Trepanation – Hideous Black Abyss
Review + Stream

Trepanation’s Hideous Black Abyss is a cauldron. There’s punk, there’s grindcore, there’s death metal, there’s black metal, there’s hardcore. There are ten tracks on this release, but most come and go in a hurry, like a serial killer on a five-day, thirty-dead murder spree. Some tracks go by and you’re like, “Whoa…where did that one go?” But it’s all in good fun, as the album does what it intends to do – entertain, then run!

Blasts proliferate. There’s d-beat and the old punk riff on one track, and everything goes helter skelter the next, with a tremolo riff that makes the whole can of soup wormy and delicious. The bass is discordant, and can be heard on some intros to songs. Mostly, songs build up, lay you to waste, then disappear like Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

This is filled with hit-and-run stabs to the heart of the pop metal masses – coming at them with an axe, swinging at random heads while bobbing to the sound of Suicide Silence’s latest.

It does have an intro called Nuclear Disembowelment, but forgive the band for filler lasting little more than two minutes, as the rest of the album will be a trip. There’s some amp feedback on the intro track that might win over some Sonic Youth fans pissed off at Thurston Moore for his dipsy-doo into black metal with supergroup Twilight, then the track finishes off the rest of the one-plus-minute track runtime by grabbing that amp and sticking your head in it!

By the time track 3, Blackened Earth, rolls around, there’s debris in your living room that your living partner has to pick up after you turn the room into the scene of a moshfest. Track 4, Endless Darkness, starts with a whirlwind riff and a fading screech, then leaves like your babysitter does after putting your baby to sleep (with booze).

Track 5, Feral Genocide, starts slow then ends in a tease, delivering another whirlwind riff before prematurely pulling the plug, just like the Mrs. does after finding you with your new best friend – a blow-up doll, what else?

Track 7, Rite of Taghairm, starts out slow then exits before you’re spaced out on Valium. Then, it transitions to the next track, Horned God, after which the band are back bludgeoning your entire collection of Asbestos Death CDs to plastic bits.

The only way to figure out if you like this mix is to experience it yourself. Put on this album for a night’s ride down Hollywood Boulevard and watch the fake hair and silicone bob to the blastbeats. The album ends on last track, title track, Hideous Black Abyss, punctuating the night with a stoner.