Symphobia “Hideously Traumatic”
I wonder what it must be like… To bear witness to the aftermath of some horrific accident: a halved human gurgling blood and with entrails slipping greasily across the pavement as he drags his torso towards you in a desperate but all-for-naught attempt at survival. Or to have witnessed a brutal murder: trapped and hogtied with other will-be victims in some depraved schizo’s cinder block and moldy frame basement. Eyes wide and bloodshot as you see the frantic disembowelment of some poor girl taking place; calloused hands ripping through his victims innards as he drools and feverishly mutters his foul lamentations. Knowing you are on deck for the same treatment, only to be rescued at the last minute by the police as they kick in the basement door. How does one live with such a hideously traumatic experience lurking within their diseased memories? Welcome to the world of Brutal Death Metal… Symphobia is a burgeoning Brutal Death Metal band hailing out of Indonesia with more than just a penchant for the macabre. On July 11, they will unshackle their debut album Hideously Traumatic via Comatose Records.
Unfortunately, for Symphobia, they find themselves in a vast sea of other underground Death Metal bands that are all attempting to either rehash those precious early ‘90’s days or make themselves known for bringing all new levels of violence, aggression and gore to the feeding table. Symphobia is a bit of both. With Hideously Traumatic, our boys explore the grim world of trauma, but not too much the lasting effects of it, but its immediate impact on the human psyche. And it’s set to Dying Fetus and Repulsive Conception-era Broken Hope-level brutality - the kind of shit that keeps teenagers awake at night as they realize that they might have gotten themselves in over their heads with this one. With the concentrated energy of a rage-kill does Symphobia unleash purely violent album cuts: “Hecatomb”, “Monstrously” and “Heinous” upon the landscape of your already disordered brain. As if you couldn’t become any more sick! Pummeling away at your cranium with mammoth riffs, clawing at the meat of your cortex with ghastly grinds/squeals and rumbling the fucking earth with jackhammer blast-beats and steamrolling double-bass onslaughts. Vocals are of the most brutal variety: bass-heavy and fucking grimy to the max! There are parts during the recording when all phases are stripped away; exposing nothing but these putrid vocalizations for you to take in as you would a double-shot of sulfuric acid.
Wouldn’t be a Brutal Death Metal album without at least a few breakdowns. “Deceased” not only packs those into your gullet without mercy, but also does it shock & awe with some cinema-level, visuals-inducing horrorscapes at the very end. Other than that happy little sequence, Hideously Traumatic is just a perpetual adrenaline-fueled beatdown of an album. With each cut ranging in duration from about 2:30 to 3:00, you can also expect to experience the violent inertia of an old roller coaster: dramatic yet sharp changes in tempo and violent but at moments smooth-running grooves. What I’ve just described to you is a pretty conventional Brutal DM album... Fans of the genre will undoubtedly dig it like a grave, but from a critical standpoint, there’s not much here in the way of what would define a truly great Death Metal album. I wouldn’t call it boring by any stretch of the word, just a bit repetitive. What Hideously Traumatic screams for is a little vocal variation. A blood-curdling scream here and there to make for a more terrifying effect. That’s what makes vocalists like Fisher and Benton so great, and there’s none of that here. A very one-dimensional sound. A few maniacal Azagthoth-heralding leads would’ve served the record nicely as well.
What a great concept for a Death Metal album, and what a fine group of very talented musicians. But it just feels like they’re in their comfort zone here and not really intent on doing anything too original. And that’s the drawback. There are LOTS of underground Death Metal bands that sound like Symphobia and Symphobia sound like a lot of other underground Death Metal bands. Awesome cover art though. What we have here is a decent record - a valiant effort, but nothing to write home about. So, with that being said, open your eyes… Don’t try to block it out. Watch as it all unfolds before you - the sadistic mayhem of a hundred murders and of a thousand accidents. And may the trauma of it all conduct your life as would a deranged puppeteer. Pure fucking Death Metal done the Indonesian way. Not bad, fellas. Not bad at all…
SCORE: 7.2 / 10
You can purchase Hideously Traumatic on Comatose Music’s Bandcamp or stream the album on the band’s Spotify.
