Brutalized upon the slab, racked into burr hole apparatus and tapped into skull-first the fellowes behind San José, Costa Rica-based death metal quartet CANDARIAN intend to release the pressures of insanity, to relinquish the grip of the possessor through this monstrous but measured debut full-length album. Though ‘Trepanación‘ appears to intend outright brutality as it fires up there is yet relief offered within its succinct cut through ‘old school’ death metal ideation. Groove-driven up front, ruthless in the middle and doomed in its final third the occasionally infectious arc of this choice debut leaves the dura mater foaming with pus and the brain damaged far beyond salvation.

Candarian formed as a duo circa 2020 by way of guitarist Christopher de Haan (Age of the Wolf, Crypt Monarch, et al.) and bassist/vocalist José Pablo Phillips (Astriferous, Perishing) for the sake of their shared enthusiasm for horror and gore-riddled early 90’s ‘old school’ death metal. The band soon expanded into a quartet via members of de Haan‘s Sorewound and began polishing a series of songs that’d end up on their first demo tape (‘Stagnant Livor Mortis‘, 2022). The cavernous capture of that demo buried some of its livelier Autopsy-esque trundling but it was clear their goal was something straightforward, dominated by heavier grooves (re: “Sadistic Possessor”) and inflected with some love for Incantation‘s punishing atmosphere set alongside the punkish hesitancy of classic Master. Though those pieces were well crafted and above-average in effect they were dryly uncomplicated in their regressive, simplified movement to the point that no certain cleverness or malicious character had yet formed.

Committing to loud-set and direct shot ‘old school’ informed register sans any notable obscuration means ‘Trepanación‘ bears very little in the way of personalization with regard to sound design and style. That is to say that Candarian have set out with hard-lined directive to stick to callous and exacting brutality which seeks the blood-wetted warmth of circa ’93-’95 death metal popularity but without the wriggling and foaming pulver of say, ‘The Bleeding‘. These strictures align well enough with the clinical side of east coast USDM of a certain era but rarely cast semblance of any given thrashing Morrisound-taped venture in mind. Instead most songs at least briefly rely on the slowed tremolo-picked ebb of ‘new old school’ death metal for transitional and sometimes verse-directed movement. Opener “Altars and Ancestors” basically tosses that entire salad of observations together, darting between thrashing movements while roaming with an ominous four-count float preloaded in hand and at least one riff you could slow-mosh to without dropping your watery $25 fest beer.

Granted the opener and its introitus/lead-in “Spectral Superstitions” each do well to showcase the massive sound of the album up front. Clean and clear as their presentation might be the heavy lifting done by the two main rhythm guitar tone(s) proffered herein is inarguably skull-scouring drill upon the psyche as they’ve set out to oppress and malign. The moshable riffs are kinda dry on the scrape through a few of these songs to start but we do find this enormous sound used for primitive evil soon enough via standout “Zombie Miscarriage” as the wavering push of its intro gives way to a more technical set of riffcraft, propping up one of the better overall rhythmic threads on the full listen. You’ll have noticed it by now but the vocals here from J.P.P. are just as monstrous, imposing in their echoic layers and receive strong enough presence to compete with the guitars which generally drive the experience.

Side A bully and I’d say the best song on ‘Trepanación‘ overall, “Skull Drilling Exorcism“, acts as the brutal peak of Candarian‘s action with its high congestion riffcraft and increasingly crunched-out push. Much as I don’t care for the bookending of the track with sampled speech the song generally uses its hi-fi clobber for a believably violent piece, a fitting series of grooves and high-strung rhythm section hammering for a song which seems to reference use of trepanation to cure mental illness and/or possession. Only finding room for one featured solo on the song is kind of a bummer, one of the key detractors of ‘old school’ authenticity on this album in general being the lack of pronounced or inspired leads to set any given high intensity moment ablaze (re: ‘Screams of Anguish‘).

Much as the first half of ‘Trepanación‘ establishes a clear directive Side B smartly focuses on what else these folks are capable of beyond densely chunking aggression. “Relinquished Víscera” stands out in particular for its doomed introduction and ‘Mortal Throne of Nazarene‘-esque outro but the ~eight minute expanse of closer “Vilipendio del Cadaver” more completely seals the differentiation between the two halves of the experience with its extended dive into heavier gloom. Granting Candarian some patience to start and not writing their gig off as rote off the jump ends up being the right instinct here as the end result is succinct, pared down to pure efficacy in some sense, but not lacking in its general ouevre. The full listen didn’t sink in immediately and I’ve still got a few small gripes here and there but those are all pretty small details to peck at while the grand majority of this record smokes. A high recommendation.

---