, that could have been dropped in any time, even to make their music a bit more intense and diverse. The band had affinity for black metal influences as well, and since sludgy and blackened atmosphere doesn't really fitting together, this blackened touch is kinda restricted like in case of American bands in general. There are blackened themes appearing in some form in at least 3 songs, and the vocal style also could be related to the style, but in this kinda low amount and by this sound these doesn't really count as determining features. The strongly demoralizing and desperate feeling of sludge staying dominant and for those who prefer this direction on exaggerated level, this demo might become a big favorite. 

Temple of Void - Of Terror and the Supernatural (2014)

   In an old interview with Temple of Void it was written that they want to be the best death/doom band of the world. By the release of their debut "Of Terror and the Supernatural" the whole thing didn't even sound as an exaggeration, since the record sparked wider attention than what non-romantic death/doom bands used to get.
   No wonder, because the album was all-round excellent. Maybe a bit more intense than how most bands in this style used to be, but this at one hand was quite advantageous, since the slower and more miserable extreme music is, the lower is its chance to reach wider audiences. And the whole thing suited their music well, that despite had high quality sound and was definitely fitting into the main scene of the mid '10s, also had quite strong early '90s touch. It wasn't the well known tendency of the underground that focused on musical minimalism and the increased importance of noisy sound  possibilities. On the side of higher intensity, the band operated with simple, but catchy melodies, great heavy riffs and more diverse drumming style that could also reach the tempo of ordinary death metal. This resulted not only a wider perspective and more diverse main view, but also it was a step ahead of the meantime developing complexity based tendencies of the underground. Whether it was an intentional step from the band, or they simply enjoyed old school death and death/doom bands and just wanted to play what they like, the timing was great, seemed like a brave step, and turned out to be pretty effective the same time. The measures of raw heaviness and melodic melancholy are balanced and completing each other well, therefore the album didn't become one sided or repetitive in any directions. In total: "Of Terror and the Supernatural" definitely became one of the best death/doom albums ever, and became an unavoidable release of the subgenre. 

Ealdath - Ancient Oath (2014)

   Ealdath was a short lived death/doom band with only one very impressive demo record, that could be also nominated to a "longest demo tapes" competition on the side of Esoteric's debut. 
   This 50 minutes long record is divided to 4 songs, and despite the songs extended lengths, they simply never turning overly monotonous or boring, thanks to the excellence of their compositions and catchy themes. It might be not an exaggeration to state, that "Ancient Oath" is one of the best records of the death/doom subgenre. And the same time one of the most underrated ones too, unfortunately. The way how the features of the down pulling, traditional form of death/doom and its audience friendlier, softer, melancholic aspect are merged is genius. Probably the sound, that isn't bad at all for a demo, since it's a studio record, but still not on the level of high quality death/doom albums, also had role in creating the impression of diversity. The simple noisy riffs can't be as noisy as they supposed to in similar cases, but this had advantageous effect on the main view. However, the excellent themes that could be heard on "Ancient Oath" requiring practiced musicians with complete understanding of the style. For the experiences involved, probably Josh Banke (bass), Tim Call (drumms) and Kody Keyworth (guitar) could be found responsible, since all 3 members played together in Aldeberan since a while. The music has quite '90s feeling, possible influences could be Winter, Paramaecium, Ceremonium, Thorns of the Carrion and Paradise Lost. The combination of catchy themes, soft melodies, and heaviness is pretty effective and well applied. Despite the plenty of suspected influences and the fact that Ealdath's music didn't offer anything new, their perspective gave the subgenre a pretty extensive and obvious definition, that was seemingly performed with ease. 
   Strongly recommended for the fans of death/doom!

Nausea - Condemned to the System (2014)

   Formed in 1987, Nausea counts as one of the earliest grindcore bands, on the side of Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Carcass, Repulsion and Terrorizer. But unlike these fellow coatenous bands, Nausea had to wait longer for a full-length release, and didn't spark wider attention. It was partly due to their debut's poor rehearsal quality, and partly because of the primitiveness of their early music, that simply couldn't even keep up with the intensity of other grindcore bands.
   While "Crime Against Humanity" was still kind of an experimenting death/grind album filled with a lot of basic punk influenced themes, their returning album, "Condemned to the System" decades later did reach the quality and intensity that a grind/death or grindcore band supposed to. The second album is basically incomparable with "Crime Against Humanity". However, more than 2 decades have been passed meanwhile, and after so many things did happen in the underground on the side of the renaissance of grindcore, that mainly came in the form of porngrind, this kind of strongly Napalm Death and Terrorizer influenced death/grind sounds quite vintage. The concept is also strongly relatable with those two bands. The production is high quality and flawless, and whether the band's intention was to create what they couldn't perform in the early '90s, or just to return to their roots, and release an old school styled album that's actually the main scene was pretty much missing since a long while, they definitely succeeded in both cases. Recommended for the fans of old school grindcore!