Emptiness - Oblivion (2007)

     In what is easily the best musical representation of blackened death metal to date, Emptiness delivers extreme, pounding, at times even groovy, darkness and doom with their 2007 release of Oblivion. This entire album pulls you in from the jump, with rich guitar rhythm and riffs and full bodied double bass drumming. The songs all sound full and balanced, with precisely placed drum and bass woven between guitars and vocals. At no point in time does this album not consume your entire conscious, leaving you begging for more. If Hell had a lobby, Oblivion would play over the loud speakers.

     Oblivion is like a hyper, yet well produced I may add, chaotic can of evil (or worms, whatever) of both black and death metal incorporated vocals that twist and turn their way in and out of thrashing, compulsive guitar riffs. "Crushing Ignorance" and "Feeding Force" are the ultimate representations of the level of intensity that the entire album holds as a whole. This album set a really high bar for me for this band as it was the first I was introduced to, and I can say, no other album, by Emptiness or another, measures to the intensity you feel when you're listening to Oblivion. It is truly it's own entity. The dark undertone of the majority of the vocals is insanely contrasted by the faster moving guitar and bass parts. This is the kind of album that you can't sit still to while listening. A+.

Battalion - Winter Campaign (2005)

   War obsession is a returning feature in death metal. When bands like Motörhead and Slayer started to write related lyrics commonly, it was still an uncommon topic, but had strong influence the same time. Lately Bolt Thrower and Asphyx expanded this to an obsessed level.
   Probably these tendencies inspired Battalion, who dedicated their complete musical activity to express the brutality of modern warfare. They stayed strictly on old school (killing) fields to play intense, aggressive death metal with deep growling vocal style. Various influences could be discovered in their themes, but the listener have to pay attention carefully to catch the small signs that are referring not only to Asphyx and Bolt Thrower. The band basically preferred groovy themes that are similar a bit to Six Feet Under, but they're often slipping into brutal death hammering. And the sound of "Winter Campaign" may remind to Swedish death. This kind of diversity that could be noticed "between the lines" is very usual at newer old school styled death metal bands, since they having plenty of direct influences in the genre. Battalion is strongly recommended for old school fans.

Black Bleeding - The Awakening (2005)

   Even though there are plenty of ways how black and death metal could be mixed, somehow it sounds interesting if it's not performed by following the most common recipes.
   In the case of Black Bleeding it sounds chaotic and random. "The Awakening" is a demo record that had various releases lately. At the beginning they sound like a typical modern death metal band with two different vocal styles and gore based concept, but soon the themes completely switch to black metal for a while. These changes coming unexpectedly and fast, and there isn't enough time to get used to the blackened themes before they switch back. So the intense death hammering stays dominant, but these switching parts made the demo more interesting and diverse than ordinary brutal death bands. The songs also had some raw experimenting touch, so the black metal influences seems like took place as one of them. But while the other chaotic changes and interesting musical solutions didn't give any character to the music, the black themes did despite their short term showing up. Later the style of the band became more unified and good quality albums came out from their hands. Black Bleeding could be an excellent choice for extreme metal fans who wants to listen to something uncommon.

Blasphereion - Rest in Peace (1991)

   There was no lack of experiments in extreme music in the early '90s. Blasphereion's "Rest in Peace" sounds like the mix of the actual musical influences of those times.
   The intense hammering is not lasting for long, and not having a main role, only lay down the basics of their music. Slow downs are common to extend their heaviness, and occasionally even to involve melodies. These slow themes could fit well into death/doom style, but only appearing for the same cause like the more melodic ambitions, to make the main view more colorful. Which somehow didn't became an important feature of the album, because of it's heavy, primitive sounding. This clouded heaviness reducing the effect of their experimentings, but their influence is not neglectable. Deep growling vocals are assisting, which reminding to the vocal style of Chris Barnes in the early period of Cannibal Corpse. No matter that "Rest in Peace" sounds like a simple old school primitive record for first listening, it could cause pleasurable moments for the fans of this style.