Avulsed - Ritual Zombi (2013)

   Even though "Ritual Zombi" was only the 6th full-length album by Avulsed, the band showed impressive productiveness since the past 2 decades in form of various compilations, EPs and split releases. During this time, the band had an interesting musical journey, always trying to give a slightly different approach to their style, that could be described as gore and gross-out based old school death metal.

   This style they always preferred to keep, but they sometimes involved some elements of grindcore, or came up with surprisingly catchy and melodic themes. After the noisy heaviness of the previous album, it could have been difficult to exceed what was heard back then, and therefore "Ritual Zombi" became like an album that briefly summarized all features of the Avulsed discography, that worked fine before. From catchy riffs and melodies to wild brutality, from morbid humor to horror and gore. Unsurprisingly after the album title, a cover song with similar title also took place on the record, since covering old school death metal classics also could be commonly heard by them. If there was need for an alternate title on the side of "Ritual Zombi", probably "Putrid Death Metal For Fun" could fit to the album well. Another enjoyable hit from the masters of the genre.

Hipoxia - Hipoxia (2012)

   As it was mentioned before, from the late '00s there was a tendency in the main scene, that focused on the qualities and effectiveness of noisy sound. The most evident aspect of this was the appearence of drone metal. The rise of the subgenre was kind of short lived because it didn't need much more effort than experimenting with distortion pedals in a rehearsal room, but it's influence was wider, especially at sludge, doom and stoner related bands. Hipoxia was one of those bands who got inspired by that tendency, and discovered the opportunity of drone sound involed into sludge/doom. 

   Probably Conan became the most known band who prefers this style combination, and even though Hipoxia's music lacked the more chilling or levitating stoner rock themes (it's kinda subjective how chilling those themes are with this sound), Conan might be a good example to compare them to. The analogy lies in simplicity, in those basic themes that are slow, effective and extremely heavy the same time. Hipoxia successfully mastered this style and with the assistence of drone sound they increased the down pulling, demoralizing feeling of sludge. Even though sludge was never known as a "happy genre" it was possible to turn things even worse step by step. First by combining it with doom metal, and after by giving a darker tone by merging into the further possibilities of even noisier sound. This latest stage was pretty actual and had style renewing role in the early '10s and Hipoxia counts as one of the earliest forerunners of this direction. Their debut counts as one of the first style determining albums of something newly developed in the depths of underground metal. 

Necroven - Worship of Humilation (2012)

   The number of Incantation influenced bands slowly started to spread from the early '10s as another option for the sound of old school death metal. And basically this wave, keeps spreading even nowadays, but on a bit bigger scale. That made Incantation stepping forward from an underrated band status to a widely influental one. And Necroven was one of those who imagined their old scool sound with such endlessly obscure tone.
   Their music wasn't  so complex, they mainly focused on old school brutality with frequent slow downs. Even though their sound is kind of mixed and shows analogy with the Swedish scene, their down tuned noisiness assisted by deep growling vocal style gives to the main view a hell deep perspective. This prevails well at middle speed and theme changes/slow downs by putting heaviness into focus. Their occasional short solo themes completing the old school feeling, and reminding to the most ancient classics of the genre. "Worship Humilation" is a very well composed album, all themes, speed and melody switches are effective as they supposed to be. The appearence of catchy, notorious melodies reminding to Finnish death metal, except Necroven applied them briefly instead as a frame creating, returning feature. It's more than a simple nostalgia album. It's not only recalling the early '90s and intending to fill an empty gap in the main scene, but also introducing how different and obscure depths this style can offer compared to the actual musical tendencies. 

Hyban Draco - Where Illusions Die (2012)

   "Where Illusions Die" was the third album by Hyban Draco, and even though the band continued their unusual approach of slightly thrash influenced black/melodic death metal, a few things have changed meanwhile.
   This wasn't an experimental band anymore, but a determined one that switched between soft melancholic atmosphere and melodic blackened themes with confidence. The debut served as an evident proof already, that this combination could result pretty overwhelming song compositions, but as time have passed, the band preferred to put intensity more into focus. They aren't just occasional anymore like previously. This was led to the shortened role of the melancholic atmosphere. Therefore "Where Illusions Die" became a more balanced album, where the contrast between soft melodies and intensity prevails and this is definitely a more effective way if a band having such various influences. The themes in general and the sound also became much better, and the clear sound also proved to be more reasonable for their minimalist melodic parts than some blurry atmospheric background. This was also a step that pushed their music slightly more favourable for underground fans, but despite being an underrated band, by still their catchy themes making it enjoyable for wider audiences as well. 

Ataraxy - Revelations of the Ethereal (2012)

   After a very impressive and excellent EP that reintroduced old school musickness at it's best, Ataraxy have returned with a full-lenght album.
   The band's retun wasn't disappointing, but had a bit different aspect compared to the "Curse of the Requiem Mass". The band kept their characteristic style features that still strongly reminded to Asphyx because of the combination of the mainly slower themes and the vocal style, but took a more melodic way. It wasn't even incorrect to describe "Revelations of the Ethereal" as a melodic death album, if the term "melodic death metal" wasn't used mainly for bands who might have been influenced by death metal, but except the growling vocal style have nothing to do with death metal in general, since their themes completely lacking any death metal style features. There are a very few exceptions though, but even compared to them, the album is still closer to old school death. Similar to the EP the band still preferred middle speed and slow downs, but on "Revelations of the Ethereal" they had bigger role to give enough time and opportunity for the melodic themes to evolve and to gain enough focus. Speed ups are kind of occasional, shorter lasting, but effectively scheduled to create the needed contrast. In general the speed and theme switches making the album diverse, and the insteresting thing is that even though the band didn't change style, the EP's had some kind of cruel and aggressive impression, and while the same feeling still could be found on the full-lenght album, it's tone is way more melancholic, thanks to the catchy repetitive melodies. 

Horn of the Rhino - Grengus (2012)

   If we think about the modern and most popular form of sludge metal (bands like Mastodon, Baroness or Kylesa) the most remarkable thing might be that the newer bands went so far in mixing sludge with other syles and in parallel with progression, that there's barely any sludge features left to find. 
   But things were quite different in case of Horn of the Rhino, even though their music was also quite mixed up to be enough diverse, and they always tried to change something on each album. Their debut under this name was more influenced by doom, and there's no lack of lslow themes, extended song lenghts and clear singing on "Grengus" either, but this album had a quite intense and aggressive approach in general. This kinda reversed the measures compared to "Weight of Coronation", and on "Grengus" the sludgy influences became more dominant. Also their intensity is often more comparable to thrash speed, so things aren't so simple as it might be expected from an ordinary sludge/doom band. But in this diverse style mixture lied the excellence of the band, more accurately in the differences how they've committed all of that compared to other coetaneous style-related bands. Their music didn't lose the basic rough feeling of sludge, and on "Grengus" they've even passed it through by turning wilder, and meanwhile they were able to introduce a new, genuine aspect.

Putrevore - Macabre Kingdom (2012)

  Putrevore counts extraordinary for 2 reasons. First of all, it's one of the very rare projects when well known musicians playing together, and it didn't end up as something completely generic and forgetable, or as the copy of one of the members main bands. 
 The other reason is related to that, since it's the very rare example from Rogga Johansson's countless other music projects, that didn't end up both musically and in sound almost exactly the same. In this probably the other death metal legend Dave Rotten had strong influence, since he's known about the exact opposite: his other bands are quite different from each other, and often quite different in style too. Putrevore's debut was already convincing enough, and this line was continued of "Macabre Kingdom". The extremely heavy and noisy brutality they play could be only compared to Incantation, but in a less complex form both in themes and song structures. Therefore their music might sound more old school than what could be heard at other similar bands. But even though their music might seem a bit easier to go into from one aspect, their distorted, noisy sound based approach could question that from another point. Upvaluing the importance of sound is definitely a newer tendency that showed up in the late '00s for it's easily reachable advantages. This created a small strictly old school based direction in the underground scene, that on the side of remaining quite old school and operating with basic themes, still sounds impressingly heavy even compared to the most intense extremities. It's enough to think about bands like Undergang, Coffins, Decrepitaph or Desecresy. The other advance of this style is that by keping some strict and determining rules, it's difficult to not create something good out of it. 

Tort - Tort (2012)

   Tort's self-titled debut reminded to the most ancient sound of sludge, and might be enjoyable for the old fans of the genre.
   This is interesting because sludge metal is definitely difficult to find in it's most ancient form, and since the style doesn't offer too many possibilities, but it's easy to combine it with related styles. So most bands just mixing it with doom metal or stoner rock. Tort sounds like influenced mainly by Eyehategod, and therefore doomy slow-downs and extended song lenghts became the main features of the debut. This direction alrady gives the instant option to involve other influences too, and even though Tort sounds pretty vintage, they also lived with that opportunity, to be not too repetitive. The slight influence of early stoner bands like for instance Sleep could be sensed in their themes, and that also means some psychedelic orientation. However the simplified, dirty sound and the basicly vile, unfriendly feeling that comes with that doesn't let the music to collapse into Black Sabbath nostalgia, or to create the needed atmosphere for real psychedelic levitation. This might  sound raw for most compared to the current tendencies of the style, but in truth it just offers another, less commonly preffered way of old school nostalgia. 

Morbid Flesh - Reborn in Death (2011)

   For a young band, Morbid Flesh had promising debut by "Reborn in Death", that leads the listener back to the early '90s. Their intention to recall the sound and feeling of old school death metal was quite successful, and since plenty of very familiar features could be found on the album, it's also like some genuine summary of the most determining directions of the genre.
   By influences their music takes place somewhere between the Swedish scene and Asphyx. The intensity, the sound and most themes are definitely referring to Swedish death and to that temporary slow downs and short ominous melodies are assisting. The heavier parts on the side of the backing vocals referring to the noisy, putrid, demoralizing sound of Asphyx, while some lead melodies strongly remindig to old Sentenced. From this point there is some analogy to discover with Ataraxy, but Morbid Flesh was more into fast themes and overwhelming intensity. The too frequently returnung backing vocals making the songs a bit too predictable, but in general the album is well composed by the contrast of the two main influences. The band also recreated well the sound and main feeling of early '90s death metal, so "Reborn in Death" (the album title also seems quite accurate from this point of view) couldn't be disappointing for old school fans.

Banished from Inferno - Minotaur (2011)

   Banished from Inferno's one and only full-lenght album might give a very familiar feeling already at first listening, but with time it's getting clear that here's something more there than another old school death metal nostalgia.
  Though the feeling is definitely there, plus the diverse themes and the way how the band used them suspects that they have been actively playing since a while, so the old schoolness might be not surprising. The Swedish scene could have been their main influence, but without the usual Swedish buzzsaw sound. Simple, intense basic thrashy themes giving the basics they keep returning to, but speed ups to grind intensity and melodic switches are also common. Melanholic atmospheric effects are also frequently returning. The more generic sound let them to involve wider range of themes and influences, and these are applied with the right timing and lenght, by not letting any to have enough big role to switch the music to another style. The sound and the diversity of themes also made "Minotaur" compatible with wider audience than to ordinary old school death metal fans. However Banished from Inferno didn't become the new Tribulation since they've gone shortly after, but they definitely had the skills and the potential to continue this line to something even greater. 

Monkeypriest - The Psalm (2011)

   Monkeypriest was a short lived, but completely stunning band that gave a new shade to the less popular style of sludge/doom. Already their name selection was promising by referring to  the already sludge legend Iron Monkey.
   As it was mentioned before sludge metal in it's raw original form became a very rare thing to find, and most bands who decide to play in this style, usually ending up in the progressive Mastodon influenced direction, that loses most or nearly all sludge features; or they involving stoner or doom metal elements. The second (more fortunate) case was Monkeypriest. Sludge/doom not only keeps most of the sludge features, but also creates a way heavier and even more demoralizing main view. Monkeypriest operated with simple, but effective themes that could be enjoyable for the fans of both styles. Even though it's sound definitely reflects the main underground trends of it's age, by the themes "The Psalm" have some vintage '80s-early '90s  effect too, that reminds to bands like Celtic Frost, early Cathedral or Candlemass. The band probably had quite diverse range of influences, and all was framed into the rumbling, unifying sound of sludge/doom. Despite their focus on simplicity and musical minimalism, these could be sensed during listening, therefore the album is well composed by letting various hints, but never losing from it's unitedness.

Broken Gravestones - Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (2011)

   Broken Gravestones was formed with the best possible timing by taking part in the New Wave of Old School Death Metal.
   Their demo was also quite promising by recalling an exact dirty and putrid style that was long time missing from the scene. This style mainly survived by a few bands who were strongly influened by Autopsy, but from the early '90s lesser known names like Accidental Suicide, Infester, Necrophiliac, or Mangled Torsos also could be bonded to this direction. The demo inclueded only 2 songs, that also showed up on their debut EP in studio quality and with Kam Lee at vocals. Even though Broken Gravestones counts as a less known project in which Kam Lee participated, it's probably the most genuine one, cause it didn't end up as something too generic or as another copycat of old Massacre. Kam Lee's vocal style is quite charismatic and easy to identify, therefore it certainly can have too strong influence that could lead to this (especially if he joins a band of old school Massacre fans), but Broken Gravestones mainly preferred slower and middle speed, so the well known thrashy "From Beyond" touch had quite reduced role. The extended slow downs were not advantegous only becaue of the way heavier effect, but also the sick-demoralizing themes became more influental. The recall of the ancient horror feeling was also quite suceeseful so "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" could be very enjoyable for the fans of early '90s death metal. 

Ataraxy - Curse of the Requiem Mass (2010)

   Ataraxy's excellent debut EP brought back an authentic old school death metal feeling that was long lost since the mid '90s and only occasionally could be found at new formations. 

   Their strongly Asphyx influenced music includes a combination of features that could be called as an absolute win when it's about death metal. Dirty, noisy sound, heavy cathchy riffs combined with even catchier higher toned leading melodies, and suffocating growling vocal style. They preferred middle speed that often slows down, but occasionally intense thrashy hammering interrupts the obscure gloom. The Asphyx influenced sound, vocal style and preferred speed are creating an extremely putrid and doom referring basic tone, that's completed with the leading melodies. These partly opening further depths for desperate melancholy and down pulling sickness, and partly recalling the feeling of old school horror films. Ataraxy usually operates with simple themes, and not famous about overcomplicating anything, but at the end of the EP they've proved that they are also capable to write longer and more complex songs. In summary "Curse of the Requiem Mass" was not only well composed, but also reintroduced a high level of sick feeling that wasn't heard in the genre since a while.

Hyban Draco - Frozen Whispers (2010)

   Hyban Draco debuted with an album that was officially marked as black metal, but it was much more than that. Their music provided an interesting perspective, that despite sounded very familiar and came from the very basic core of extreme metal, seemingly cannot be related directly with any big names of the genre. 
   The band operated with pretty simple themes and relied on catchy melodic leads that are usually reminding to black and thrash metal. However, the intensity of their music didn't reach ordinary black or thrash metal. Similar themes could have been heard on the debut of Witchburner and in Desaster's music in general, but Hyban Draco preferred a more epic, classic heavy metal based and melodic approach. Their short and occasional speedups aren't sufficient for calling it as thrashing, but in melodic death metal similar song compositions could work just fine. Soft melodies and strong atmosphere showed up as completing factors, and that suggested the influence of the mainstream bands of black metal, such as Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir. But at one hand there's a constantly returning melancholic touch that became more dominant, not to mention the old school tendencies to sense on "Frozen Whispers", that are keep cancelling any theatrical possibilities. The band definitely had mixed influences, but they've been put well together. Even though their solutions didn't count as usual, their music was compatible with both mainstream and underground audiences. 
  "Frozen Whispers" was still in some sort of experimenting state, but still it counts as a very stunning debut, could be potential favorite for the fans of black metal, black/thrash and melodic death.

Horn of The Rhino - Weight of Coronation (2010)

  Rhino continued their eclectic musical activity after a name change as Horn of The Rhino. Even though this might also suspect a new start, since the band's music seemed to turn more unified, but in general this tendency was just another twist that was previously usual at them too, but this time on a bigger scale.

   Still "Weight of Coronation" is a way calmer album, and on the side of the involved various different style influences (sludge, doom, stoner, even progressive metal) the combination of stoner/doom became dominant. Interestingly because of the wide style range there could be a long line of names to be menioned if it's about exact band influences; and it might be difficult to not make it up too subjective, since all bands together mind sound like a great paradox. But this antinomic soil definitely includes all the basics that the band was building up their music from. Their previous aggressive sludgy approach drifted closer to a more melancholic, heavier and kind of psychedelic tone. The intensiveness that was one of their main features as Rhino, didin't disappear completely, only it's role reduced. Occasionally it returns still, but less effectively. If sludge/doom metal basics getting similarly mixed, progression-related influences, the music turns inevitably softer, partly because too noisy sound and intense speed performed by savage hammering doesn't let other features to prevail, or only very restricted. Sludge and progressive metal are not really compatibe with each other, no matter how many are experimenting with that: one on the 2 styles have to give up a lot from it's effectiveness. So drifting closer to stoner rock seems like a quite reasonable step. Also the extended song lenghts and the heaviness-based main tone doesn't make these various different influences easily identified. Both having a unifying effect, that are working together quite effectively. By this tendency the band introduced a more mainstream aspect of themselves, but that's still not the easiest album to go into, thanks to their mix of complexity and heaviness. 

Yskelgroth - Unholy Primitive Nihilism (2010)

   According to personal experiences it's worth to pay attention on what Dave Rotten (Avulsed, Putrevore) is usually up to, because his side projects and the other bands he played with are not like copies of his main band. And unlike at most other musicians, by trying himself in various other styles doesn't mean leaving behind an evident and not wipeable Avulsed influence mark.

   By teaming up with guitarist Vincente Payá (Unbounded Terror, Golgotha) they've formed the short living black metal band Yskelgroth, that showed a quite interesting and genuine aspect of the genre. The musicians death metal background had influence only on the sound, that therefore became way heavier and more powerful like how it used to be, but the music shows no analogy with the sound, since it recalls raw black metal tendencies. The atmosphere has smaller role in this style in general, but by current conditions it's completely missing. Therefore the unusual sound selection leads to a paradox impression like it's more raw than what is known as raw black metal in general, and the music in this form is also not far from black/death either. Dave Rotten's charismatic deep growls are also missing here, since he performed the vocals in cawing black metal style, and he did it so well, that nobody might suspect his presence. "Unholy Primitive Nihilism" is definitely harder to go into than most raw black metal albums, because the continuous intensiveness and the noisy, heavy sound proved to be a combination that pushed the music forward onto another level of extremity. 

Avulsed - Nullo (The Pleasure of Self-Mutilation) (2009)

    Avulsed is definitely one of the best examples how an undergound band could keep it's authenticity and style for long term, and to not become boring, repetitive, or too experimental meanwhile. 
   On each album they're trying to change something a bit, but that changed is mostly focused on the rawness of their themes. Some albums are more melodic, others including even some goregrind elements, and some are (like this one) simply brutal. The main musical features and the gore centered concept never changing. "Nullo" counts as a pretty raw album compared to the previous ones, but also kind of consolidated, cause it stays strictly inside the borders of death metal, and there are also some catchy returning melodies to find like on the older albums, but these are not having leading role. Morbid/black humor is also a returning feature in their music, though it's not the most common thing to come in mind if it's about Avulsed, and it couldn't be so evident for everyone either. The huge load of noisy, sick, gory brutality makes the borders of serious insanity and humorous intentions thinner, and at this point that's exactly the reason why this concept could serve as the musical epression of morbid reality. Horror is just fantasy but it's always based on reality, that could be far worse than any fantasy. And when it's about the most inhuman and extraodrinarily sick events, it's always like an overdose that's not really possible to bear. It also makes the border thinner between sanity and insanity, real and unreal. "Nullo" may be not the most brutal album of the band, but for similar reasons and it's very raw approach, the heaviest one for sure. 

Teitanblood - Seven Chalices (2009)

   If it's about visuals, Teitanblood maybe doesn't fit completely to the threatening line of war metal bands, but musically they definitely do. The fact that Proclamation's ex vocalist took main role in the band, already gives a hint what to expect.
   Silimar to Proclamation, Teitanblood also operates with quite heavy and noisy sound and raw themes, but for merging deep into the heaviness, they prefer to slow down sometimes. That results more old school feeling, and also sharpened the contrast with the fast brutal switches. Teitanblood is more musical therefore: not chaos breeding was the main goal, but to create something well composed and unified in the same concept. Unlike at most similar bands, the atmosphere also took a part on the album in the form of longer interludes. Even though their common use (like between all songs) is certainly not the best idea, because it's able to took a lot from the enjoyability of the music and the continuity of the album by completely castrating it; in this case their long assistance is reasonable. The dark, meditating atmospheric noises didn't softened the album becase they're not involed into the songs (also because the album is exaggeratedly brutal anyway), and they fit to the main feeling. They also serve as some break to prepare for the following devastation. "Seven Chalices" sounds refreshing by it's small creative experiments amongst the most compromiseless blasphemic monsters of the genre. 

Graveyard - One with the Dead (2009)

   Graveyard debuted as a band with traditional old school Swedish death metal features, and they performed this style so well that nobody would suspect that they're not even from Sweden. 
   Like if the nearly endless amount of nearly the same sounding old school Swedish death metal bands were not enough, many newbies showed up at various locations to try themselves in the style of the well known classics of the genre. The names of these classics are waving back while listening as evident influences, such as Grave, Carnage, Entombed and Unleashed. Still, Graveyard's goal was not to simply copy this style and to create a schematic death metal album. Plenty of exciting musical solutions are waiting for the listener to pull it down to the hopeless rotten catacombs. For the band heaviness had a main importance on the side of the rough, dirty cold sound, and they managed it with sommon slow downs and sudden speed switches. Sometimes repetitive sick leading melodies are assisting to the intensiveness that's the main feature of the album. The temporary slow downs doesn't take anything from this intensity because of the diverse themes they've operated with. So even though the band's style is (tomb)stone carved Swedish death, "One with the Dead" is everything but monotonous. Similar to the late tendencies of Swedish death, occasionally some quite vintage sounding heavy and doom metal elements (the second in the form of a Candlemass cover) are also there to find. They've really tried everything possible that made this notorious. 

Putrevore - Morphed from Deadbreath (2008)

   Putrevore was founded as the side project of two well known masters of death metal, Dave Rotten (Avulsed, Golgotha) and Rogga Johannson (Paganizer, Sinners Burn). Bands with international line-up was kind of a new issue from the late '00s. The distance is definitely not serving their activity, but similar formations could lead to intersting outcomes.
   The names under Putrevore might be enough convincing for the fans of the genre, to forget about to expect any disappointment. The heaviness and rawness of their music could be compared to Incantation, but only the noisy sound and Mr. Rotten's familiar deep murmurring growling vocal style is responsible for that. The themes are not complex, more like switching between brutal death grinding and the well known primitive, but catchy, typically Swedish death metal themes. This kind of sound is definitely not usual in the Swedish scene, though it's opening a new perspective by turning the main impression as heavy as it's possible. "Morphed from Deadbreath" offers nothing revolutionary new, but enjoyable entertainment as just being all-round excellent, in themes, sound quality, and in filling it's horror/gore based main concept. Strongly recommended for the fans of old school death metal!