Ravens Creed - Ravens Krieg (2015)

   Ravens Creed had an interesting journey since its formation in the late '00s. The band started to play crossover/thrash, and according to the that time actual tendencies in the main metal scene, their full-length debut "Albion Thunder" sounded pretty vintage and refreshing the same time. 
   By their second album the band took a confident step into a more aggressive thrash/death direction, and the third record "Ravens Krieg" was like a fulfillment of this style switch. The great sound quality had advantageous role by highlighting the pure wild aggressiveness, that still relied on intense thrashing. The band also had a new frontman since 2011 (Al Osta), and his death metal fitting vocal style also increased the more savage main impression. In fact, "Ravens Krieg" isn't far from becoming a death metal album, only the strongly old school oriented thrash metal basics keeping the music on the border of the two styles. The compromise-less spirit and limitless anger based approach makes the album comparable to "Pray" by Solstice, that's probably one of the wildest and most aggressive thrash/death albums until this day. And to reach or earn a similar status is no small thing after decades of extreme metal history. By the final song of the album the band also made clear, that even in case of extended song length (over 13 mins long), they're able to thrash till death and to do it without turning monotonous or unifacial. It's probably the most challenging and most enjoyable song on the album, and it's pretty sure that not many fellow thrash metal bands could do this after them. In total, "Ravens Krieg" is an excellent record, strongly recommended for both the fans of thrash and death metal.

Consecration - Ephemerality (2014)

   Concecrations debuted with the full album-length EP Gut The Priest in 2010 (it seems like a duration of 33 mins could still count just as an EP by death/doom standards). The EP was yet raw but promising, and illustrated well the band's strong and determined imaginations. This line was built further on their first full-length (over an hour long), "Ephemerality".
    By the extended duration they gave themselves plenty if opportunities to evolve and to introduce their complex and diverse vision. In their songs there are both unexpected and nicely, step by step built theme switches ranging from relaxing melodies to death metal intensity. This wide range combined with the overwhelming heaviness they operated with strongly reminds to Esoteric, though Consecration prefers to not stay in near funeral doom depths for too long.. While the melodic themes and the song compositions are similar to Earthcorpse, another, but lesser known death/doom classic from the UK. Even the sound of the album, despite being modern and way higher quality, seemed to be in analogy with the intention of Earthcorpse. Both bands relied of the contrast of higher toned catchy melodies and down pulling heaviness, and a cleaner, softer sound is required to support both approaches sufficiently. The combination of extended song lengths and their complexity doesn't make "Ephemerality" the easiest music to go into, but its diversity makes sure to be enjoyable for long term, and worth to listen to over and over again to find something new and interesting each time. A real rare gem or the fans of death/doom! 

Bonesaw - The Illicit Revue (2013)

   For the most obsessed fans of Autopsy there have been plenty of bands to fulfill their never ending (and reasonable) hunger, while Autopsy had a long inactive period. Anatomia, Funeral, Mausoleum, just to mention a few. One of these bands was Bonesaw. 
   But in the list of evident Autopsy rip-off bands, maybe Bonesaw was the most genuine one, thanks to the previously mentioned imaginary sound and style-related obligations of their origin, the United Kingdom. Fortunately the sound isn't so dull as usual like in case of British metal bands in general, but also not the same what could be expected from a strongly Autopsy influenced band. It's somehow in the middle way between the two, and it turned out to be way more advantageous in this form, than just having any of the two. Also, it might be possible to compare it to the sound of the "Acts of the Unspeakable", but fortunately it's far from being that bad. The production was great, the themes haven't been put under a thick layer to lose their intensity, and their rawness was put into focus. It was kind of a different way to hear Autopsy styled riffs, and it just worked perfectly. The band also didn't follow the well known old sample in themes and atmosphere so specifically as usual, therefore it was possible look at them as a band being more ambitious than just recalling 'early 90s nostalgia by their number one favorite death metal band. In the form of some punk references, this feeling gets confirmed again if the listener had any doubts previously. Similar tiny, but in total determining differences were also responsible  for the themes and the song compositions being great, and for "The Illicit Revue" offering more than just early '90s death metal nostalgia. 

Uncoffined - Ritual Death and Funeral Rites (2013)

   Since the British metal scene have a long and glorious past in doom metal, it's not really surprising if great doom metal or doom related bands are showing up from there. And if it's about the extreme underground, it seems like the best possible outcome happens in case of doom related bands. 
   Somehow British death/doom always works better than British death metal in general, and for this only the sound is responsible. For instance it matters less how great and intense themes could be heard by bands like Bolt Thrower or Benediction (and by their follower younger bands), if the sound is so dull, that it completely pulls back the intensity and the raw spirit that supposed to be exposed in the genre. And it seems like a local style feature or trademark like the so called buzzsaw sound in Swedish death metal. However, this is not an issue if it's about death/doom, since the "dull" sound fits way better to slow, monotonous themes. In case of Uncoffined, the whole picture is more evident than ever, cause by high singing vocal style and just a slightly softer sound, "Ritual Death and Funeral Rites" would be an excellent doom metal album. The themes are basically the same like what could have been heard from '80s doom metal bands. It's not an exaggeration to say that it's death/doom without death metal themes, but the combination of the growling vocals and some barely noticeable differences have been enough to not look at the record as some '80s nostalgia, though it definitely is. Even though the same could be said about almost the whole British metal scene in general at some point, it doesn't always seem disadvantageous, and some bands (Uncoffined also) even embracing the whole thing by adding further vintage references. So there are some specific sound and style features that have been created in the '80s, and like a copy/paste sample further used during the following decades in almost every metal styles on some level. Sometimes it turns out pretty good, sometimes less advantageous (like in case of death metal). Maybe this perspective shows the whole British scene less diverse or experimenting and way more monotonous than how it seems for most, but probably it's not too far from reality. However, Uncoffined's debut might be a potential favorite for both the fans of doom and death metal by their vintage style and similarly ancient horror based concept. 

Conan - Monnos (2012)

 By their first full lenght album Conan's sound took a final form, and the band showed a great example again how effective musical minimalism could be.
   Even though they always coming up with the simple combination of basic themes and strongly distorted sound, it's astonishing every time, how wealthy concept could be created by this kind of mysterious approach. By not telling much in the lyrics, just giving a hint to the listener, and performing that by 2 easily distinguishable shouting vocal styles, embedded into strong echoing effect. This might offer a far wider  scale of experience, than what could be expected from the band's "minimal effort"; simply by the hints that are given, cause this is an effective way to light up the listener's imagination. And of course meanwhile noisy, heavy riffs intending to wipe off the floor with the listeners head. Compared to "Horseback Battle Hammer" the drone influences are gone, and that had fortunate effect if it's about heaviness. Since in drone metal only the level of distortion and it's atmosphere is in focus, the rest of the possible musical features are forced into the background to fill a secondary role. But by leaving it behind,  the primitive impression of their music grew stronger, and strengthening the vocals also proved to be quite advantageous. "Monnos" might provide an even more exciting escort to that maybe mythical, maybe mythological world that was introduced on the debut EP. A world, that was lost so long ago, that it seems it might have never even existed.  

Prophecy of Doom - Total Mind War (2012)

   Prophecy of Doom was formed in the late '80s, and as a strongly Carcass influenced band, their music counts as one of the most ancient goregrind relics. However their name remeined less known, probably because of the strong analogy with Carcas that kept Prophecy of Doom in their shadow.
   "Total Mind War" was released as a compilation album that included 2 of their demos, "Second Peel Session" from 1991, and "Ego Death Grind" from 1996. The band had an unusual approach of goregrind, since even though their sound and themes perfectly reflecting the early characteristics of the genre, grinding wasn't the most usual feature to find in their music. The noisy rehearsal sound of the first demo had quite fortunate effect by providing an endlessly obscure impression. By their second full-lenght album, the band revealed some interesting experimenting ambitions by keeping the same sound and themes, but slowing down nearly to doom speed. The "Ego Death Grind" demo came out after that, and what didn't work before in expereimenting, seemed to work well this time. They created something genuine, and even though their late music lacked doom influenced themes, and therefore never reached heavy depths, this direction might remind somehow to what Disembowelment have made back then. For the fans of early goregrind, "Total Mind War" could offer great nostalgy. 

Decrepid - Devoted to Death (2011)

   The show up of Decrepid could have been refreshing in the British death metal scene, since the band unexpectedly didn't try to build up their music by direct references of the local scene.
   With a few exceptions British death metal is known about being overly repetitive, poor sounding, and usually lacked the intensity that made the genre impressive compared to the thrash scene from which it was developed. And unlike others, Decrepid didn't follow the same sample, and different influences could be sensed in their music. Simple, but strict thrash beats are giving the basics mainly in middle and intense speed, but occasionally slow downs are also involved when they switched to simpler themes. The band also operated with melodies both in solo and main themes. This on the side of the vocal style that often switches from deep growls to screaming/cawing, gave a more accurate tone to "Devoted to Death". The album is somewhere between the old school and modern sound of death metal. If possible influences have to be mentioned, the bigger names of old school American scene should be in first line. Bands like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel or Brutality. According to the various theme switche they involded, the band probably had some slight experimenting ambitions too, and that made the album more diverse.

Derision - Ancient (2011)

   Derision played an audience friendlier form of thrash metal with groovy influences that probably came from Pantera and Exhorder. This style is definitely compatible with mainstream audience too, but therefore it could be more difficult to spark attention by a kind of generic style and in the shadow of the big names by referring to them. 
   Intense speed combined with simple, groovy themes is always a good recipe to reach masses of people, especially on live shows because it's easy to go into and could assist the party mood well. Similar to newer thrash bands like Demiricous, the sound and the song structures also followed accurate tendencies, so for the fans of the modern sound of metal, or for younger audiences Derision's music was also easily consumable. In general "Ancient" was a quite promising debut, but for some reason the band wasn't active for long after, and therefore they didn't cause any explosion in the scene. Probably because of the evidently Pantera-like thrashy/groovy style, that at one hand was advantageous and enjoyable. But it also proved to be disadvantageous in another way, when it's about to deeply catch and keep the interest of the audience. Party compatible music that sounds familiar, easy to relate to, always could fire up the mood, but couldn't offer many further possibilites, or anything deeper. 

Sectioned - Purulent Reality (2010)

   The appearence of Sectioned pushed the very small and seemingly unchangable Hungarian underground scene on a new level. Not only because international cooperations are definitely not usual in that area, but the scene also seemed to stuck vegetating on an average level. "Purulent Reality" introduced a new quality that wasn't heard around before.
   The band's main man was Zoltan Valter, the only constant member of it's line-up, who had bigger motivations than what was common amongst local musicians. It's not like Hungarian metal bands didn't play higher quality music before. There have been examples for very promising initations that had the chance to change things even on wider perspectives, but the bands just split up too early and they've never made it until a full-lenght release, or they didn't seem interested in a break through. "Purulent Reality" is stone carved old school death metal at it's best, featured by heavy basic riffings and very catchy lead guitar themes. They preferred the combination of middle speed and longer song lenghts to extend the duration of headbanging compatible themes. Even though the main impression might seem primitive, the album has excellent sound quality, with clearly audible and very enjoyable bass lines. In vocal style the black metal-like cawing became preferable that commonly switches to deep growls. The lyrical concept shows similarity with Death's "Spiritual Healing" and "Human" era (the sound is remindig to that too), that focused on grotesque topics and found their sources in life based events instead of gore and horror influenced fantasies. It's definitely the type of album that didn't intend to experiment, and was made just to enjoy the devastating sound and simple effectiveness death metal on it's finest. But still it offers much more that what might be expected from the surface. Naturally the style didn't require any introduction in the small local scene, but nobody did it before how Sectioned did. The weight and importance of "Purulent Reality" not surprisingly wasn't realized in it's time, and the album would have deserved way more attention. 

Conan - Horseback Battle Hammer (2010)

   The uprising of drone metal had a wider influence to the main scene, that was sensable from the late '00s. Many new bands were inspired by this rummbling noise centered new wave of musical minimalism. But because real distinguising features (or any real features) are difficult to make in something that's basically closer to a rehearsal room sound check than to music, most bands who didn't want to stuck in the shadow of Sunn O))), just involved the drone sound into other styles.
   Conan did the same, by their sludgy stoner doom influenced music, that already had past in the UK. At nearly every British metal band references to the local metal scene are inevitable, because they always serving as essential building materials. In case of Conan these could be Electric Wizard, Cathedral, and Black Sabbath. Those picks might sound both reasonable and promising according to a sludge/stoner/doom band, but these are just the basics. To this came the distorted drone influence, that matches the noisiest experiments of Electric Wizard, and also created an atmosphere, that they creatively developed further into a misty mythical direction. The band's main concept is based on long forgotten ancient times, mythologic creatures and battles, but without pushing a story or an epos into the listener's face. They're focusing on a primitive and raw essential feeling, that sounds ominous and very heavy the same time. It's an unusual aspect of psychedelic sound, achieved though extreme distortion. A different atmosphere than what was introduced by similar bands before. It recalls doomed ancient times and transmits the echoing message of participants of long forgotten events. No matter how poor and repetitive Conan's musical toolbar was, it proved to be strongly expressive, and by their minimalism they were able to open new dimensions. 

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.

Cruciamentum - Convocation of Crawling Chaos (2009)

   Cruciamentum's very promising second demo tape had a well deserved re-release in 2011, since "Convocation of Crawling Chaos" wasn't just an ordinary demo. It had both excellent themes and sound quality. Even though the band still counted as a young formation, their music was evidently the work of experienced musicians. 
   More interestingly, since the beginning Cruciamentum didn't sound like a British death metal band. Partly because their music was embedded into a way more advantageous sound that wasn't usual at British bands, and also no influences could be sensed that would serve as a specific reference to their local scene (or they just did a pretty good job hiding it). Their music is in on the border of death metal and death/doom. Slow downs are heavy themes are dominant, but radical tempo switches and hammering intensity is also frequent. In total this main view is more down-pulling ad demoralizing, similar to death/doom in general. Their noisy, heavy, but the same time high quality approach reminds to Incantation, and by their melodies the influence of Autopsy could be also suspected. The songs are just slightly technical, the band definitely liked to create diverse compositions, but they preferred to mainly rely on overwhelming heaviness.
   Excellent musickness, strongly recommended for the fans of old school death and death/doom!

Esoteric - The Manical Vale (2008)

   A lot have happened since the formation of Esoteric, and that's also literally meant, since the band showed impressive productiveness during their journey. They've tried various ways to combine strong atmosphere with heavy sound, and on their 5th full-lenght album "The Manical Vale" they somehow drifted back to their basics.

   From the perspective of death/doom and heavy sound, it became their roughest record (after the "Esoteric Emotions" demo of course), and could count as the most balanced one if it's about the combination of harshness and melancholy. They've always been known about extended song and album lenghts, and "The Manical Vale" also gives plenty of time to merge into the depths by it's 2x50 minutes lenght. Strong atmosphere gives the basic tone of the album, mostly assisted by simple, but catchy melodies, of course in quite slow ongoing process. Even if it's about funeral doom, to fill such a long time frame with themes in a diverse way (according to the style) to not turn too repetitive and boring, takes a lot of effort. Interestingly the melodies they've operated with often referring to quite old sources ('70s, '80s hard rock and doom metal) that are not really common to find at related bands. As the noisy, heavy riffs assisted by deep growling vocal style frequently switching them, they creating great contrast, but thanks to the atmosphere that unifies the whole album, they completing each other.  Even though "The Manical Vale" might sound rough, and having intense downpulling effect, it's still more like melancholic than depressing. The switches doesn't let the listener to fall to deep, or to levitate too far. Reaching balance in a style like this is evident singn how to master a genre and how to compose a masterpiece. 

Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today (2007)

   Electric Wizard debuted as a strongly Black Sabbath/Cathedral influenced stoner/doom band, and after they've reached the possible borders of heaviness and extreme sound distortion on the album "Dopethrone", they seeemed to laid back and chill.
   The psychedelic atmosphere stayed the same remarkable, and their music didn't lose anything from it's obscure demoralizing effect, but "Witchcult Today" is more like a levitation into oblivion. The album doesn't sounds so tired of life and desperate like the previous ones, but it's still not recommended for cheerful "long time no see" gatherings. The hidden goal of the levivation and the slow, heavily bouncing themes is still to end up in some black hole to get rid of the miserable parameters of existence. Electric Wizard was always like if their albums were recorded in the '70s, only the strongly distorted sound counted as a warning. By turning the noise a little bit down, "Witchcult Today" had pretty vintage main view, maybe more than previously, and that gave some "long time durable" effect to their music. Another masterpiece, but by the well-tried recipe it's hard to fail.

Indesinence - Noctambulism (2006)

   British doom metal has traditions since the style was formed in the UK on the side of heavy metal as it's less popular step sibling. Doom also has it's specific sound there that's not usual anywehere else but in the UK.
   This could be sensed at Indesinence too, and even though they didn't go much further than most death/doom bands, somehow their music is harder to go into. To listen over 10 mins long to the sound of extended pain and misery is nothing new in this style, but the monotonous repetitive slow themes are more effective  in Indesinence's music. That's partly because they go down even to funeral doom depths for long and it takes for a while until the speed ups shaking up the listener from the depressed dedalian coma. Therefore they cannot create enough contrast, and the scale moves down under the heavy weight of miserable suffering. The sound refers to the local classics of the style, but there are modern influences too that are not allowing to cathegorize "Noctambulism" as another typically British metal album. The influence of Northern bands like Tiamat or Katatonia (that's kind of exceptional from an English band) could be discovered. There is some reference to Paradise Lost to sense at the speed ups, but their riffings more reminds to old Sentenced. "Noctambulism" could be enjoyable for the fans of modern and old school death/doom too.

Interlock - Crisis/./Reinvention (2005)

   The one and only full-lenght album of Interlock sounds like a band's attempt to jump right into the middle of the elite of the '00s mainstream metal scene. They did that by following a recipe from the imaginary book of "How to become fancy now". The problem could be that it's mostly too late when similar recipes are able to manifest, cause the main musical scene takes another direction meanwhile.
   Interlock was different from anything that could be heard in the British scene. They didn't involve any local traditional influences, but to copy the actual American trends is also a very common alternative way there (mostly at less known bands). They mixed industrial with metal, but in a genuine way. The prints of the classical '80s and '90s industrial appearing only occasionally, they preferred to operate with the new, modern direction of the genre that is opened to a wider range of electronic music. It might be hard to distinguish the metal styles they involved. The strong nu metal influences are evident, but to express heavier depths, more aggressive features could be heard, like melodic death, but they were not afraid from blast beasts either. The vocals are showing the same diversity by male and female vocals the same time, clear singing and growling by both. "Crisis/./Reinvention" is like a bag of collection of everything that could have worked that time to spark wide interest. That's why the approach of the songs was various too, once melodic, than rageful, once emotional like a ballad, than dark and cold. Despite that they did their best to show the widest possible diversity and they did it in high quality, things have been changed in the music scene, and the imaginay recipe too with it. But Interlock's music still remained as an interesting alternative of industrial metal. 

The Cure - The Cure (2004)

   The Cure went through some changes during the decades, and interestingly while their dark gothic image took it's final form, their music turned brighter and softer compared to their '80s era. 

   Their self-titled album seemed to return to the basics by a modern sound that showed analogy with the actual tendencies of the main music scene. The concept of the album was great and it's also kind of rare to see that old bands with cultic status showing any sign of attention or interest to what actually happens in the main scene. And also the darker, more melancholic and depressing music of The Cure were quite missed during the past decades. Because of the actuality of the album's style also couldn't be told that it was self-repeating. The band catched successfully the preferred frequency, and were able to convert it into their own style. Similarly catchy and great songs haven't been heard by The Cure since a long while. The modernized ambitions had advantageous effect on their music and this made the self-titled album compatible with younger audience too, since not many of them are so receptive about the gloomy approach of an era they didn't live in. Way harsher and evident methods are needed to pick from the toolbar of expression than before to impress the audience. And It's also not and everyday's experience from old bands to move comfortably by taking modernized ambitions. In total, The Cure album was a nostalgic and very relevant release the same time, that kind of resurrected the band's well known image and former dark glory. 

Anaal Nathrakh - The Codex Necro (2001)

   Anaal Nathrakh gained wider attention fast by their interesting sound and experiment to give a new tone to musical extremity.
   There were plenty of experiments before to mix industrial with death metal, but in most cases the electronic music influences had to replace some of the features (like the extreme speed or noisy sound) to be able to prevail, and turned the music more melodic. Anaal Nathrakh tried the opposite, to increase the speed and turn everything noisier. A few bands (like The Berzerker for instance) tried this path too, but they didn't really succeed by speeding up the most primitive electronic sound and simply pasting it into death metal. Anaal Nathrakh payed more attention to find some balance for the sound (in the chaos), they tried to industrialize the that time newly spreading black metal. The basic sound of black metal had a fusion with raw industrial noise and the intensity they pulled up to the level of grindcore. In this form it worked and first of all the fortunate the style selection was responsible for their success. The industrial noise they experimented with didn't only fit well to the atmospheric black melodies, but also increased the level of insanity exaggeratedly. However this style also wasn't able to open new perspectives for extreme music, others who also tried this mix were not so lucky.

Gorerotted - Mutilated in Minutes (2000)

    Even if Carcass changed style and disappeared lately, their heritage of goregrind didn't, and always had impassioned followers.
   One of them was Gorerotted, and even since the first moments of listening the influence of Carcass is impossible not to notice. "Mutilated in Minutes" had more death metal features than ordinary goregrind have, and the band tried to experiment with melodies too a bit. So not the noise and complete insanity was in main focus, it's kind of an old school album for that, but still a very intense one. Their concept and lyrics are way more simpler (maybe they didn't read much pathological literature), only piling up various splatter and gory topics. So even though probably "Necroticism" was their favorite by Carcass, they still sympathized with old school grindcore and embedded into their style, only replaced the punk influenced simple parts with death metal riffings. But still enough classical references left there to cause enjoyanle moments for the oldest fans of the style. In the age of newly uprising mainstream metal styles Gorerotted sounded quite extraordinary and reminded to the sickest period of metal music.

Iron Monkey - Our Problem (1998)

   Iron Monkey was the most influental sludge metal band on the side of Eyehategod and Buzzov•en. They had an important role in determing the characteristics of the genre.
   Their music could be a perfect example to introduce the mix of desperate anger, disgust and bitterness. After the heavy sludge masterpiece self-titled debut album they returned with another one, and by "Our Problem" they successfully exceeded themselves. The doom influences decreased, but their songs didn't lose from their heaviness. They became more intese and more complex too even in the case of extended song lenght. The very noisy sound remained as an important feature, but "Our Problem" is also quite groovy and riff-centric compared to the first album. It's like a heavy, chaotic rampage, probably the angriest, and one of the most enjoyable sludge metal albums. The iconic insane, inarticulated screaming vocal style of Johnny Morrow had an important role in forming this impression. Real musickness from the impoverished metal scene of the late '90s!