Chiral - Abisso (2015)

  "Abisso" was basically Chiral's second demo record from 2014, that also had a limited CD release one year after with two extra songs, that extended the demo to decent full-length duration. And it was definitely worth to make such a release, since the demo was in various ways pretty interesting.
   A wide range of influences could be discovered in Chiral's music, that was in this current state the mix of atmospheric black metal and black/doom. The latest always counts as something extraordinary to find, partly because black/doom is quite rare in general, and also the two styles aren't too easy to combine. Therefore not many can manage to create something enjoyable and impressive out of them. In case of Chiral the black/doom features were a consequence of experimenting, that came from atmospheric approach. This is usually not really supporting the heavier sound that doom metal themes might require, but the atmospheric sound and effects are also including epic elements, that are strongly related to classic doom metal. The sound still didn't become as heavy as it supposed to be, but the thick, misty melancholic atmosphere worked out pretty well with the slow themes. In the two longest songs of the record this solution was well applied. In the rest of the songs drastic switches from soft melodies to intensity are common. This might remind to some death/doom classics of the early '90s, cause the way of experimenting was somewhat similar at the heralds of the subgenre. It's another question how intentional the whole thing was from Chiral, but the results were exciting indeed. The involvement of doom features opened further depths for the atmospheric blackened melancholy, and made the album more diverse than what could be expected in this style. Strongly recommended for the fans of atmospheric black metal and blackened doom.

Surge Assault - Lust & Misery (2015)

   Surge Assault debuted with "First Division" a raw, but promising blackened thrash EP, that wasn't too refined yet, but the band's imagination about what they wanted to do was clear.
   By "Lust & Misery" their full-length album they have returned as a band who mastered black/thrash metal completely and whose name could be mentioned among the heavy hitters of the style. Also the black/thrash they played was strongly related to the '80s nostalgia based trend that keeps frequently appearing at Swedish bands, such as Bewitched, Mordant, or early Paganizer. The only difference is that Surge Assault didn't intend to sound exactly like a long forgotten band from the '80s. They focused on thrashing intensity instead and for this an advantageous sound was picked. Thrashing black at it's best so to say, and by this quality their intensity is comparable to what many South American bands do in this style. The same spirit and the same overwhelming energy. Catchy and wild riffs combined with punk rooted thrashing beats, probably it's the best and most effective combination for an old school concept like this. And the biggest advantage is that it's pretty difficult to fail in this style. For the fans of thrash and blackened thrash "Lust & Misery" is a potential long term favorite. 

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. 

Abysmal Grief - Feretri (2013)

   If I was ever asked to name the ultimate doom metal album, that represents the style at its best, without thinking I would say it must be "Feretri" by Abysmal Grief. Even though for similar questions those bands used to be the best answers, who are one of the earliest of their styles and therefore the core basics are easy to distinguish. And Abysmal Grief's music is kinda mixed compared to '80s doom metal bands.

   However, even if decades have been passed and therefore slight changes might be needed for younger audiences to experience the same or similar heavy and down pulling effect nowadays like '80s audiences did in their times, the extra added influences didn't drift Abysmal Grief's music too far from classic or epic doom metal. That happened because the two extra music features they involved are quite relatable to the genre. First: the post punk-like gothic influence came by the singing vocal style and the atmosphere. Fits perfectly to both doom metal and to the occult, funeral-based main concept. It could also make the band a potential favorite for gothic audiences if they would bother to focus on music even half as much as they're focusing on their personal fashion show endeavours. Second: the stoner rock based noisy sound, that made "Feretri" probably the best sounding Abysmal Grief album. Stoner rock by its constant old school references is quite a doom related direction. Previously and after they preferred more ordinary doom metal sound, but they've never reached so heavy impression like on "Feretri". The involvement of keyboards and strings (most possibly cello) making great contrast with the distorted sound, and also creating some classic, elegant atmosphere, that's also melancholic the same time (dark aesthetics). Even if the band couldn't offer anything new and extraordinary that haven't been made in the genre before, compared to Abysmal Grief, no other bands have been able to highlight the essential features of the genre on such heavy level as they did. And did that without becoming a stoner/doom or death/doom band. Frequent switches to growling vocal style was also an absolute win, cause many things have happened since the '80s that couldn't allow clear or gothic styled singing as heavy or impressive as before, plus it just fits better to noisy sound. In total: by creating an alternative for a modern update that sounds "good as old", Abysmal Grief managed to make the impression that they play doom metal as it always supposed sound like, and "Feretri" is the heaviest aspect of their music. It's an all-round excellent record!

Necromessiah - The Last Hope of Humanity... - (2013)

   Necromessiah debuted in 2004 with "...Instar Gladii in Corporem Christi" a raw, aggressive and rehearsal quality, but quite promising black/thrash album. Later on they continued to evolve further in the style to find the characteristics they're the most comfortable with.

   On their third full-length album "The Last Hope of Humanity" an already experienced, well practiced band could be heard. They confidently experimented with various aspects of thrash from simple, ancient punk influenced themes through Bay Area style to the most intense thrashing. Therefore it became a more chilling, party-compatible record. By turning heavier than before, the differences between black/thrash and thrash/death got blurred in their music, and the blackened themes and atmosphere also had drastically reduced role compared to the debut. Thrashing has absolute dominance on the album, and by focusing more on intensity and aggressive tone, it wouldn't seem a big mistake to call "The Last Hope of Humanity" as  thrash/death music. The blackened showing up only occasionally in form of extreme speed ups, and their higher frequency could definitely have advantageous effect on the record by offering bigger diversity. However, for thrash metal fans the album might be still pretty enjoyable. 

Assumption - Mosaic of the Distant Dominion (2012)

   Similar to Into Darkness, Assumption also debuted with a stunning demo with great sound and production quality. 

   Unlike most death/doom bands, their music might be difficult to sort to either of the two most common directions of the genre (the audience friendlier romance based, mainly melancholic direction, or the less popular, rough, classic form of death/doom). It does include some features from both, since melancholy and melodic themes having determining role, and very heavy approach is also usual, especially alongside the vocal parts. Funeral doom influences are significant, and in this mixed form the demo might keep reminding to Esoteric. However, Assumption didn't go too deep into elemental heaviness, and the combination of the mentioned features are not resulting something such complex, and endlessly desperate feeling like Esoteric does. The way how the band composed their songs, sounds more careful, that could have happened for two possible reasons. They could have focused more on keeping some balance, cause balance they've found the most reasonable tool to frame together various influences. Or in their early, still kinda experimenting period they just didn't want to go too far into any specific directions. The main impression is therefore softer and more moderate compared to most death/doom of funeral doom bands, but the mentioned balance also generates some elegance, that refuses to merge too deep into the dirty filth of depressive depths.

Into Darkness - Into Darkness (2012)

   Since in the late '00s it became widespread that demo releases often having so great sound quality like ordinary album releases, and sometimes even sounding better than some (black metal) studio records. This tendency had stimulus effect by the way more enjoyable sound quality, cause more fans became interested to add demos into their collections, and it wasn't only the intention of the most obsessed collectors anymore. Furthermore, demos started to have further releases, on CD and vinyl too. The same happened with Into Darkness' first demo, even though it was basically released on tape by following pretty old school fashion.

   Not only it's sound, but the music in general had made it reasonable that the interest kept staying around the self-titled demo. The band operated with quite simple, repetitive themes, but they've been embedded into such catchy sludgy / blackened atmosphere, that the main impression didn't become monotonous. Also the mixed influences had quite good and (according to this musically minimalist style) diverse effect. Similar to old school death/doom bands, their music doesn't lack intensity either, in the second and fourth songs they show, that slow, heavy themes and devastating speed do not exclude each other. Maybe because some specific features, like the basic themes, the higher toned female vocal style and the almost narrative vocal performance, their music might remind to Mythic. But Into Darkness is far not that primitive and their music is introducing a wider perspective to the listener. Since it was not only a pretty stunning demo for a debut, but musically diverse too, it could become a potential favorite for wider extreme music fan audiences too. 

Ferum - Asunder / Erode (2022)

   Ferum from Italy debuted with an EP "Vergence" in 2018 released by by the label Everlasting Spew that's mainly known about it's death metal and grindcore releases. After Samantha's (guitars, vocals) relocation to Estonia, and by an Estonian drummer Are Kangus joined the band, it could be also called as an international project. With this line-up Ferum's first full-lengh album have been released in this August. Samantha previously played on guitar in bands like the Swedish styled death metal band Undead Creep and the blackened sludge/doom female band Saturnine.

   "Asunder/Erode" was completely worth waiting, since a high quality death/doom release have been born. While the themes of "Vergence" mainly reflected the features of old school Swedish death, the music in total reminded more to the that time less known early '90s Dutch scene (to bands such as Acrostichon or Sempiternal Deathreign), and the EP represented a raw form of death/doom by it's frequent intense themes. Compared to that on "Asunder/Erode" the role of speed switches and intensity reduced, and therefore their music drifted closer to the most essential definition of the style. And due to which direction made death/doom popular, it's very roots are lacking the more melodic, romantic concept. Instead there's overwhelming heaviness, simple, but chatchy riffs and downpulling rotting impression. Probably the death/doom classic Cianide could be mentioned as main musical influence (to them even direct reference can be discovered). Obscure lyrical concept performed by deep growling vocals are assisting to this slow but certain march to the horrors of inevitable doom. The ominous, demoralizing main view sounds nostalgic and refreshing the same time according to the past, current and main tendencies of the genre. Similarly impressing and defining releases are rare to find. 

More information about Ferum:
https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/asunder-erode

https://www.facebook.com/ferumdeath

Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony (2011)

   By "Agony" Fleshgod Apocalypse made a confident step and  evidently determined their own style and sound as a symphonic technical death metal band. There have been some signs for that direction on their previous releases, but on this level it definitely wasn't expected.
   Their step was a completely relevant one that time according to the main tendencies of the extreme scene. Plenty of bands experimented to mix technical or progressive brutal death with other genres with more or less (usually less) success. And symphonic metal wasn't a new thing in general either, but on the side of brutal death it wasn't usual at all. Fleshgod Apocalypse however didn't compose together the metal and symphonic elements like how for instance Celestial Season did, they just paired the two by intensity and kind of let them run parallelly next to each other. The symphonic themes also creating strong atmosphere, and softening the effect of the brutal death noise and hammering. But in general these two main features could work independently without each other just fine. Symphonies used to create harmony, but in this case harmony they could include only by themselves. They're also not completing the technical brutal death themes, just increasing the chaos that they've created. This somehow reminds to the common accident in the casette tape era, when after reusing a tape by a poor copying method, it's previously copied sound material could be also heard parallelly with the lately copied music. This gave some unusual elegance to technical/brutal death, that normally couldn't be related to the subgenre on any level. However, due to the minimal connection, this combination proved to be successful, and the main audience discovered the new, yet unheard aspect of symphonic metal in Fleshgod Apocalypse's style. 

Undead Creep - The Ever Burning Torch (2011)

   Undead Creep's impressing full lenght debut didn't only catch the New Wave of Old School Death Metal with the right tone and by the right timing, but also extended the possible sources of Swedish styled death metal.
   Both in sound and themes the influences of the well known classics of the Swedish scene are waving back, such as Grave, Unleashed, Entombed and especially Carnage. The same rough and unfriendly approach could be experienced, and the song structures are also strictly following the Swedish recipe. Productiveness is one of the main features of the album, since the main concept was covered as various ways as possible. However even if the main direction is quite determined and evident, in the form of short and fast solo themes and lead switches the influence of Death also could be discovered. The presence of this moderate Floridan touch on the side of some short typically early '90s rooted atmospheric effects seems briefly compared to the absolute overweight of the Swedish references, so they didn't have determining role. "The Ever Burning Torch" is like a  nostalgia album made by dedicated old school death metal fans, and by the demo songs included it's decent lenght couldn't be disappointing for the fans of the genre.

Fleshgod Apocalypse - Mafia (2010)

   The late '00s were the renaissance of technical and progressive brutal death bands, and Fleshgod Apocalypse just came with the flow. Their debut "Oracle" was remarkable because of it's excellect sound quality, but since it wasn't an uncommon tendency that time at similar bands, it didn't count extraordinary. 
   Like if "Oracle" wasn't enough brutal already, "Mafia" seemed to exceed the band's insane intensity, and also gave a hint about their future symphonic tendencies. In the form of short relaxing melodies they've occasionally showed up previously too, and they're not getting higher role here either. But the appearence of a second, clear singing vocal in nearly opera style on the side the brutal death slamming and deep growling was kind of strange alerady. These small surprises made the EP more colorful even in current amount because their appearence and timing was quite effective. Catchy leading melodies assisting to bond the extremities together into a balanced whole. This also gave a far different perspective to this style that wasn't experienced before. In form of experiments many bands have tried various things, even to involve symphonic elements, but in the case of Fleshgod Apocalypse the border between harmony and chaos seemed not only thinner, but even chaos itself was able to wear the disguise of harmony, to become consumable for mainstream audience too. 

The Secret - Solve et Coagula (2010)

   The Secret had quite interesting and uncommon musical journey, that introduces various mixed influences and an ongoing development that  drifts the band always further into deeper extremities.

   The band started to play metalcore in an extraordinary way, that could be difficult to compare to anything else in the genre, since it was more complex than what ordinary metalcore bands are playing, and their noisy sound and obscure approach showed more similarities to crust punk or sludgy influences. With time this alternative direction became dominant, and intense grinding exchanged the simple metalcore-like themes. Even though black metal showed up as another possible influence, the main impression still reminded more to a crusty, sludgy direction. The mix of black metal and grindcore is definitely not common to find, and even most of the rare experiments are not really working out well. From this the question might come that is the analogy between the style of band and Anaal Nathrakh is just a coincedence came from the very few succesful ways how the 2 styles could be combined, or the band was building directly from the influence of Anaal Nathrakh? Still, compared to Anaal Nathrakh their music didn't become so heavy, intense and complex, and therefore the black metal features aren't so evident either. It also wouldn't be correct to simply mark "Solve et Coagula" as a grindcore album, since grinding also doesn't count as their most remarkable feature. Even though exact style classification isn't the easiest thing about the band, their music might be enjoyable for the fans of musical experiments on the vein of crusty black and grind related mixed styles. 

Nefarium - Haeretichristus (2008)

 Black metal legion hoards hail, Italy brings us Nefarium's Haeretichristus. This album delivers atmospherically evil, uptempo black metal that deserves ranks higher above it's underground pedestal.
     With an obvious and heavily driven sound, typically recognized with more familiar bands like Dark Funeral and Marduk, Haeretichristus possesses an undeniable depth that is more reflective of Swedish black metal; Which is no surprise once you realize there are guest appearances by Chaq Mal of Dark Funeral and Infaustus of Setherial  (found on tracks Merchants of Hope, An Old Black Cage, and Sin of an Apostle).
     Even with this somewhat all-too-familiar style of highly driven, blasting black metal, this album offers enough unique components to set it apart and keep your attention. The first track Lucifer's Betrayal does not fail to encompass the atmosphere, energy, and message of the entire album. Abrasive guitar leads backed by blasting drum beats are found throughout the rest of the tracks. And okay, I didn't want to say it, it IS one of those albums that, if you're not paying attention, can lack variation between songs. For whatever reason, for this album, that doesn't seem to have an adverse effect on me. Because I fucking love this album. 5 stars. 

Blasphemophagher - Nuclear Empire of Apocalypse (2008)

   The appearence of Blasphemophagher was another great example of the slowly increasing numbers of war metal bands. As it was mentioned before, this style knows no compromises, and it's able to show one of the most exaggerated aspects of musical extremity.
   The band's debut is an excellent piece of black/death insanity, endlessly raw, noisy and brutal. The mix of noise and intense speed introduces a new level of heavy sound. It's quite hard to fail in this style, if the musicians are able to keep on the speed and the aggressivity, and are necessarily sick in mind. Still, because of the purely aggressive emotionless approach, not many are able to value the whole thing, even though this might be the most autchenic representation of the concept of black metal. While black metal musicians and fans pointing on each other, who is responsible for making their genre mainstream, war metal keeps it's underground status probably forever. The music is worthy for it's title, "Nuclear Empire of Apocalypse" illustrates well the apocalyptic devastation that consumes all. On the side of the limitless brutality, the listener occasionally also can find old school references that are strongly reminding to old Sarcófago. Strongly recommended for the fans of the genre!

Vulvectomy - Putrescent Clitoral Fermentation (2007)

   Vulvectomy was formed and debuted in 2007 during the Renaissance of grindcore, which had mainly porn grind in its focus, and also slamming brutal death metal bands became quite widespread. While these two factors definitely had influence on their style, the question might stand, what made this band notable or interesting among their countless coataneouses, which mostly had the same musical intentions, messages and both lyrically and visually explicit approach? 

   The short answer might be nothing really, except Vulvectomy's music had slightly simpler and more old school approach than most similar bands. And what turned out to be interesting: this simplicity pushed their music closer to deathcore, which also wouldn't count as something extraordinary in this genre, but by arriving to this point from different roots isn't so usual. The band operated with so basic themes and dummy riffs by mainly staying at groovy middle speed, that for first listening it wouldn't even sound incorrect to call them as a deathcore band. Basically only breakdowns are missing. Only the occasional occurrence of brutal death intensity is able to shake up the listener from this assumption, but the dominant repeatedness of the groovy middle speed and themes might leading back to the same consequence. Similar analogy used to occur at bands that are having at least distant relation with deathcore, for instance in case of harcore / crust punk bands if they want to sound heavier. However, the way how Vulvectomy's style turned out, made them compatible with both slamming brutal death and deathcore audiences. The album perfectly fits into the mid-late '00s extreme era, and might be highly enjoyable for the addicts of sexually explicit and gore based musickness. 

Abysmal Grief - Abysmal Grief (2007)

   If anyone may thought it's not possible to show anything new in doom metal that's different from the ordinary Black Sabbath, Candlemass or Cathedral influenced way, Abysmal Grief proved that it's definitely wrong. And they did it by not even showing up with anything extraordinary.
   Their debut starts with rain like if it was a necessary requirement in the genre, such as the strongly occult lyrical concept. But their way is closer to what occultism was in the 19th century, when similar "entertainment" didn't count as the opposite way of being religious, because they often involved Catholic mass features. On the side of short pray details, electric organ themes are leading the listener to a dark funeral mass that might end up in sacrilegious resurrection of the dead. The atmosphere of funerals are an important feature in their music, and they've mixed their feeling with doom metal in a genious way like nobody else before. All of these were made with such ease and simplicity like if pairing the two was the most evident thing on the world, and the question might stand in the listener: "Why nothing like this was made before? And even if something similar was made, why it wasn't so effective?" Occasionally stringed instruments are helping to wonder about the depths of passingness, and the ceremony master's high singing vocal style is often collapsing into mysterious whispering that foretells nothing nice about the afterlife, if there is any. The album is strongly recommended for the fans of the darkest doom metal and also in case of lonely cemetery walks.

Doomraiser - Lords of Mercy (2006)

   Doomraiser's concept and basics are definitely rooting back to the '80s classic doom metal, but similar to most new age doom metal bands, they also imported plenty of style features from stoner rock. Therefore it wouldn't be incorrect to call them as a stoner/doom band.
   The extended song lengths, repetitive riffings and the mystical, occult topics are quite old school doom references, but the stoner rock influenced groovy tendencies, the vocal style and the chilled touch neutralizing the effectiveness of these dark, ominous features before they would be able to form. With other words: even if doom have been raised, it suddenly took a friendly form. This instant style mixing became usual from the late '90s, and by more developed sound quality as an effective assistance it became a trend from the '00s. It happened slowly step by step, and since then it became difficult to find any new age doom metal band who didn't import any stoner rock features. But since the two styles are strongly related by having the same origin, they're easy to combine and this solution works so well, that not everyone notices. Also it's able to give a more modern touch to the classic sound of doom. Doomraiser successfully highlighted the advances and catchiness of both styles for their own favour by making their music diverse enough to have some enjoyable detail to discover for the listener for long term listening. "Lords of Mercy" is a potential favorite for the fans of doom metal and stoner rock. 

Mind Snare - From Blood to Dust (2005)

   Similar to many active death metal bands of the early '00s, Mind Snare also existed since the early '90s, it just took a long time (and some name- and line-up changes) until they were able to release a full-lenght debut.
   But while it might be reasonable to expect the usual old school style of death metal, like in the case of any other bands in similar situation, Mind Snare was a bit different. Their brutal death slashing reminded more to Incantation than to the ordinary trends a decade earlier, and sounded like they kept an eye on the changes that happenned in the main scene meanwhile. The old school basics are still there, but they could be found only occasionally. Mind Snare isn't so chaotic and hard to go into like Incantation. Their music is definitely audience-friendlier, but the direction is the same: deep growls, intense speed, and heavy brutality. To this came the clear sound and themes, song structures that are more common to find at modern death metal bands. By the lyrics they've also stepped forward from the ordinary style of old school death, but only at the ways of formulation, because the concept is not different. "From Blood to Dust" (that was the third full-lenght album of Mind Snare) also includes the songs of their debut EP "Hegemony", that extends the album lenght almost to an hour long, to increase the enjoyability for both old school and brutal death fans. 

Ufomammut - Godlike Snake (2000)

   Ufomammut debuted as an instrumental project with various musical influences, such as psychedelic rock, stoner rock, sludge and doom metal.
   Since these are related styles, the chance to create something great by mixing them is quite high, and that's exactly what Ufomammut did. There is a strong psychedelic and mesmerizing atmosphere that haunts through the album and takes the main role frequently from the distorted sludge/doom heaviness by the assistance of catchy stoner themes. They really did their best to try all possibilites and to put out the maximum from this enjoyable mix. This is definitely a new, modern level of stoner/doom influenced by Electric Wizard and Sleep. There are some vocal sounds too even though it's basicly and instrumental album, but these sounding completely blurred and became the part of the psychedelic atmosphere. Like in the case of a concept album, the message lies in the intensiveness of the music, the song titles are there just to give a hint. Unlike at other arty bands who lately appeared in this style, this message lacks the forced intellectual background, it's only about impressions. That's partly correct about psychedelic/stoner rock too in general, Ufomammut only introduced another possible way of reinterpretation.

Electrocution - Inside the Unreal (1993)

   To use words like intense, exaggerated or insane to describe old school death metal albums would be correct in general. And since the main ambitions of the genre are exactly to reach those impressions, it wouldn't be wrong if the same would be told about most albums.
   Some records, like "Inside the Unreal" by Electrocution seem like more worthy to be described like that, because even compared to the main scene, their music sounded way more intense. Not only the very fast hammering gave that impression, but the pile of excellent heavy themes, that keeping the attention from the beginning to the end, and don't let any boring moment to show up during the album. Such exaggerated brutality with catchy and various themes is rare to find. Endlessly sick and inhuman growling style assisting to introduce the most putrid depths of brutal sound. Even though "Inside the Unreal" is a very underrated album, it's a real old school death metal masterpiece all-round, and belongs to the greatest dark gems of the '90s extreme music era.