Kever - Eon of Cycling Death (2013)

   Kever debuted with a short but quite stunning EP, that could serve as a  perfect example of new waved old school death metal. 
   Even though the band didn't try to imitate the sound of the early '90s, the concept remained exactly the same: to play intense death metal and to record it in the most advantageous way to highlight the extreme features of the music. Plenty of influences could be mentioned from Swedish bands to the Floridan scene (especially Massacre in this case, because of the frequent short, noisy solo themes), but the song structures and the sound maybe reminds more to old school Swedish death metal in general. The songs are complex as they should be, including sudden and effective tempo and theme switches as old school death supposed to, and the production is excellent. The contrast between musical minimalism and slight complexity works pretty well, such as the contrast of the simple, noisy roffs and short, fast solos. For the fans of old school death "Eon of Cycling Death" is definitely a potential favorite. Even if Kever's concept and approach cannot offer anything new, their music might have refreshing role in the underground scene by their seemingly quite self-dedicated attitude and their high quality implementation. 

Dim Aura - The Negation of Existence (2013)

   Dim Aurra debuted with a stunning EP "R.U.S.T." in 2011, and 2 years later they've returned with a full-length album.
   Their music combined the traditional elements of black metal with one of the late '90s tendencies of the style, that tried to find its way back to the original spirit of black metal by better production quality after it was split to various experimenting subgenres. The band mainly intended to highlight the effectiveness of blackened themes and melodies, and therefore instead of the noisy sizzling atmosphere, their approach was based on clean sound. This line they've continued on "The Negation of Existence", but by an even more improved sound quality. The countings of the band proved to be pretty accurate, because indeed they wrote quite good themes for the album, and the increased sound quality had advantageous effect on the main view. This production is more relatable to how Swedish bands played and keep playing black metal. The song structures, the mix of very basic, even thrash influenced themes and catchier, melodic riffs also showing strong analogy with their style. In total the music sounds more diverse, less raw, and even if not exposing intensity is the music's main intention, the songs having somehow heavier impression simply because of the better production quality. At one hand it's easier to go into because of the catchy melodies, but in return the music sounds less mysterious, and more direct. A potential favorite for the fans of black metal!

Sonne Adam - Armed with Hammers (2010)

   Sonne Adam debuted with an interesting EP, that could be exciting for the fans of musical extremities for various reasons.

  It's sensible that the members were kind of inexperienced that time, and therefore the EP had a pathfinding experimenting touch. Their music could be determined as death/doom metal, because they preferred middle speed, frequent slow downs and simpler heavy themes. But the doom heaviness cannot prevail as it should, partly because the songs are a bit short, and also switching themes too often. It sounds like the common ground between the members haven't been found yet, but this made "Armed with Hammers" more interesting, than the following Sonne Adam albums. The rawness of their early music mixed with the dirty sound - that could be also called as poor quality -, gave an enjoyable atmosphere to the EP. This more reminds to the atmosphere that was discovered on rehearsal quality black metal records, than to ordinary death/doom tendencies. There is some quite primitive main feeling on the EP, that might make it engaging for the listener, while later the band continued their experimenting by focusing more on better sound quality; and that unfortunately kind of consolidated the savageness that was heard on "Armed with Hammers". 

Necrodaemon - Prophecy of the Decadent (2005)

   Oppose the audience friendlier and hipster trends of black metal that kept gaining wider spectrums since the late '90s, there have been other, lesser known and less popular intentions too, to keep the subgenre extreme and exaggerated as how it supposed to be. On the side of raw black metal, mainly bands and projects individual from any specific scenes have committed these alternative paths, such as Necrodaemon. 
   Necrodaemon's one and only album represents a modern, all-round high quality aspect of black metal, that relies on very aggressive approach and great production and sound quality. Because of this in the Northern scene it would count as heavy enough to get a blackened death or black/death tag. It's enough to think about how much more devastating and violent Necrodaemon sounds like compared to classics like Dissection or Necrophobic, despite just being black metal, but with better sound quality than usual. Similar bands on the side of Marduk could be named as most possible influences as well. "Prophecies of the Decadent" is extremely intense and might sound raw at first by no chance is given for the listener to chill, but there are plenty of catchy melodies and even short solo themes to find making sure of musical diversity. Similarly modern sounding and high quality releases are common to find at French bands from the '00s. This approach might minimize or erase the possibility of the atmospheric sound that became a classic determining feature in black metal, but since this path focuses on extremity and compromise-less intentions, skipping atmospheric sound was a necessary step, especially cause the popular trends were building on it specifically. 
   In total, "Prophecy of the Decadent" is a wild and compromise-less masterpiece, strongly recommended for the lovers of trve black metal extremity.