CoC : Trepalium - H.N.P. : Review

Trepalium - _H.N.P._
(Season of Mist, 2012)
by: Aly Hassab El Naby (4 out of 10)

While searching the numerous sources of information on the interweb, you'll find various tags surrounding Trepalium. Some say this is a death metal band with groove influences while others would confidently describe their music as modern thrash with progressive inclinations. These different descriptions are in fact partially true. There seems to be a plethora of influences coming through Trepalium's fourth album _H.N.P._. "Slave the World" will instantly remind you of Meshuggah with its 7/4 riffage while "Prescription of Crisis" is a thrashing piece that pays homage to late '80s thrash metal. The general approach on "Order the Labyrinth" has all the hallmark of the Swedish death/doom school albeit with some dry and raspy vocals.

Quite a wide net of influences, isn't it? But I find myself wondering if that's enough.

Despite showing high musical capabilities, Trepalium just couldn't pull me into _H.N.P._. These five guys from the small city of Boismé in the west of France do a good job of not sounding like anyone in particular, but I find that they've pushed it a bit too far, to the extent that they don't sound unique. (That cover of Pantera's "I'm Broken" didn't help at all.) The tracks have different characters and that's both a blessing and a curse: they don't get the album's insanity high enough to be enjoyed just for that, and they don't give _H.N.P._ a sense of uniformity over its thirty-nine minute duration. This album, for me, just falls a little short.

Contact: http://www.myspace.com/trepal

(article published 29/7/2012)