After transmuting infernal portal’d passage within the eternal realm of the dead Lima, Peru-based death metal trio HELL TREPANNER now incite nine ceremonies of barbaric death’s triumph, a debut full-length entrenched in a state of chaos-fed metamorphosis where all is tainted with darkness and impurity reigns supreme. A caverne-roared and coldly destructive feat, ‘The Consecration of Eternal Impurity‘ is a purely destructive vision of occult death’s uglier, whammy-cracking furor which bears its imposing treads down upon rotten and unreal old-souled atmosphere. As a debut it is entirely well-formed in parsing ‘old school’ South American traits as extensions of USDM’s most key signature(s), reeking of long considered work which bears no moderne misstep or noticeable gap of understanding within canonical resiliencies.

Hell Trepanner formed as a quartet back in 2015 after thrash metal band Neciazo took on a fourth member and began to pursue a form of ‘old school’ death/thrash metal. Using some of the songs they’d been working on for a couple of years they’d managed a demo tape (‘Entrance to Hell‘, 2016) which was partly Exhorder-esque groove, a hit of punkish speed metal movement and some riff-heavy early death metal. That release was purely transitional, mostly a curio today as the band would soon cut their ranks down to a trio and focus on classic South American death metal for their next tape (‘Before Descending back to Putrid Grave‘, 2017) as songs like “Trepanador Infernal” will attest. Fans of Sadistic Intent should appreciate the evolution of the band during thier demo days but I don’t think their material was truly impressive in its style ’til ‘Towards the Diabolical Domains‘ (2019), a split with black/death metal band Deshumanized, released and compounded their years of development with steadier performances.

The major context on offer via Hell Trepanner‘s back catalog is an evolving vision from thrashing nascence ’til imposing death metal presence, a real hammer of a band emerging from the right self-education. In my review of the band’s first official 7″ EP (‘Unholy Proclamations of Death and Darkness‘, 2021) I’d suggested: “At this point I’m convinced the band intend to maintain this high standard of release, […] I am ecstatic to have gotten a lock on this band as they come into their own.” That EP would directly indicate the style that we find on ‘The Consecration of Eternal Impurity‘ wherein the band intends a darker, deeper layered and ritual-obsessed beast of pure death metal sans narrative or arcing concept.

The number of brain-scaling riffs these folks’ve packed into the first two minutes of opener “Supremacy of Obscurity” dwarfs what many pseudo-throwback death metal troupes manage in the span of a full album anymore. The rawly creaking, overdriven scorch of the main guitar tone here grates the ear from its deeply hollowed out space and features what sounds like at least three main channels of rhythm guitar harmonizing ’til the chaotic, blasted-through blender of their work kicks in. The restless, riff-after-riff approach exacted here applies to -most- of ‘The Consecration of Eternal Impurity‘ and the amount of care placed in all of the active layers whirring at once is one of its strongest characteristics. The brutal onslaught only continues with the opening cut into key single “Blaspheming in Primordial Tongues“, probably the most early Deicide coded riffs on the album up front, Hell Trepanner eventually lean into slower, solo-wrecking gloom as the piece carries on. As militant and abrasive as some of these pieces are there is yet plenty of room left for the listener to gasp for air in between pummel.

While it isn’t a one-to-one comparison it would be fair to hear and see (re: maniac cover art via Artem Astaroth) a bit of Drawn and Quartered-level standards applied to this record especially as we check more deeply into songs like “Overlord Enthroned by Darkness” and “Supremacy of Obscurity”. The way their work balances ‘old school’ thrashing death (re: first Sadism LP) with the atmospheric brutality of Incantation (or early Cenotaph) should also generally recall a lot of the darkest stuff out of Chile in a similar vein. Where this works best, or, where I’d felt Hell Trepanner impressed even beyond ‘ready high expectations comes with the eight plus minute Side A toppler “From Perpetual Catacombs”. The incredible keyboard haunted death/doom metal musing that occurs within its punishing roll is easily one of the best moments I’d found on this extended ~48 minute album, a point that I’d returned to several times to bask within even beyond the core listening sessions for review.

“Immersed in Malevolence” hits closest to my own expectations beyond the band’s 2021 seven inch in that it achieves a balance between the thrashing hail of fire the band’d developed over the years and the more cryptic extremity, a hard-hammered tunneling roar, that now becomes a bigger part of their signature. Drummer Agressor stampedes across this song, as well as most of Side B, notably kicking up the energy and in some cases complexity of tempo map rather than resigning to doom or slowed aggression. You will however find a combination of heavier grooves, open-skulled spaces and some nutso fills on album closer “Descend to the Eternal Funeral”, easily one of the strongest and most unique pieces on an already all-killer album.

From the morbid chaos of the album art to the hollow, barbed wire wrapped shred of its production values the general capture and curation of ‘The Consecration of Eternal Impurity‘ is well above-average, not only authentic in its damaging modus but impossibly dark in a way which is true to the underground death metal spiritus. There was frankly no real doubt that Hell Trepanner could pull off a full-length album which was cruel and representative of their discography thus far but I have to admit I was surprised that this debut was as stylized, adventurous in its reach as it is. Void of amateurish experimentation or incomplete thoughts this record feels complete, solid in its wrathful realization rather than tentative and I feel that that is exactly where a band should be after putting in a decade plus work getting there. A very high recommendation.

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