Seraphic Disgust - Altarcunt (2015)

   Seraphic Disgust's short, kinda EP length, and stunning debut includes more surprises and diversity that used to be expected from a black/death band. 
   The album's imagery strongly reminds to how war metal covers used to look like, but the band's music is way more diverse than how war metal used to be. "Altarcunt" starts with a pretty heavy and intense song that's definitely sounds like black/death metal at its best. But as the album goes on the measure of old school death themes are slowly increasing, and the songs becoming more '90s old school death oriented. And meanwhile slower themes showing up too, leaving behind some strong death/doom impression. If this step by step switch wasn't intentional and it's just the consequence of the band member's various influences, it could be taken as the raw, experimenting approach of a young band trying to find their own style. If it was intentional, the combination of black, death and doom metal instantly reminding to Goatlord, not to mention the mixed influenced music of  '90s South American extreme metal bands. The assistance of two different vocal styles (deep growling and black metal styled cawing) also showing orientation for black/death or to death metal the same time. Whatever could be the case, by "Altarcunt" Seraphic Disgust left open various possibilities how to continue their musical journey, and all possible options (black/death, death/doom, or even the combination of both) could sound quite promising. 

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.

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. 

VIII - Drakon (2014)

   VIII had an interesting debut with "Drakon", an album that at one hand showed mixed influences, and also had a pretty unusual and exciting approach by sound.
    Their music mainly included black and doom metal influences, but the more intense songs had black/death impression. Extended and monotonous slow downs have determining role, and they creating refreshing contrast with the mostly mid speed themes that are basically giving the major part of the album. The atmosphere have secondary role and comes in one pack with a strong echo effect. Its presence supporting the noisy drone influenced sound that's more common to find at drone/doom or sludge/doom bands. This combination works pretty well with black metal themes by giving unexpected depths to the whole thing. The impression of some sort of desperate rage is joining to the down-pulling melancholy, that increases the heaviness of the music. The unusual tone of the sound having strange and attracting effect the same time. This might count as a hint for the yet unexploited possibilities of black/doom metal. Small and occasional supporting features like organ-like keyboards, obscure sound effects, barely hearable suffocating-like narrative vocal style and an embedded funeral march detail are blurring the border between the themes and the atmosphere, but these having role only during the extended slow downs. Probably these getting too high focus on the album. Less of them, or the involvement of a catchy lead or a bit more diverse riff would still lead the required contrast, especially cause there are very catchy themes to hear on the album. Whether if "Drakon" was just an experimental album or the determined imagination of the band members, it's an underground gem (a dark one of course), that stands out from the long line of black metal related bands by its unique sound and ambition. 

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. 

Basilisk - End of Catastrophe (2013)

   Basilisk formed as a black/death metal band, and their so far one and only album might be controversial for those, who expect to hear something similar to Dissection or Necrophobic, or even war metal. The band offered an own solution how the two styles could be combined, and they did that by a pretty unusual perspective. 
   However, their music is definitely more relatable to the Northern styled black/death. Plenty of old school black metal references could be found on the album, and most of the riffs are evidently reflecting '90s Norwegian and Swedish black metal bands. This they combined with strongly thrash influenced death metal, and by picking these two ancient forms of both styles, they just did what Japanese bands used to do: by analyzing the selected subgenres to the core, they give importance to their essence. What makes "End of Catastrophe" harder to go into for black metal fans is the drastically reduced role of the atmosphere, that partly came from the modern sound and partly from the band's pretty technical approach. There are simply so many theme and tempo switches that couldn't allow any atmospheric effect to prevail, even if its role was preferred. The focus lies on intensity, and in this case on technical intensity, that piles up plenty of switches. At one hand this is a more modern tendency compared to ordinary black/death, and well, technical black metal didn't become a common thing for a reason. The technical intention came definitely by the influence of the mid and late '90s pathfinding death metal experiments. Despite the complex concept, it's pretty strictly taken, and theoretically nothing stands against this genuine approach. Only there are no examples or barely any examples to find for anything similar. By giving several listenings to the album, it becomes clear, that the band's solutions that might seem as a bond of paradoxes, aren't really counting as paradoxes. 
   This twisted mix of old school and modern directions is pretty extraordinary, and more recommended for the fans of technical and progressive death metal. 

Void Dweller - Night is Hell (2013)

   Void Dweller was one of Mr. Kamil's (Xaos Oblivion, Demonic Slaughter) plenty of side-projects. All of his bands were basically some mixed forms of black, death and thrash metal, and like in such cases so often the question stands, why all of the albums couldn't be released under at least two names? Void Dweller for instance was so similar to Demonic Slaughter (even the album design fits pretty well), that it could have been another Demonic Slaughter album too. 

   Not surprisingly "Night is Hell" had quite old school ambitions, but not trying to imitate the sound of the early '90s or the late '80s. The production is good, and despite the old school influences, it definitely reflects the sharp sound quality of '10s records. The music is intense blackened death, that sometimes refers to first wave features both by themes and vocal style. When the vocal switches to narrative style, the main impression at slower tempo reminds to Tormentor, while at intense speed it's similar to Root or Inquisition. There is a specific experimenting feeling to sense during the album that was quite usual at '90s Eastern European black and death metal bands, but on a way more developed level, that none of them were able reach, mainly because they've split up earlier. And the very few who survived, have chosen slightly different path due to line-up changes and personality development. If Void Dweller's intention was to reintroduce that now already vintage approach, they definitely succeeded. But it's also possible, that while time have passed and many things has changed meanwhile, Mr. Kamil didn't, and he was completely unaffected by most things that happened during the decades. However, "Night is Hell" (and Demonic Slaughter in general) a pretty enjoyable living fossil in the Eastern European extreme underground. Recommended for the fans of ancient blackened death!

Slaughtbbath - Hail to Fire (2013)

   Before their full-length debut Slaughtbbath have been around since a decade and pad plenty of demo and split-album appearances. Even though their music sounded very promising and impressive in this long lasting early period already, it was definitely worth to wait for "Hail to Fire".

    While traditional black metal themes had high role in their early music, it could have been continuously sensed that there's something more, some deviant intention in the background. And by "Hail o Fire" basically one of the most intense and devastating war metal albums was released. By focusing on the tiny differences the subgenre allows, it's possible to distinguish their style and sound from the American-Canadian classics. Slaughtbbath have a slightly more old school approach, that's more related to their local scene. The combination of insane intensity and the excellent sound might remind to Grave Desecrator. And this means enjoyability in the traditional way had the same importance for them as overwhelming brutality. Rehearsal sound quality might result raw impression, could build on making the music harder to go into, could let the atmosphere to gain role, and it's even able to hide performance failures. It's also possible to explain that the sound is bad cause it's intended to be like that, while in practice lower investment just led to higher profit as it has happened plenty of times in black metal. But if it's about the effectiveness of extremity, nothing could beat a sound that exposes the competence of the musicians and assists the style to show its best the same time. "Hail to Fire" is not only a black metal or war metal masterpiece, but an outstanding record in the extreme scene in general. 

Kratherion - Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes (2013)

   Kratherion is officially sorted to black metal bands, but their music includes as many black metal features as most American bands have in general. And that's not too many. To be more specific, their music is closer to war metal than to ordinary black metal.
    There are definitely themes that came from black metal, but they're not so determining. But instead, the majority of themes, the sound and the main impression are more reminding to death metal. The extremely aggressive and radical tone combined with the mentioned mixed influences are quite war metal-like. The only thing that keeps their music balancing on the edge of styles is that both the massive death metal themes and the blackened influences having their own parts of focus. This switching preference is basically advantageous, cause it's making the album diverse, but the same time it doesn't let it to be unified enough. With other words, Kratherion's music is too diverse to become war metal, since the style demands to be more monotonous. "Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes" definitely have the required insane insanity and radical concept for slipping forward into the closest related style, but this half way gave them more possibilities for a wider range of self-expression. And they quite lived with the chance, the album has plenty of theme and speed switches that are highlighting better the band's compromise-less intention, and in the long run, making their music more enjoyable. Interestingly the mixed style pick also could be looked at as an old school and as a modern tendency the same time. For instance naming bands from their local scene like Atomic Aggressor as mainly influential would sound the same reasonable like naming a war metal band like Morbosidad.

Morbosidad - Muerte de Cristo en Gólgota (2013)

   It's not exaggeration to say that since their debut, Morbosidad became one of the cornerstones of war metal. By keep releasing excellent musickness from time to time, they simply can't disappoint. Even though the borders of the style are pretty strict, their music is easy to distinguish from other related bands. On the side of fitting to high standards, having an own character plays also an important role in their wide recognition.

   Despite they have never been famous about soft approach, "Muerte de Chisto en Gólgotha" was still surprisingly intense and sick by grabbing the listener firm at the very start and keeping them down in the most insane depths of musickness until it ends (or until the listener drowns). The formula is the same as always, but by better sound than previously and the songs seemed a bit more complex than before. A quite slight but sensible change that proved to be advantageous. As the upper mentioned strict borders restricting too much (or any) diversity in this style, the same rule is bonding the musicians hands about making different sounding albums. Not if they would be necessary. If someone's listening to war metal, progression or the need for diversity are simply not on the wish list. In this case or in similar cases in general, they just adding more to the identifiable character of the band. However, Morbosidad seemed pretty comfortable with the circumstances, and fast realized, that in tiny steps it's still possible to involve some changes. And even if probably changes the line-up were the main indicators and had influence in the whole thing, the results still became effective and extremely enjoyable the same time. Another disharmonic masterpiece by Morbosidad!

Witch King - Conjuration of Bestial Forces (2013)

   Previously it was mentioned that war metal is a style in which it's difficult to fail if a band keeps its strict rules and borders. But that doesn't mean that it would be easy to play war metal, it definitely requires skilled musicians. 

   It's a lesson that probably had to learned by Witch King in a hard way. The band's intentions about the genre were clear even by the visuals, and they did try to sound as devastating as possible, however, they haven't been enough skilled to do that on the required level. That suggests young band members who have been strongly inspired by the roughest direction of black metal, but it could have been too early for them to get dropped themselves into the whole thing, or their productiveness haven't been sufficient. Lower productivity usually leads to practice less, to play live less, and then improvement goes slower, or there's no improvement at all, like in case of many younger European black metal bands. Fortunately Witch King did improve themselves eventually, and later on they've released a decent full-length album, but the whole progress of evolvement went slower than usual. "Conjuration of Bestial Forces" musically was more like on a level of rehearsal demo records as the following step after jamming. It does include promising ideas and intentions, also it could be sensed, that the band catched the right feeling and attitude, but they simply haven't been ready yet. 

   For war metal fans it might be still an EP worthy to add into the collection, since it could serve as a document of the first steps of a war metal band. 

Charon - Sulphur Seraph (The Achron Principle) (2012)

   By "Sulphur Seraph" Charon unleashed such an extremely heavy album, that's definitely wasn't usual to hear before in the German metal scene, or from European bands in general. The band's first and so far last full-lenght record had such  raw extremity, that could be compared mainly to Incantation influenced American bands like Disma, or to the most exaggerated Australian bands like Impetuous Ritual. In the European scene, maybe Undergang and Putrevore showed up with something comparable, but since Charon's music included black metal influences too, maybe Impetuous Ritual is the closest.

   These black metal influences might be not so clear at first, but as the album goes on, they evolving and taking significant role in defining the sound, which is definitely following mainly death metal tendencies. The  black and death metal themes and greatly composed together, and that's the reason why their influences on the sound could be difficult to distinguish first. The album is all-round unified and even though the rawness of the themes making 'Sulphur Seraph" hard to go into, it's also the main factor of how this unification as a whole is working so well. As a heavily obscure, noisy mass, the main impression is quite devastating, and frequent higher toned short guitar effects providing with the feeling of some extra demoralizing ominous hopelessness, if the main view wasn't be enough dire. The combination of such brutality and heavily down-pulling atmosphere became more common with time in the main scene, partly because of it's impressive effectiveness, and partly to show the most exaggerated aspect of old school styles. This direction needs highly skilled and resourceful musicians, therefore the appearance of similar bands is kinda sporadic. Charon was one of the earliest examples for this in Europe. "Sulphur Seraph" is an excellent album, strongly recommended for the fans of the most inhuman, most extreme forms of musickness.

Infernal Curse - Awakening of the Damned (2012)

   Infernal Curse had a stunning full-lenght debut that showed a slightly different aspect compared to the usual sound of black/death. 

   Their music is quite close to war metal, but as it's known, that style have quite strict rules, and doesn't really offer various possibilities. However, the sound of "Awakening of the Damned" fits to those rules, but also reminds to what some new waved old school bands doing, by trying ro recall the most ancient sound of extreme metal with so high accuracy as possible. Probably it wasn't Infernal Curse's intention to recreate the feeling of the '80s like how bands like Excoriate or Death Breath did, but the combination of nearly rehearsal quality, strong echoing effects and the returning basic thrash metal-like switches might lead to the same point even unintentionally. Nostalgia bands usually operating with the same toolbar. The two ways crossed each other, since both desire to sound primitive and inhuman the same time. Their mixed style could have been influenced first of all by the old school bands of the local scene, and their music is definitely relatable to that. Still, it's somehow different, and the same music and sound features could be found responsible for the differences, like for the similarities. The same concept, the same approach, but still, Infernal Curse is somehow unusual compared to other South American bands, and even though their musical concept might have different roots, their music shows more similarities with the European new waved old school tendencies. 

Master of Cruelty - Spit on the Holy Grail (2012)

   If it's about the revival of the old school tendencies of the South American scene, Master of Cruelty had quite effective endeavor by their debut. 
   The way how they mixed thrash, black of death metal, resulted a unified sound that completely blurs the borders between style features. And the lyrical concept is also like the fusion of the three basic genres. This, combined with their exaggerated approach reflects well the overwhelming feeling of an era that have been passed since a while. At one hand "Spit on the Holy Grail" sounds quite nostalgic, and it might be possible to believe that it's a somehow disappeared and long forgotten classic from the early '90s. But it also sounds like a missing link between the old school styles and war metal. The album didn't reach such intensity, since they preferred to return frequently to thrashing and ordinary blackened themes. Still, there are plenty of analogies to find with war metal bands, and from this point the extremely noisy tendencies aren't so far either. In gerenral the album suspects a lot of potencial about the band, and also opened various possibilities how to continue in the future. Also it might be compatible with a wide audience of extreme metal fans.

Ionosphere - Entrace to Another Reality (2011)

   Ionosphere was a promising one man project that included the former drummer of Medical Concepts. Even though it wasn't a long lived project, and had only one self-released album, the genuine approach of the style made Ionosphere extraordinary.
   The concept of scienece fiction and obscure alien experiments was already unusual and it could be only very distantly related to black/death in general. The analogy could be found both in concept and music in the old Carcass influences of Medical Concepts. Therefore the intensity of the former band also could be discovered, and not only in the drums, but the guitar themes also showing some similarities. Frequent switches from basic fast thrashy or black metal themes to grind intensity, and blackened sound are the most defining features. The whispering-cawing assistance of the vocal style increases the impression of some dark unrevealed mistery, that might be better to not know about. The combination of the mentioned features might suspect that "Entrace to Another Reality" was some sort of experimenting album, and it definetly had some experimenting aspect. But in total the album sounds quite unified, and the composition well-practiced enough to not remind to a usual experimenting album, or to any other black/death bands. Ionosphere also had the potential to pave down a new road how black metal and grindcore could have been mixed, and it was probably a way better and more relevant way than how it was committed by other bands so far.

Goatpenis - Depleted Ammunition (2011)

   By being formed in the early '90s, Goatpenis looks back to a longer past than how it might be expected, but it's another thing how much this counts, since the band have earned wider attention in the underground only in the early '00s. Their war metal style and character also took its well know form during this time, though it was clear even on their early, hardly enjoyable demo tapes, that they've been experimenting with something strongly blasphemous black metal related stuff, but the real breakthrough took like a decade for them.
   "Depleted Ammunition" was their third full-length album, when they turned the closest to how war metal sounds like.The previous two albums were also evidently the mix of black and death metal, and they've been pretty enjoyable already, but their sound quality still have left something to be desired. Intentionally or unintentionally it reflected more the (poor) sound quality of Norwegian black metal, and this took a lot from the noisy intensity that's usually expected from a war metal band. Things have been changing step by step, album by album, and on "Depleted Ammunition" on the side of the music, both the sound and the concept reached to the required extreme level. The band's musical progress was slow but spectacular and interesting. It's suspected that they intended to do something what war metal definitely isn't famous about: experimenting to not recreate exactly the same what they've been done before. Despite the strict borders of the style, probably Goatpenis has the most diverse discography among war metal bands. It's the listener's job to decide how advantageous it is in this genre. 

Cauterization - Males Infestus (2011)

   Cauterization's short, but stunning debut EP was also the sign of new tendencies of the South American scene. 

   They played blackened death by involving the modern, clean sound and accurate progression of the genre. The death metal influences are closely related to brutal death by the music's intensity, sound and the presence of a second backing vocal. Black metal is mainly represented in the drum style and partly in the themes. It seemed like the band tried to involve various ideas into this short time duration, probably to turn the main view diverse, and maybe even to experiment, though the EP sounds quite mature. This made "Males Infestus" quite technical, a bit chaotic, but still unified enough. On the side of brutal death and black metal influences there also simpler and more melodic themes to find, and sudden speed switches are also common. The various things they've tried would work well independently too, which could mean that their productiveness was maybe directly piled up and shranked to increase their intensity. Interestingly the band's guitarist main vocalist Miss Maysa Rodriguez had extraordinarily brutal deep growling performance, that could embarass most male growlers. 

Black Witchery - Inferno of Sacred Destruction (2010)

   By their impressive style and performance that counts exaggerated even in war metal, Black Witchery became fast one of the most known names of blasphemous black/death metal. 
   There have been shown plenty of examples how to be completely compromomise-less, but Black Witchery seemed to show a new perspective by going as far as possible. "Inferno of Sacred Destruction" was already their third full-lenght album, that became even unfriendlier and sounded way more brutal than what was previously heard by them. Compared to the classics of the style, instead of the strong disharmony, simple, monotonoisly repeating themes were combined with the noisy sound. They usually prefer to play extremely fast, but often switching to middle speed that gives a more determining, heavier touch to their music. This doesn't seem enough to call it diversity, but it's definitely effective and advantageous for their themes. And as usually in this style, there's no place for atmospheric sound, melancholic or emotional approach, or any sing of aesthetics. Only raw, mindless brutality should be expected at it's best. Even if war metal isn't about experiments or genuine sound, Black Witchery is somehow easy to distingush from other bands by their exaggerated sound. "Inferno of Sacred Destruction" is definitely a masterpiece of the genre. 

Ancestry - Battle ov the Fierce (2010)

   It was mentioned before that metal is kind of a short supplied thing if it's about Turkey. Therefore the appearence of Ancestry (or War Ancestry) was even more extraordinary, because they were an extreme metal band with female lineup. Nowadays it's way more common to find women in metal bands than before, but still they spark quite wide attention. Still there are two preferable features that are kind of difficult to find even nowadays: women in extreme metal and without sexual imagery and context (that's kind of a cheap trick that might sells, but only distracts from the music).

   Until today Ancestry was one of the very few (and unfortunately short lived) exceptions. Their music showed mixed influences that lied close to black/death, but basically it didn't follow any common directions of the style, and it's also difficult to find any references to it's classics as it used to be. The members probably had different influences and imaginations, and they were more into the actual bands of the scene on the side of classic mainstream bands, therefore their approach to black/death doesn't count as ordinary. At female bands it's a returning feature, that they play something quite different what influenced on them, and that ends up in a style that they are not really familiar with. Probably something similar happened to Ancestry, who just exposed the fresh rawness and unleashed the intense aggressive sound of a young band that tried to find it's own way. Their demo "Battle ov the Fierce" was a stunning one partly because of their genuine aspect, and partly because it sounds way more rude how it might be expected.

Unholy Archangel - Obsessed by War (2010)

   Unholy Archangel belongs to the veterans of black/death or war metal, since they're haunting the depths of the underground since the middle '90s.
   Their name might be not so familiar for the target audience partly because playing this style didn't offer many opportuniteis in that region, and it took time until the scene got materialized. And partly because "Obsessed by War" was only their first full-lenght album. Their previous activity that means a couple of EPs, demos and split album appearences were re-released afterwards on compilations. Their definitely raw and disharmonic approach reminds to Blaspemy, but there are also other references to find, that might tell about further influences. Similar to the Northern tendencies, on the side of the evident anti-Christian concept they've also gained inspiration from their own cultural heritage, so the war based events of Greek mythology became a returning topic. At the most exaggerated bands of the style who are building up disharmony by randomness instead of coming up with exact themes that could give some character to their music, song lenghts are shortening down sometimes drastically, and that leads to an analogy with old grindcore bands. It's usually not quite clear if it's a direct influence, or the same limits have been reached from another musical approach. However, it might be folly to expect any melodies, atmosphere, or catchy themes from Unholy Archangel, since the band seemed determined to go in extremities as far as possible. Therefore their music could be enjoyable only for the fans of the rawest, noise based aspect of war metal.