Nekrofilth - Devil's Breath (2013)

  Nekrofilth took a slightly different path than most late old school death metal inspired bands formed in the late '00s. They went back further to the past by adding punk influences into their music, and similar style combinations always giving new dimensions to musical minimalism. But despite their unusual methods, their music definitely fits to the new waved old school bands as some genuine gem in a more or less homogeneous pile. 

   If it's about punk combined with death metal, in this way it definitely works better than Impetigo back then and it's also way more enjoyable. The ancient, '80s-like spirit the band recalled is mostly reminding to Nunslaughter, thanks to it's simple but raw approach. But on the side of simplicity, by the nearly narrative vocal style, old Necrophagia might also come to mind. The production and the sound makes it evident, that "Devil's Breath" isn't some mysteriously long lost old school classic. The freshness and intensity of the album is comparable to newer thrash/death bands, who intending to recreate the core of musical extremity by focusing on it's possible cross-roads. The main tone is quite aggressive and that gives a lot to the music's effectiveness. Compromise-less, dirty, blackguard and explicit. The best possible implementation for a combination of thrash/death and hardcore punk. Strongly recommended for the fans of the filthiest old school musickness! 

Reproacher - Nothing to Save (2013)

   It wasn't surprising from old school crust punk bands to turn so intense that the difference between thrash metal and their music was negligible. Even the vocal style and the lyrical concept had strong analogy like if the two styles were step siblings. Meanwhile at newer bands this analogy switched from thrash to sludge metal or even to sludge/doom, like in case of Reproacher. 

   Reproacher from Wyoming was a quite short lived, underrated, but pretty stunning band. By their debut album "Nothing to Save" they showed such heaviness, that wasn't usual at crust punk bands. Even if noisy sound, heaviness, and extremely aggressive tone are kinda essential features of the style, Reproacher stepped a bit further in all of these. This was possible to make by involving more metal influences than usual. The simple, but devastating mosh pit-compatible punk basics stayed, but the common speed and theme switches they've operated with had another advantageous effect on the side of reaching hell deep heaviness: bigger diversity in themes. By this step, they've easily avoided the commonly occurring problem at crust punk bands to turn too monotonous. The obscure and strongly demoralizing feeling they've reached is comparable to most sludge metal bands, not to mention the rehearsal room-like noisy sound and effects. Also the slow downs increased the effectiveness of their intense themes. It seems more possible that the wider involvement of other styles wasn't made on purpose, but did just came by instinct, however the results turned out to be more than great. Thanks to the previously mentioned convergent analogy, the various influences worked out together fine by their natural compatibility.  In total "Nothing to Save" was a strong debut, potential favorite for the fans of crust / hardcore punk and sludge metal.

Bones - Sons of Sleaze (2013)

   Bones debuted in 2011 with their self-titled album, that even though sounded like something very familiar, still had quite unusual approach - at least in the American scene. Punk influenced thrashing death metal isn't something common to find.  

   By "Sons of Sleaze" they've continued the same line. It's not quite clear if the style pick was just a coincidence, or a determined decision, influenced by the current tendencies of the underground scene. Their music could better fit into the British of Swedish scene, since as it was mentioned before, it became a trend at Swedish bands to take on the "vintage coat" and to recall the feeling of the '80s by turning back to the very roots of extreme genres. Bands like Witchery, Death Breath, Paganizer, Mordant, ect. all did something similar (of course, since we're now talking about an American band, here are no black metal influences), but even though among them only Death Breath involved punk directly, this step would be definitely a very Swedish thing to do, by their overwhelming attraction to the British scene. Also, Japanese bands had similar tendencies too, that probably they've developed independently, by analyzing their preferred styles to the depths. However, Bones had a slightly different approach, and therefore their music also had different main impression. Instead of trying to reproduce the sound and feeling of the '80s, they seem focusing on to play something pretty raw, dirty and essentially intense. By involving punk influences, the vintage feeling came instantly, but by the current noisy sound and heavier themes, the whole thing drifted further to become hardcore / crust punk. The song compositions and speed/theme switches are enough raw and compromise-less, to compensate the simple, and lighter punk riffs, that are giving the very basics of their songs. This kinda "archaic" approach also could be comparable to Nunslaughter.  At the end of the album a few songs even reaching the intensity of grindcore, making their British influences even more evident, if the listener might have any doubts. In total "Sons of Sleaze" is a pretty decent and sick record, potential favorite of the fans of old school musickness. 

Afgrund - The Age of Dumb (2012)

   Afgrund is a quite interesting band in the modern grindcore scene. They were formed in 2006 by Swedes, but when their third album "The Age of the Dumb" came out, none of the founding members could have been found in the band since a while, and not even Swedish members. So Afgrund became a Swedish band that isn't Swedish. However the frequent line-up changes didn't lead to any change in their style, except they don't write Swedish lyrics anymore.
   Their music mixed the less popular, but pretty old school crust punk influenced grindcore with the themes and sound of modern death metal. Reanimated by the porn grind era of the late '00s, this style started to spread very slowly, but gained less attention and stayed in the shadow of porn grind. After the withrawal of the countless porn grind bands, the style had a bit bigger space to fill, and a decade later crust punk influenced bands became more common and determining in the main scene. On the side of the main essence of Afgrund's music, strong social and political criticism also counts as an old school factor. Interestingly even if punk influences are evident, they doesn't sound like in old grindcore bands, and also not restricted to punk themes. Involving death metal sound and themes is a modern feature, that makes the music way heavier and more brutal. It's debatable (and it's up to the listener) which form is more effective, the old school grindcore, that created contrast by switching suddenly from basic punk themes to extreme speed, or it's modern version, where the contrast disappeared, the music sounds all-round heavy, and therefore became more unified. In case of Afgrund the mixed style proved to be advantageous, since their music is more diverse than what could be experienced at ordinary crust punk or grind/death bands, and on this level because of the increase of enjoyability that followed, also served the intensity in long term.

Black Pestilence - Tradition is Obsolete (2011)

 If Black Pestilence did something unusually weird by their debut, than with their returning album they successfully exceeded that. And it also couldn't be determined as some "let's just stay at the good old recipe, since that worked out last time too" thing, cause they tried to introduce their twisted perspective from another way. 
   As the title already suspects, they drifted further from the traditional sound of black metal, and on this album blackened themes also had smaller role. Instead the mix of punk and noise based industrial-like insanity was put into focus. As the atmosphere used to take quite noteable background role in classic black metal mainly as the side effect of poor sound quality, the same background role black metal influences had on "Tradition is Obsolete". Also it took the frequently returning framing role that punk themes had on "Vice". Even though the debut was everything but chilling, this switch made the second album somehow even more intense. For this feeling probably the lack of blackened sound could be judged for that, as the intense bass lines was led to hear, and also the audience friendlier punk basics had bigger chance to prevail. This more melodic and kind of simplified approach might be easier to go into, but only until the industrial noise sets on. That sometimes recalls the cheeping-beeping sounds of ancient nintendo or tetris games, and sometimes reminds to a rightfully forgotten remix of some terrible '90s europop song. And the chaos lets loose again. Interestingly the same features are giving the reasons why this music is easy to go into and why it's not. Even though the punk-black metal elements reminding to Barbatos somehow; after listening to "Tradition is Obsolete", the commonly shared theory that makes Japanese responsible for the creation of the sickest productions, might needs deeper reconsideration.

Piara Posesa - Hágase la oscuridad (2011)

   Piara Posesa was definitely not an ordinary project. Considering that all band members had longer past in the local scene and played in many other bands before, Piara Posesa could have been an experimenting project.
   The combination of black and thrash metal is nothing new, but the band went forward and involed crust influences. Basically this isn't a radical change, since crust punk matches the intenisy of thrash, but it gave an uncommon atmosphere and sound for the music. It's like a whole new level, even though rehearsal quality and monotonous themes are also not far from black or thrash metal either. Crust punk had a way more raw and primitive effect, that proved to be quite advantageous in general. It has an insanely aggressive touch, but still, the repetitive monotonous intensity makes the music unified. For the fans of the traditional Northern sound of black it might sound even weirder and couldn't be so easy to go into. It's like a different aspect of the way too familiar concept, and it couldn't be even said that it's not old school, since the features that have been involved into "Hágase la oscuridad" are recalling definitely '80s feeling. The old concept was simply rebuilt differently and with the assistance of some old school South American extremity. On the side of the style mix that's also a feature that was once quite usual in the local scene. 

Generation Decline - 2011 ep (2011)

   It's a common opinion that rebelling attitude is nowhere to find in nowadays rock/metal era. Or that nowadays because everyone prefers to get insulted by anything, it might be difficult to create a working rebellious concept. If the audience is enough fancy and superficial, this might sound correct, but in truth it have never been so easy and accurate to rebel, than in an age of insulted fetish and when certain rules getting forced on whole societies. And if it's about rebelling in music, maybe must look for other, less compromising, and therefore less known styles...

   With a very energic and aggressive approach Generation Decline jumped into the middle at the very beginning by topics like social and political oppression, religious brainwash or domestic violence. The hardcore/crust punk that Generation Decline plays is less raw and more punk-like than original British crust punk, that's almost like some a monotonous version of thrash metal. This could be a continuous analogy, cause American punk was also more melodic and audience friendlier than British punk. Of course Generation Decline is (fortunately) quite far from being audience friendly. Their overwhelming intensity is impressing even if it's about crust punk. Their female frontman not simply keeping up, but even extending the intensity with her extremely aggressive performance. Even though this record was only a title-less EP, probably one of their first tryings, it was quite stunning.

Doom - Lost the Fight / Pro-Life Control Sessions (2009)

   Doom became an iconic band during the decades partly because of their quite extreme and compromise-less approach, that had a strong influence on other genres too, such as grindcore and thrash metal. And at the other hand because of the scandals that followed their live performances. 

   By various line-up changes they've frequently returned from time to time for shorter-longer periods. "Pro-Life Control" was basically an early release, but in this form was a remastered version with some other songs from split albums as a compilation. Even though it doesn't sound like anything new, the reason why is it remarkable is the remastered sound that gives back the harshness and the aggressiveness of their music better than any other of their records. Also the rage against the political and social abnormalities that became normal and created an endlessly twisted world, sounds more accurate. Decades have been passed since the band showed up, and the music scene have changed too. So a remaster like this sounds quite refreshing and more compatible for younger audience. The distrorted sound predominates, and it's more effective and intense than most thrash bands in general, even though they keep the same fast or mid speed, and didn't try to play as fast as possible. It was a small change, bit had a quite wide effect.

Realm of Chaos - The Demos (2009)

   Realm of Chaos was a short lived band that only had 2 demo tapes ("Leaders of Pain" and "Stench of Death"), but their music was a quite unique style mix. Fortunately their demos were released together afterwards as a compilation album.

   The band played crust punk with some thrash/death metal influences, so that already suspects high intensity. Even though this mix might seem unusual, it sounds well fitting together. The aggressive intensiveness of crust leads the music, but because thrash themes are often completing the crusty rawness and making it more diverse, so it never gets monotonous. They had a female vocalist who really did her job well, and had essential role in creating the basic aggressive tone. Death metal themes occasionally showing up by turning the main view heavier, and a second vocalist frequently assisting with deep growls. Even though the demos are pretty raw, they're still way more diverse than how it could be expected from ordinary crust or thrash/death bands. There are a lot of possibilites and simple, but very great themes getting introduced, and it really could plant deep curiosity in the listener, how the whole thing would sound as a studio record and with good production. "Stench of Death" had a bit better quality and it was louder too, might help to imagine what if... Even though the name suspects Bolt Thrower influence, but this is easily getting forgotten while listening, cause their style was way different. With time it shows up for real, but unexpectedly already, in the form of a very familiar starting riff. In general their music was so unified, that not many might think much about the source of  their influences. It's the same way compatible with the fans of crust punk and thrashing death too. 

Black Pestilence - Vice (2009)

   It's nothing new that since the middle '90s the metal scene wasn't able to renew itself, or to form new styles. New styles still showed up though, but these were usually the simplified or dummy versions of something that was already made before; or the mix of different, already existing styles and genres were introduced as new styles. However it seems like limitless experimenting and avantgarde ambitions still could produce some pretty weird but impressing things. 
   Black Pestilence is a perfect example for that. Their  music could be described as something extraordiarily weird that's still working well somehow. On their debut they approached the traditional sound of black metal by involving punk and industrial-like noise influences. It's definitely one of the most unusal ways as possible. Their sound reminds to bands who tried to mix industrial with black metal, but while most of these tryings didn't end up well, Black Pestilence managed to create something genuine and unified. The embedded noise based intensity proved to work well to reflect the atmospheric tendencies of black metal, except it has quite raw touch and  it's not really emotion based. This twisted atmosphere is nothing more than a reference in this case, but it proved to be enough. The main impression is quite insane, but the blackened guitar themes ar able to create a frame to hold the chaos together. The returning simple punk beats having some simplifying effect, and also offering some catchy basic beats and themes to not let the whole thing to slip too far. Even though the band didn't seem to intend to follow any written or unwritten rules, or to keep any style limitations. They definitely pushed the envelope as much as they could, and by that they were able to create their own genuine characteristics. 

Trap Them - Sleepwell Deconstructor (2007)

   Crust influenced grindcore have never been the most popular aspect of the style, though the development of this direction throws back to the very roots of genre. 

   Counting from Extreme Noise Terror the style went through on some changes, or have returned different after a longer idle sleep, being pulled out by the returning wave of grindcore. Compared to the oldest crust/grind bands, in Trap Them's music the punk influences kept the same measure like before if it's about the music or the lyrical concept, but it's somehow different. They built more on the frustration of modern society that ends up in outbreaking anger and mindless aggression. Therefore at one hand it might be easier to relate to on their music, but at the other hand this modern sound approach gives a more raw impression than the old school rehearsal quality Napalm Death influenced British bands. Like 2 decades earlier there was an extremity competition, many things didn't mean to be taken seriously, or were just experiments, and it was easy to involve improvising. That made their music more party-compatible. Trap Them had a more serious and kind of heavy and demoralizing background concept that's well expressed in their music and in their lyrics too. This raw and strict compromise-less sound and concept makes their music harder to go into. It's not about growls, pig squeels, gore or the contrast of simple themes and overwhelming speed, it's the performance of limitless fast, shouting, screaming, noisy aggression and anger that doesn't want to take any break, just keeps going on album-lenght. Trap Them definitely introduced a new possible aspect of musical extremeness. 

Gallhammer - Gloomy Lights (2004)

   There are two possible outcomes if Japanese starting to play metal: they chosing an old school path that refers back to the basics of the actual genre, or they mixing various genres to create something weird. The second happened in the case of Gallhammer, a band that also sparked attention because of it's female lineup.
   Basicly their main concept is about simplicity. In this case there could be more ways to determine the style of a band than if an exact direction with it's features was chosen, so it's quite objective. The influence of black and doom metal could be sensed in their music and that's already something uncommon to hear in general. Things getting more complicated when the album turns more intense by some raw middle speed crust punk-like themes. They've operated with the simplest basic themes by picking something from everything. The album isn't so uninfied and sounds like if they didn't relly care about to create a whole by trying to find some common ground for these mixed influences. Instead of the atmospheric sound of black, the heaviness of doom or the intensiveness of crust punk there is something that more reminds to the desolated impression of early grunge and sludge bands. A frustrated atmosphere that becomes heavy by self-destruction and randomly shows it's hidden inner rage. "Gloomy Lights" sounds the same way depressive, chaotic and insane. The very sick vocal style and the rehearsal room sound just increased it's rawness and effectiveness. An interesting aspect of musickness!

Dystopia - The Aftermath (1999)

   Dystopia was an extraordinary band formed in the early '90s. They sparked attention in the underground scene by their exaggerated style that was a mix of crust punk and sludge metal.
   "The Aftermath" is a compilation album that collected the songs of their late EP's and split albums to shock the audience with an over one hour lenght. The mix of the two styles worked very well, and showed wider perspectives of diversity than ordinary crust punk or sludge metal. There is no sign of the monotone, endlessly repeating simple themes, and the common speed changes also made their music quite enjoyable. It may be a wonder why aren't there many other bands trying this combination. The concept and the lyrical background is very similar, politics, societal problems, hate and antisocial behaviour are related to both styles. In the performance of Dystopia these topics sounding very dramatic. The intense musical background assisted by the angry, and the same time very desperate screaming vocals are quite effective together. Their music showed a new level of the mix of bitterness and anger with an often sarcastic touch.

Disgust - A World of No Beauty (1996)

   It's interesting that the simpler a music is, the more possibilities it could give for those who wants to sort music into exact styles.
   The most common standpoint is that Disgust was as a crust punk band, but grindcore also appeared as their style determination. It's because the band formed by some ex-members of Extreme Noise Terror and Michael Burston (ex-Motörhead), and they brought the main musical characteristics with themselves. That's why their music was a bit heavier than ordinary crust punk, but still it didn't reach the intensiveness of grindcore. The concept was the same like in crust punk, based on political and societal critics, especially if they are related to war and violence. In truth this unusual team-up resulted a project that sounds like the powered up and more monotone version of Master, and if it's about crust punk, the heavier version of Doom. Even if they had different roots, the concept was almost the same, and musically they are similar. The difference is that Disgust showed poorer diversity, the same basic punk hammering and simple guitar themes could be heard in eleven songs lenght. Except the last song, that is a slow, instrumental one, it wouldn't be even needed to divide the album into different tracks, cause they are just all the same. Except that "A World of No Beauty" could be very enjoyable for the fans of old school punk influenced metal.

Disfear - A Brutal Sight of War (1993)

   The Swedish metal scene always kept attention of what was happening in the UK, and it seemed like the British scene had a constant direct influence on them. So it's not surprising that crust punk appeared in Sweden very soon after the style was born in the UK.
   Disfear took crust punk quite well, no one could tell that they are not a British band if they wouldn't had Swedish lyrics too. They fit both in musical and lyrical concept too, and they were probably one of wildest bands in this style. Even though "A Brutal Sight of War" counts as a full-lenght album, it was more like a short EP, but because of that the album doesn't had the chance to become too monotone or repeitive (unlike in the case of most other crust punk bands). The songs are also quite short, so the album is like an overwhelming fast rush came out from nowhere to devastate all that comes into it's way. The sound itself is enough noisy and dirty to cause enough enjoyment, but the intensiveness and the growling-like vocals are completeing the dark tone in the main view. An entertaining sight of political and societal criticism.

Extreme Noise Terror - A Holocaust in Your Head (1989)

   Even though punk music is strongly related to old school grindcore, not many bands could be named who introduced this musical development like Extreme Noise Terror did.
   It was at the birth of two styles at the same time. Grindcore just apperaed not so long ago led by bands like Napalm Death and Carcass, and crust punk was kind of quite new too. On the side of Doom and Hellbastard, Extreme Noise Terror is in first in line to mention if it's about the most influental crust punk bands. So they were definitely updated about the new developments of the actual music scene that time. They kept more punk features than old grindcore bands, but didn't even try to build on the musical contrast of simple, primitive punk melodies and insane grinding. Just like their name told, they made only some extreme noise. Animalistic and intense noisemaking without any breaks, to annoy and instigate to crush your furnitures at home, but better to do in public. Another exaggerated aspect of musical minimalism. The musical and lyrical concept of crust punk and old school grindcore was almost the same, so "A Holocaust in Your Head" could count as an important classic for the fans of both styles.

Doom - War Crimes (Inhuman Beings) (1988)

   As the main scene started to get wilder, punk music had to change too, and also developed it's extreme form by the style of crust punk.
Doom was one of the earliest and most influental crust punk bands. Their music sounded way harsher compared to ordinary punk, and became similar to thrash metal. Since thrash is a punk influenced genre, this step didn't count like something extraordinary, but extended punk music into an exaggerated direction. The basic themes and drumming style stayed, but the sound became quite distorted and the themes less melodic. Diversity is definitely not the common feature of crust punk, all songs are like the same aggressive and intense, and the whole album is just an overwhelming thrashing rampage. The vocal style was more aggressive, almost growling-like compared to the basic punk shouting/fake singing vocals. Political and societal lyrics kept their main importance, and Doom tried to focus on heavier topics, to paint a very dark picture of the most animalistic aspect of life and humanity. That may be too much for ordinary punk as a constant theme and gave a more serious background for the genre.

Sacrilege - Behind The Realms of Madness (1985)

   Sacrilege was also an experimenting band, and during their shorter active period in the '80s, they tried themselves in different styles like turning from one ending point into the other. Just like at most bands in similar cases, their earliest tryings were the best ones.
   It's interesting to listen this album, because it shows a direct connection between punk and thrash metal. How the first one had an influence on the second, how the basic features changed and became the essential parts of another genre. The heavier sound, the increased speed, and riffs are evident, such as the short, but wilder solo themes. With these features gave hardcore punk and upgrade to ordinary heavy metal. The HC punk styled shouting of Lynda "Tam" Simpson was everything but ordinary that time, because not only the extreme scene, but metal music in general wasn't famous about female vocals or musicians. So in the middle of the '80, when people couldn't even talk about any extreme scene, it was a unique line-up. Sadly they left behind this intensiveness afterwards, their music changed, and their name was forgotten after the end of the '80s, but "Behind The Realms of Madness" became an exciting classic of the decade.