Something happens when you mix most imaginable genres of extreme music together and call it a band. One of those things is Germany's SERPENT EATER; "Hyena" was created with strong roots in Hardcore Punk and taking musings from the many realms of Death, Black and Doom. Though only 6 tracks in length, it is likely all you'd need, as the album delivers anguish and ferocity in 6 different, especially evil ways.

Opening track "Ebola" perhaps best represents the band's sound in a signature fashion and sounds like a combination of the genre expeditions that would follow. It also acquired that much-wanted attribute of being completely evil-sounding; the blackest shade of black. "Last Cold Word" speeds things up in a way, drowning us in a churning sea of fast double-kicks and tremolo riffage. From here the track goes on to explore dark Black Metal territories with riffs and chord progressions evoking those of a certain Scandinavian fame. "In The Wall" features a much more groove-ridden arrangement, perhaps closer to the realms of extreme Punk, quite reminiscent of SATYRICON.

The title track opens the floodgates (keeping hell's lava at bay?) and proves to be the album's fastest and most aggressive track, taking a very heavily mixed wall-of-sound approach... For the first minute. Then, lulled into complacency with melancholic minor chords that give Doom its name that boils over with a powerful and moving dirge. "Leitmotiv" is an almost exclusive Punk-laden track with heavy chugs reminiscent of the genre; even the vocals sound more pained. "Trepanation Nation" is perhaps my favorite track on the release and is another bloodthirsty monster of a song with riffs that deviate between the blisteringly aggressive, to slowed-down, mid-tempo chug crushes. Some of the riffs towards the second half of the track were most memorable; technical flourishes to pump it along.

This is the kind of extreme Metal that you can lose yourself in and go bat-**** crazy to at a live show, with enough raw power to stir up an angry horde of ravenous, black-clad Metalheads