Revealed then scrubbed raw of their purities with fungoid cemeterial soil and slicked back to rot with the reeking, waxen sheen of adipocere this latest mini-LP from ‘old school’ inspired funeral death/doom metal quartet TROLLCAVE speaks from the mouth of the realm of the dead. Illustrating the many horrors which lie beneath while giving them frightening voice, ‘Adoration of the Abyssal Trespasser‘ finds these folks praising death and its countless revelations in two extended suites, two halves showcasing rotting empyreal foundations and subterranean terrors alike. Expect a near album-length exploration of sounds directly suited to classicist and/or deep underground fan still thirsting for auld and terrifyingly dark death/doom blood, a sound likely to inspire folks who’d maintain some curiosity for the surrealistic side of funeral doom developed in the well-hidden circles of the early 90’s.

Trollcave formed circa 2021 by way of drummer/vocalist Marc “Necrohelm” Rodriguez (Sanctuarium, Calderum, et al.) and his Ered Guldur bandmate Marta on guitars intending a classic death/doom metal sound which reflected the raw and honest do-it-yourself ethos all of Necrohelm‘s projects embrace. This was most evident on their debut EP (‘Malforming abominations of the gloom depths‘, 2021), a reckless and violent death-doom metal record chunking through three six minute songs that’d echoed Anatomia levels of grime while also speaking to the more funereal ebb of mid-to-late 90’s death/doom metal sans any too direct U.K. references in mind. It was an interesting introduction for the sake of the artist having simultaneously developed three (or more?) extreme doom metal bands and still found minor ways to distinguish each. This was a mild concern when I’d reviewed the first Sanctuarium album in 2023 and looked back to this band’s debut LP (‘Rotted Remnants Dripping Into the Void‘, 2022) finding the differences in composition and reference rather than production values wherein each group is often loosely compared to demo-era Disembowelment but Trollcave is typically described as funeral death/doom metal per its use of stark atmosphere and plodding movements sans any melodic directive.

The expectation set for ‘Adoration of the Abyssal Trespasser‘ was a dark, filthy bout of funeral death/doom metal with strong inspiration taken from the most miserable, plodding sects of 90’s underground death and doom metal and the assumption was naturally set to some manner of refinement or revision beyond their debut, maybe a longer and more elaborate undertaking a la ‘Melted and Decomposed‘. This turns out to be largely off-base as this ~30 minute 12″ mLP from Trollcave streamlines its impact down to two ~15-16 minute songs covering each half of the record with their lumbering heat. This time around the sound design naturally grimes up, a homebrewed basement level heft which slops and hammers in what I’d consider an intentional drift toward demo-level underground death metal reach. Guitar tones are buried but still quaking, vocals are distantly set within the crypt and the snap of the doom metal riffs beneath are even more dramatic as the surrealistic funeral death/doom intent of the band (now expanded into a trio as per their debut album) focuses more intently on funeral doom pacing and stature.

To help emphasize this deeper step into atmospheric doom and mile-deep death metal heaviness the intro and outro to Side A‘s “Grotesque Abyssal Trespasser” feature fittingly cavernous, dread bound synth-scapes which’re ominous and gritty enough in their dark fantasy/horror instrumentation to match the thunderous resound of Trollcave‘s irradiated guitar tones. Sparse but gut-heavy guitar layers range from grinding saw-like whirring to blunted ground-shaking and scooped register but also now include a third layer of clean atmospheric drift to direct the melancholia of each piece into uglier niche. The opener uses this layout to illustrate each dark turn, to build tension and unholy drift throughout so that each of the two songs resounds in a considerably organic, cavernous result but not a full regression back to primal storm n’ sleep.

The haunted rasping and echoic drum presence of “Abominator’s Diseased Carrion” is a wandering geist, a blunt edged dirge compared to the sorrowful horror of Side A. Using much the same voicing but more of a Disembowelment-but-six feet deep approach to death/doom pacing Side B is a growling vortex of demented sauntering movement to start. By the mid-point of this extended piece slow blasts and hypnotic riffs take us to more of a caverncore type headspace albeit one which recalls the extreme horrors of early funeral death/doom just as well as it does Evoken‘s most death-prone clean guitar voiced gloomers. The whole of the experience this song offers is decidedly different in its tone as the result leaves Trollcave appearing wrathful and unhinged, uncannily swatting at their wares as they wield the deep entombment of their sound and plenty of roaring and screaming down the hallways it builds in passage.

To some listeners, potentially those attached to the first LP or those who are less underground attuned and need brighter production values much of what ‘Adoration of the Abyssal Trespasser‘ does will be horrifying, unconscionably wrathful and obfuscated. Per my own experience Trollcave have made the right choice in distinguishing their classic approach to extreme death/doom metal and funeral doom-adjacent sounds with rotted, casket-thick production values as well as frantic and noxious performances. There is not only grit here but a personality against the grain which feels entirely human, zombified of course but hand made from the album art to the render to the strike of every drum hit none of their work has been preened by a machined shortcut. From my perspective this is simply the real thing, a believable and dark-esoteric death doom experience which generates appreciably horrified atmosphere to great effect. Otherwise I would argue this is an excellent introduction to the band, a good enough place to start, but the average listener would do well to also give their 2022 LP a run for the sake of contrast. A high recommendation.

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