Trenchant "Commandoccult" Cassette

Trenchant marched forward from the hardened heart of Texas in 2016.
Formed by NRS, TND, and GRA, the band made their official debut with the 2018 EP, Martial Chaos, and subsequently released their full-length CD, Commandoccult, on Godz Ov War Productions in 2022.

The band’s profile has continued to rise with the addition of LRA on second guitar for live appearances across the US, with Commandoccult gaining wide acclaim in the underground. Trenchant’s brand of rapid-fire blackened death should not be regarded as simply “War Metal”; it is “World War Metal”, with martial themes revealed through deadly metaphysical channels. For adherents of acts like ANGELCORPSE, IMMORTAL, or IMMOLATION, Commandoccult is a riveting foray into musical combat. Their work is both vicious and anthemic, and it will rouse even the most stoic listener to take arms. Track 8 Molested cover!!

Mastered by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony Studios. MC limited to 200 black tapes, 5-panel J-card.

If the main riff of the title track of Trenchant’s debut full length, Commandoccult, calls to mind running for your life after surviving one fight, the guitar solo reflects the chaos of the final battle of the war. The slower closing riff frames the later years as grey veterans reminisce over wartime scrapes with their comrades. Drums redolent of military cadence linger throughout.
Obviously a great deal of care went into melding of theme and substance in each of these songs. To take another example: The descending drums that open “Burning Spires of Mercury” mingle with the panic and rage of the opening scream and wildly blaring tremolo alarms to evoke a nuclear disaster. “Darkwater Graves” summons the dread of slowly sinking beyond the reach of light in the immemorial ocean which is, after all, in no particular hurry to reclaim us all. That song flirts with doom territory before the martial tones pick up again, then both merge in the final third.
My most-replayed song so far is “Yellow Cross Orison” due to its disquieting vocal refrain and poetic interpretation of chemical warfare. A standout trait of Trenchant is that the singing is guttural yet each word is clearly enunciated, emphasizing the importance of the lyrics to this project. Mythic language is used to describe fully immediate, material aspects of Twentieth Century conflict, as in the familiar tale of a man called upon to become what he seeks to destroy (“Atrocity Vision”).
I’ll confess to being mystified as to the inclusion of “Pyre at the Tarn,” a Molested cover. The riffage doesn’t come close to the memorability of Trenchant’s originals. Also, I can’t see how it shares much thematically with the rest of the offerings, apart from the mere idea of fire. Maybe I’m missing something, but this one seems more like a bonus track on this particular album. I would have rather heard a cover of “Spectral Infantry Battalions” (Carach Angren) or “Bow the Serpent in the Stone” (Xibalba).
I hope we hear more from Trenchant! This album is the answer to what your favorite black metal songs would sound like if they weren’t deliberately marred with fundamentalist production values. I recommend Commandoccult if you want to hear blackened death with memorable riffs and literate lyrics.

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