I am bewildered by most things in life, but now it’s mostly about not seeing any coverage of Trog’s debut album, Horrors Beyond. It’s not that difficult to bewilder me (looking at you, avocados), but with the musicians involved, it is striking I haven’t seen much chatter. Those musicians in question; TJ Coon of Reeking Aura and Sentient Horror, Pete Collucci of so many god damned bands it’s ridiculous, Dan Erdenberger of Cypher Seer, and Hudson Barth also of Reeking Aura. I came into this expecting some dicks in the dirt, nasty, gurgling, rimjobs in the sewer death metal, but it’s not quite like that.

The first track, “A Deluge of Skulls,” starts with an appropriate intro over a minute before the first growls are heard and the music kicks in. The production is a lot cleaner than I expected courtesy of Hudson Barth and the master from Colin Marston. Galloping guitars galore. I will not apologize for my alliteration, but the riffing style is certainly more of the Cannibal Corpse style of death metal, and not so much Suffocation as I anticipated.

The title track “Horrors Beyond” is up next, and it’s a blast. At around 2 minutes, the headbanging shall commence (be careful, though, and don’t do it near the coffee table). One can see the reason for it being the title track. As they should always be, this is a mission statement in under 4 minutes. It’s heavy enough for the Troglo… wait, I get it!

On the shorter end of the spectrum (not that one, but I’m on it, too) is “Interstellar Offal Dealer.” More fast-paced, galloping guitars and blast beats are the name of the game. There’s a quick, clean lead about a minute in and a heavy, almost thrash breakdown section shortly after. We get a section reminiscent of Gojira with about 30 seconds left, and you’ll know exactly what I mean as it extends until another heavy verse riff before the track concludes.

The last track, “Ontological Shock” clocks in at over 9 minutes. Considering its length (as one should I suppose), it has a shorter than I expected intro before the main, headbanging riff kicks in. If these guys end up doing some shows, I’m down, but they better have enough time to play this. It’s perhaps the heaviest track and has a little more variety in the vocals besides the prevalent gravel throat approach. As the closer, “Ontological Shock” is perfect because of its ability to bring forth all of which they are capable. It goes into epic territory with tremolo-picked riffs, then gets slower as the end draws near. However, just because they feel like it, it gets heavy again before eventually fading out.

While I am praising the album, I do have small complaints. Firstly, the production is too clean. Unfortunately, it’s not as punchy as I would like. There’s also a lack of variety overall. However, I wasn’t expecting it, so I’m not mad. In fact, I like the album quite a bit as I already ordered and received the CD by the time this review was finished. Listen to it on your Zune or whatever the fuck kids use these days.

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