Remains - Angels Burned (2014)

   If  someone's encounter an album design made by Mark Riddick, usually 2 things could be taken as granted: 1. it's most probably a death metal album, and 2. it's not going to disappoint. The same are correct about "Angel's Burned" by Remains.
   The band dedicated their music completely to old school death metal, and mainly to the Swedish scene. Grave and Unleashed should be mentioned in first line as their most possible influences. And it's definitely not weird from a Mexican band, since the audiences there are strongly into European bands. From the '10s the number of European metal inspired Mexican bands have increased, and even if most of them cannot offer any different or interesting perspective, they're quite good as fan-made projects, not to mention their impressive self-dedication. Also since the '10 Swedish death metal styled bands could be found literally in every country where's mentinable metal scene, if the nearly endless amount that Sweden keeps providing since the early '90s haven't been enough. If it's about themes, Remains' debut "Angel's Burned" definitely sounds like any death metal album from Sweden, except the typical "Swedish buzzsaw" sound was missing - at least on this album. But in the followings even this tiny "aesthetical issue" was avoided. 
   Strongly recommended for the fans of Swedish death metal!

Baphomets Horns - Atomik Warfuck Extermination (2014)

   Bathomets Horns had a stunning debut in 2008, but by the compilation "Atomik Warfuck Extremination" was released "posthumously" so to say, since the band did split-up already in 2010. 
    It was mentioned previously plenty of times, that American black metal is a pretty rare thing to find, since the genre didn't spark much attention there, and the great majority of American black metal bands are basically playing war metal, and those who aren't, are usually not free from death metal influences either. Therefore Baphomets Horns' approach of black metal also wasn't ordinary either of course. The concept, spirit and imagery definitely reflected the features and the strong influence of war metal, and the compilation introduces the band's short but swift journey. Their first demo "Satanic War Fucking metal" gave the first half of the record, that despite its title wasn't as intense as war metal used to be, and it was closer to ordinary black metal in themes. So close, that it was nearly free of death metal features, and sounded similar to raw black metal. But the atmosphere was still missing, and the focus completely lied on the rawness of the music. The second half of the compilation includes some songs on their full-length album "Perpetrators of Genocide", and a few rehearsal songs, that are unquestionably having all required exaggerated features of war metal. 

Alekhine's Gun - ...and Kings Will Fall (2014)

   When it comes to the combination of death and groove metal, most might first think about bands like Obituary or Six Feet Under, since their music defines groove/death the best. But there's also a worrying second thought bonded to these big names that leads to features like long, completely homogenous and eventless discographies full of monotonous groovy bouncing played by nearly retired musicians, that eventually might make the audience feel retired as well. Fortunately Alekhine's Gun are able to scatter these worries immediately, since they've proved that it's possible to play groove/death metal differently and even to make it diverse. 
    However, their music is also more mixed than what should be expected from similar bands. There are hardcore and even blackened elements to find. The first is mainly represented in the vocal style (by actress Jessica Pimentel by the way), in the music the hardcore features are merged into the groovy themes. The blackened touch getting revealed in the drumming style, but occasionally it shows up in the leading guitar themes as well. By turning back to groove/death, it's important to mention that by adding more intensity to the music, it seems like Alekhine's Gun took the death metal part more seriously than most bands in this style, and this new perspective could even redefine how this subgenre could or should sound like. Most importantly: despite the band having various influences, their music is pretty unified. The songs are well composed, the sound is great, and the only weak point of the EP is its short duration. In total, Alekhine's Gun has quite high potential, and  probably by being a hobby or side project of the band members, they aren't as productive as it might be needed to become a big name in the metal scene. 

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.