Gruesome - Savage Land (2015)

   Similar to Skeletal Remains, Gruesome also formed as band self-dedicated not only to recall the feeling of the early '90s death metal the most accurately, but also to imitate Death's "Spiritual Healing" era the most accurately as possible. 
   The production, the sound, and the themes are all great as they are, and the music probably wouldn't be so annoying for those who never listened to Death, but if individuality and genuineness does have any importance for the listener, the charisma of "Savage Land" would probably vanish in the moment when "Spiritual Healing" would get introduced. How does it make sense to basically recreate a classic album by the same themes only to put them together in different order and into different songs? Probably an ordinary tribute album with cover songs would make it better. Even if it's clear for everyone that they intended to tribute to the legacy of Death in their own way, or that it's just a fun made thing, where the only sign of creativity comes in the form of riffs and themes taken from other Death albums. This is something that nowadays AI could do as well, and probably in 2015 it wasn't the case, but still, it was basically a useless effort to create something valueless. But the most entertaining paradox was the positive welcome by many music critics, who used to pull down most extreme bands by marking them as nothing new, cause their stimulus-threshold could be crossed mostly by hipster music. But when they hear something that could serve as the most accurate definition of a rip-off, the antithesis of vision or imagination, they actually digging it. Or maybe was it the importance of the concept again? If it's announced and stated at the very beginning, that the concept is copying a classic band, it makes the performance more enjoyable for some than whole genre or style based influences could be?
   However, Gruesome's music is mainly recommended for hipster metal journalists/music critics and their followers, for everyone else: just keep listening to Death instead. 

Nervous Impulse - Time to Panic (2015)

   True to their name, Nervous Impulse have placed quite high standards by their debut if it's about intensity and musickness. Therefore probably it wasn't easy to exceed the first album, but by looking at the details, "Time to Panic" could be marked as a successful attempt.
   The suddenly switching song structures are as insane as ever, and by this step diversity and a constantly frustrated tone is given. But still, some improvement could be sensed in both the themes and the song structures. It's still not the easiest music to go into, but everything comes somehow better organized than before. There are still plenty of unexpected switches that are keeping up the listener's attention and increasing the enjoyability the same time, but this time it's a bit more than pure chaos somehow. And this is proved to be an advantageous improvement. The sound is also heavier than previously, and probably this is responsible for the impression, that this time the band might have focused more on brutal death influenced features. But in truth it's just the side effect of the sound preference, that highlighted heaviness a bit more than on "Enough for Dementia". In total, "Time to Panic" is another excellent death/grind masterpiece, strongly recommended for the fans of the genre. 

Deamonolith - The Monolith Cult of Death (2024)

   By the complexity of Deamonolith's full-lenght debut, it's evident that the band members having a longer past in the metal scene, since the album just doesn't sound like the debut of newbies. 
   Their music in general could fit next to the '00s progressive brutal death bands, except they laid way more importance on unified sound and song compositions. Therefore the experimenting ambitions are limited, and progressive and other mixed influences are easily distinguishable from brutal death hammerings (usually they come by slow downs). Probably the sound went through the most widest spectrum of experiments. While the brutal death parts having a more modern, but the same time noisy, rumbling impression, the softer parts are varying from classic progressive metal themes supporting sterile sound to late '90s third wave black metal atmosphere. The clear separation of death metal and progressive parts turning the contrast between the two directions quite evident, and basically making the music easier to go into than in case of  '00s progressive brutal death bands. The whole thing also might have a more old school oriented, "respect the classics of the genre" perspective, and somehow it seems like as a necessary step to keep the most identifying style features clear. By their intensity and complex themes, bands like Dying Fetus, Vital Remains, Kataklysm and Vader could be named as their possible influences. "The Monolith Cult of Death" might become a potential favorite for the fans of the modern sound of death metal. 

Goatpenis - Flesh Consumed in the Battlefield (2014)

   It was mentioned before that Goatpenis might have the most diverse discography if it's about war metal bands. And "Flesh Consumed in the Battlefield" was probably something that most didn't see coming, cause it was like a complete style switch compared to the previous tendency of the band.
   If their intention was to keep balancing between the extreme metal styles like how old school South American bands did, switching to crossover thrash/death might seem as a reasonable decision. But from the perspective of a black/death or war metal band it's difficult to see why was it an advantageous decision. If they wanted to extend their audience by making an album compatible with hardcore fan audiences, the switch might have been successful, but the same time their music not only got simplified but dummified as well. If this album came out a decade earlier, when hardcore/metalcore was on the rise, it could have become the most brutal record that hardcore/crossover thrash audiences could have got, and it definitely could have became an influential album. But the timing and the band's past making this step questionable. It sounds more like a what if... like experiment, that includes all styles the could have influenced the band members (even black metal is there, but only for the final song), but this time their lesser known influences are mainly represented. It's like a reverse Goatpenis album (could be Goatvagina then?), that doesn't lack catchy themes, has better sound quality and production than usual, but the same time it's far different than what should be expected from the band. 

Diocletian - Gesundrian (2014)

   Some used to say that third albums are often determining in the life of a band. They could serve as a turning points because the band's style gets fully developed, or a turning point because their style is about to go through some changes. In war metal, when diversity or change is not an option partly because of the strict rules of the subgenre, and partly because it's simply not an expectation, this rule might seem irrelevant. But in truth this style is no exception either.
   Diocletian's third full-length album became slightly different from what previously have been heard from the band. The chaotic atmosphere and noise based sound turned a bit more clear, and at this point it's important to note, that it's still pretty far from sterile sound in general, the sound and song compositions became more clear compared to the previous albums. Insane intensity has still absolute dominance, and their music is as devastating as always, but from this slightly different perspective, the main tools of the devastation (the intense hammering, the themes and the vocal style) are more revealed, as the chaotic noise having reduced role. In this form the core basics of Diocletian's music are getting revealed as well, and the analogy with older classics (such as Abominator) is more evident. This slight change had advantageous effect by giving an extra enjoyable factor to another masterpiece of musickness by Diocletian.

Dig Me No Grave - Cosmic Cult (2014)

   Similar to Grond, Dig Me No Grave's lyrical concept also reflects their Lovecraft enthusiasm, and musically they also prefer mainly simple and basic themes, but they're more on the old school death metal field. And by implementation they also prefer great production and good sound quality.
   Compared to groove death metal, their songs are more complex and diverse of course, but on the side of the style or subgenre differences, some moderate experimental ambitions also making this complexity more evident. The band seemingly preferred various and unexpected switches not only by themes and tempo, but in forms of small surprises, like short, sometimes catchy, sometimes noisy solos. The song structures aren't unified either, cause they seemingly tried to come up with something slightly different each time. It did have an advantageous result, since their experimental endeavours getting clear pretty soon, and they never crossing through the imaginary border to turn too technical. The interesting factor comes mainly from their seemingly unusual solutions. Their main influences might have been rooted in bands whose music sounded more developed since the beginning than their fellow old school death metal coetaneous bands, like for instance Morbid Angel, Tiamat, or Paradise Lost. Even if Dig Me No Grave's musical toolbar could be still limited compared to capabilities of  the mentioned bands, their full-length debut might be quite enjoyable for the fans of old school death metal. 

Deus Ignotus - Procession of an Old Religion (2014)

   Similar to most Mediterranean and Greek black metal bands, Deus Ignotus also sounds way more heavier and brutal than usual. Even though they've been sorted as a black metal band, it wouldn't be a big mistake to call their music as black/death metal. And most probably it would be more accurate that way.
   On the side of a frequently returning blackened lead, the structures of their songs are also reflecting the basics of black metal, but their sound is just as heavy and noisy as death metal supposed to be, not to mention the deep growling vocal style. Even if this combination is not intentional, but more like the result of an experiment to sound wilder and more aggressive than how ordinary black metal sounds like, or to give an easily distinguishing feature to their local scene - since it's a common enough to call it as a specific local trend -, the whole thing ends up exciting and interesting enough to catch the listener's attention. Probably the fans of the the traditional blackened sound might not find their countings in Deus Ignotus' music, since atmosphere has reduced role, and instead overwhelming heaviness is in the band's focus. However, by the black metal basics the music is easier to go into, since it's more melodic than if it was ordinary death metal, and this combination is pretty enjoyable in general.