Are we witnessing the rebirth of Brazilian death metal? Sao Paolo's Infinity Horror certainly make a case with their excellent demo Celestial Profanation. Though more tempered than the bands like Krisiun and Mental Horror that exploded out of the region in the late 90's, the 3 songs on offer are chockfull of blastbeats and blasphemous intent - the two things that made the scene there so endearing. The demo is available as a "name your price" download.
With members of Dutch death metal lifers Pleurisy and Houwitzer, KhaoZ should have known better than to saddle themselves with such a hokey band name. Luckily, I, Creator of Damnation is a neck-wrecking slice of hellacious death-thrash, with a few modern flourishes to keep things from falling into revivalist tedium. Fans of vintage Sinister and Defleshed will find lots to love. [€2.50]
Remember when death metal was glutted with Cannibal Corpse clones? London's Amputated probably look back on those days fondly. Dissect, Molest, Ingest follows in the button-pushing footsteps of their gory forebears with song titles like "Gorging On Putrid Discharge (septic felch, wretched belch)" and "When Whores Meet Saws". The lyrical content may be straight out of the 8th grade (and was probably held back a few times) but the music is top notch - hook-driven and memorable. Besides, not every band can be Abnormality. [£7]
Greeks Dephosphorus do like to keep you guessing; ostensibly a blackened death metal album, Ravenous Solemnity wanders occasionally into noisecore and tech-death territory. The result is surprisingly cohesive and shows how much bands have to gain by colouring outside the lines once in a while. [€6]
