Symphobia hails from Indonesia; their music can be described as brutal death metal, with a highly guttural voice—bands like Hysterorrhexis,Putridity come close. But of course, the foundation is Suffocation, Cryptopsy,Dying Fetus, and the mighty Cannibal Corpse. If you are not used to this kind of music, you will think it all sounds the same. But it comes down to the musician in the end. They must have the skills to do music like this. Symphobia has great musicians; my problem is the "voice", Jossi Bima's guttural voice, and the lack of follow-up to the music is a bit annoying. Brutal death metal has never been about a good singer; the voice arrangement should be heard as an extra instrument. The lack of going down and up gives us all a bit of a stereotypical impression. But in Hideously Traumatic, they have the voice in the background of the sound picture.

The first track, "Hecatomb" gives us a hint of what's to come; the drumming is on a high level, Dodik Bhre's guitar playing is so well done, and it offers a lot of nuances to this album. Along with Humam Aliy, who uses a lot of sixteenth-note fills on the drums, they are the backbone of this album. I can't find any bass guitar on the album; the tuning on the guitar is so low that it's unnecessary. "Heinous" is a track worth mentioning; once again, the musician's skills are so high. And the same thing goes for the whole album; you are either into this kind of music or not. If not, it will not tell you anything. If you like it, you probably deal with music, play a similar type of music, or enjoy high-skilled musicianship. "Scattered", "Convulsively" and "Inebriated" also stand out, but to describe them in words, we have to do a dissection of each track, break it down, and explain what's really going on. That is not a review; it would be more of an analysis. The album's total playtime is 27:34 minutes, and handling more of such high-intensity musicianship would be too much. Symphobia has done an album here that should place them on the map for brutal death metal. It is not for everyone; it is not meant to be so. I end this review with those words: if you like this kind of music, you're going to love this.