In no particular order:
Bone Gnawer - Feast of Flesh
Absolutely killer old school death metal with massive modern sound. If you know Rogga Jonsson then you will know he is in a million and one old school death bands. This one is the best of the bunch IMO.
Pestilence - Resurrection Macabre
I wasn't sold at first but then it clicked. Sure if you are expecting tech riffs you'll be sorely disappointed but for me this is a huge come back disk. The riffs crush all in their path and the vokills crunch maggots.
Obscura - Cosmogenesis
Top quality Necrophagist copy band but still not that spectacular as it could have been but still excellent.
Napalm Death - Time Waits For No Slave
OK ND are not strictly a death metal band having hardcore and grind elements but they are still pretty much in the genre. First off this disk just blew my ears clean off. After a while I started noticing the typical Napalm intricacies starting to surface. It seems like intense grind noise and yet there is a lot of substance underneath to the sheer mayhem that greets your ears.
Blood Red Throne - Souls of Damnation
Norwegian Death metal side band with Tchort from Emperor, Satyricon etc. They've been bashing away for a few albums now but this is their best effort to date. Lots of thrashy killer riffing with catchy breaks. Some tiny bits of black metal reflecting their roots but mainly very catchy groovy death metal.
God Dethroned - Passiondale
A slight departure for the Belgians here with a concept album about the famous world war one battle. Very well played almost melodic death metal quite similar to Amon Amarth's stomp and melodic battle death. Perfect vocals from band leader Henri where you can understand almost every growl. Well written lyrics. Moody sections, rip roaring thick battle death sections. Catchy riffs galore. Cool tunes and no satan crap. GD is not really a satanic death metal band as they used to be but more of a free thinking intelligent death metal band now.
Fleshgod Apocalypse - Oracles
Slightly symphonic brutal death blast from Italy. Loads of shit going on. Mega amount of riffs to dissect and dismember. Massive thick sound. Very brutal and yet listenable death metal with atmosphere and technical edge.
Gorod - Process of a New Decline
I don't think it's as good as Leading Vision but it's still a great tech death album. Lots of choppy and note filled riffing, bouncing and grooving away like there's no tomorrow. This is perhaps a slightly more mature release than Leading Vision and a more relaxed one but the instrumentation is really top class. One of the best bands doing tech death metal in the world today.
Requiem - Infiltrate Obliterate Dominate
An also ran Swiss death metal band makes a fairly big statement here as far as I'm concerned. It's standard death metal but with a great clean production and most important it's packed with jamming groovy semi melodic riffs that hurtle here there and everywhere. The vocals are not annoying or screamy keeping to a regular semi understandable growl. A big surprise and a very good effort by these guys.
Centaurus A - Side Effects Expected
I don't like this as much as some seem to but no doubt it's an extremely well played widdly infested tech death disk with lots to enjoy and like. Tons of twisted riffs, slamming solos and rampant, heavy drumwork. Solid stuff but the songs could have been a bit catchier as I recall.
Stuff that disappointed me a little:
Obituary. I don't get Obituary production values on the last 2 albums. Sounds like mush. Funnily enough I really like the Tardy Bros solo disk of earlier this year. It's miles better!
Suffocation - Big boys of death returned with an good album for any other death metal band but for Suffo it was just OK. The production was awesome but the songs went on and on a bit with not as much catchiness as I was expecting.
Believer - Gabriel. I know lots of people love this but I wasn't feeling it with this one. Quite disappointed in this. There are some great riffs here but didn't move me overall. I guess I was never even a massive fan of theirs in the first place apart from Sanity Obscure which is a plain awesome album.
Gory Blister - Graveyard of Angels
Again it's a good and solid disk with great playing but it seems they just have no interest in their early Death worship any more and want to forage their own path which is understandable.
Trepalium - XIII
This is the most disappointing of all. I really liked this band before. This album is very mundane stuff for me. They still have class and great sound but the riffing just doesn't excite at all.
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