Bodybag - Predominance of Insanity (2015)

   After the Renaissance of grindcore in the late '00s, Bodybag's old school approach was pretty refreshing and counted kinda extraordinary among the numerous porn grind and goregrind releases of the '10s. Their debut EP "Predominance of Insanity" takes back the listener into the late '80s, when grindcore was just freshly defined by bands like Napalm Death and Terrorizer.
   The EP starts with a song that definitely sounds like an old, long lost and somehow mysteriously reappeared Terrorizer song (this is how Terrorizer's return should have sounded like in 2006 by the way, and maybe then it didn't disappoint so many fans), but in the followings the band demonstrates various approaches to death/grind. And all are sounding pretty impressive. Similar to Terrorizer, death metal themes or at least intense thrashing could be heard in the "resting" parts of the songs instead of punk themes, but in case of thrashing some slight punk-like touch could be sensed. The unifying analogy in the contrast between the insane grinding and fast hammering is in raw primitiveness, that also adds some savage charm to the EP. For the fans of old school grinding Bodybag's music might be extremely enjoyable, a potential long term favorite. 

Urania - Hieros Gamos (2015)

   "Hieros Gamos" by Urania could be described shortly as death/doom or funeral doom at its best. The appearance of such excellent albums seemingly from nothing became more frequent from the late '00s. Compared to the '90s trends this tendency keeps forming the subgenre to a heavier direction, that's basically its core essence.
   Urania's music includes a lot of funeral doom influences, that are represented in very long heavy riffs, extremely extended song lengths and strong atmosphere. Esoteric, Thergothon and Skepticism should be mentioned first of all if it's about possible direct influences. However, the songs are heavy and noisy on death/doom level, and the themes are often switching to death/doom as well, therefore the atmospheric sound couldn't take over. The role of instruments and atmosphere are balanced. The combination of rough sound and melancholy is overwhelmingly effective how it should be, and able to guide the listener through on "Hieros Gamos" seemingly with ease, though the album doesn't really count as the easiest album to listen to. And this is exactly where the excellence of this record lies: making such a heavy journey smooth and not falling into miserable monotony meanwhile. Strongly recommended for the lovers of funeral doom and death/doom!

Amputory - Ode to Gore (2015)

   Amputory's debut and so far one and only album by style is on the crossroads of Swedish and Finnish death metal. "Ode to Gore" includes the characteristic features of  both, and this is one of the most typical directions that a Finnish death metal band could take. 
  The song structures, the riffs and the vocal style are all evidently Swedish influenced, while the well known repetitive leading melodies on the side of more diverse themes spicing it all up. Occasionally even some "Finnish gloom" (or happiness for others) shows up by the short involvement of atmospheric effects. The tempo switches are effectively applied and they strongly increasing the album's enjoyability. The role of the mentioned melodic and slightly more diverse parts are more reduced than usual, therefore if the "Swedish buzzsaw" sound would have been picked for the album, nobody could have been able to distinguish "Ode to Gore" from any other old school Swedish death metal release, cause it would completely neutralize the minor presence of Finnish features. These might seem pretty tiny and seemingly completely secondary or even unimportant differences, but these hardly discoverable or identifiable features are able to give character for a death metal album (especially if it's about old school death), and even though for first listening "Ode to Gore" might sound nothing special, since it all sounds very familiar, there are definitely more to discover in this album. For the fans of the Northern death metal scene, it's a potential favorite. 

Abscession - Grave Offerings (2015)

   Abscession had a quite stunning debut by "Grave Offerings", and what's more important: despite the band kept the characteristics of Swedish death, their music stands out from the endless line of Swedish death metal bands.
   The reasons are to find in the details. For first hearing, Abscession might not seem different from any ordinary Swedish death metal band.. "buzzsaw" sound, heavy riffs, primitive growling style. But the song compositions are more diverse, and leading melodies making their music catchier than usual. Paradoxically another analogy gave the most  remarkable exception: the Swedes strong affection for British heavy metal. While many bands prefer mixed style with strong '80s influences, for the final track of the album Abscession simply switched to epic heavy metal in the middle of the song. Nobody could see this coming, and such an unusual switch turned out to be advantageous and extraordinary. In total, "Grave Offerings" is a quite enjoyable album, and a grat example how to create diversity and to show something unusual but still very familiar and relatable the same time. How contrast could be made with the tools of balance and unified sound and reverse. This is exactly the feature that's hardly possible to describe and what requires skilled musicians to perform. The excellence behind simplicity makes this album great and a potential favorite for the fans of the genre. 

Tribulation - The Children of The Night (2015)

   Tribulation debuted as a stunning death metal band, who didn't care much about the traditional tendencies of their local scene, and instead they preferred to go on their own way. These individually independent ambitions have been brought further by a style change that happened step by step.
   "Formulas of Death", their following full-length release became an experimenting album that drifted further from ordinary death metal, and involved more melodic elements. The results were kinda raw, since it was a transitional step, and it wasn't hard to sense, that it's not completely evolved yet. Everything's got clear when "The Children of The Night" came out. It turned out that the intention behind the style switch was way more comprehensive than usual. And what's mainly important: not many bands are able to achieve a radical style switch without ending up with something disappointing, but Tribulation did manage to return with another masterpiece. But this time in the form of gloomy gothic metal with some slight doom and blackened touch. This new Tribulation sounded so different from the old one like if it wasn't even the same band. No signs of death metal left, and the band was able to show a new perspective for gothic metal, that worked perfectly. The influences are mixed and rooting back even to the '80s, but the sound reflects the '10s and creates great unifying frame for the music. Tribulation basically went through on the same path of some early '90s bands who started to play death metal and soon after a style change gained wider popularity and became the icons of the late '90s, bands like Paradise Lost, Tiamat or Sentenced. Only a few decades later, and their "formula of style switch" was quite sophisticated. In total, "The Children of The Night" is an excellent album, potential favorite for the fans of gloomy gothic sound.

Heavydeath - Dark Phoenix Rising (2015)

   Heavydeath could have been taken as an alternative, and a bit experimenting version of Runemagick. Or its rehearsal, raw form. The lineup confirms this, since Nicklas Rudolfsson (main man of Runemagick) and two former Runemagick members played in the band.
   Similar to most side projects (if we're looking at Heavydeath as Mr. Rudolfsson's side project), Heavydeath is also not much different from the main project. In fact, after some song polishing their releases could fit into the Runemagick discography as well. The unmistakable and characteristic guitar play of Mr. Rudolfsson (not to mention his also easily identifiable vocal style) made sure of that. The band seemingly cared less about well composed song structures or studio mixing, or picking the most advantageous sound for their music, therefore it had a rehearsal-like touch. The guitar themes are way louder than how they should be, and therefore they completely taking the show with the vocals. Also because of this loudness, the repetitiveness of the themes creating a dense atmosphere that's very gloomy and mystical the same time. This might sound nothing new if we think about Runemagick, but Heavydeath created that feeling with a bit different toolbar, lower distortion and lower theme diversity. And similar to black metal: by the assistance of poor sound quality. For similar reasons this band sounded like a fun made brainstorming project of Runemagick or a recycling project of Runemagick themes that have been cast off. Their music definitely has some catchy, mesmerizing feeling, but it might be able to touch or impress the fans of Runemagick the most. 

Gouge - Beyond Death (2015)

   Gouge debuted with their exclusively Autopsy influenced music in 2012 with an EP "Doomed to Death". The EP's poor sound quality proved to be advantageous for their primitive and filthy approach, and this feeling was brought further and exposed on their full-length album "Beyond Death".
   The only obvious difference between their music and Autopsy is that Gouge strongly relied on thrash beats and tempo, therefore no heavy slow downs and extended sickening themes to find. However, the dirty feeling that came from Autopsy-like themes, sound and vocal style combined with old school thrashing could be similarly effective, since primitiveness is in their focus. Compared to the debut EP, the better and noisier sound quality turned out to be more advantageous from a death metal perspective. In total "Beyond Death" sounds like a faster and wilder version of "Severed Survival". For those who haven't been the fans of slow downs in Autopsy, this album might be an absolute win. But thrash fans who are desiring something heavier, might also find their countings in "Beyond Death", not to mention those who could never get enough of Autopsy and the countless bands they've influenced or copied their style too precisely.