The artist of the week: T.N.T. (Colombia)

Total Night Terror: From the Depths of Calihell to the Gates of the Abyss

There’s a certain thrill that comes with unearthing a band like Total Night Terror. You know the type, the kind of act that doesn’t just play metal but lives inside the very marrow of it. A band whose sound feels unearthed rather than manufactured, born from real rage, real streets, and real scars. That’s what TNT is. They didn’t show up to entertain. They came to summon something much older, much uglier, and far more alive.

Forged in the burning underbelly of Cali, Colombia, in September 2022, Total Night Terror is a brutal sonic unit formed by veterans of the local punk and metal scenes. Guitarist Camilo “Strings Breaker”, drummer Mauricio “Horror Maniac”, bassist Ricardo “Infernal Void”, and vocalist Francisco “Midnight Butcher” bring with them over a decade of hard-earned underground experience in projects like Sátira, Peste Humana, Mico, Evocación, and Cadaveria Col. They’ve walked through fires long before TNT was born, and now that collective experience pours into a sound that feels both ritualistic and insurgent.

But what makes this band stand out isn’t just the pedigree. It’s their refusal to follow trends. They call their sound RAW METAL, and they mean it. Not in a nostalgic or superficial way, but in the guts of it, the grime, the distortion, the unfiltered anger. Their music is a protest howl erupting from Calihell, as they call it, and from the whole Valley of Chaos they inhabit. It channels everything that society fears, represses, or forgets.

After dropping their debut EP Terror de la Noche in 2023, TNT quickly earned a reputation for their vicious live performances. Sharing a stage with the legendary Deströyer 666 that same year wasn’t just a milestone , it was a warning shot. By the time they played national festivals like Ruido Bajo los 40 Grados and Festival Internacional Unirock Alternativo, it was clear these guys weren’t just another local act. They were becoming a force.

Which brings us to 2025. Their first full-length album Terror Avernal arrived on June 6, and let me tell you , it doesn’t pick up where Terror de la Noche left off. It erupts from it. This is an evolution not just in sound but in purpose. If the EP was a frantic knife fight in a dark alley, Terror Avernal feels like a sacrificial rite in an open field under a burning sky. It’s still violent, still raw, but now there’s a pacing, a shadowy intent behind every blast, every riff, every howl.

The album opens with Tierra Quemada, and from that first distorted riff, you're dragged down. There’s no ambient intro, no soft landing. Just fire. TNT sounds hungrier than ever, but also more controlled. They’ve stretched out their limbs and started breathing through the darkness instead of just charging through it. The production, while still gloriously raw, allows for more space , you can hear the impact of each drum hit, the bite of every guitar tremolo, the haunting layers of vocals that now feel less like screams and more like summons.

Out of all the tracks, the one that has stayed with me the most is Noche de Terror. It’s not just a standout.. it’s a statement. Here, the band finds that deadly sweet spot between violence and atmosphere. The tempo grinds, the riffs feel ancient and cracked, and the vocals ride somewhere between a ritual chant and a deranged call to arms. This isn’t the kind of song you headbang to on the surface. This one possesses. It drags you into the forest, shows you the knife, and then keeps going. There’s a moment halfway through where everything drops into a trance-like fury, and it’s so damn hypnotic that you forget to breathe.

Comparing this to Terror de la Noche reveals just how far TNT has traveled in a short time. The EP was pure combustion: short tracks, primitive energy, recorded like a punch to the throat. It was the sound of four maniacs exorcising their demons with no concern for precision. And it worked. But on Terror Avernal, something deeper has taken root. There’s a spiritual quality now, a focus, even moments of eerie melody hidden under all that dirt and fire. The vocals are more dynamic, the songwriting tighter but still loose enough to feel dangerous. This isn’t a band trying to be clean, this is a band learning how to wield chaos instead of just drown in it.

You can hear the ghosts of Venom, Sodom, Aura Noir, Bathory, and Colombia’s own gods like Parabellum and Masacre in their music. But TNT isn’t mimicking. They’re channeling. Their sound is a continuation of that legacy, raw, unapologetic, steeped in the blood and sweat of the South American underground.

What they’ve done with Terror Avernal isn’t just refine their craft. They’ve stepped into their power. This album feels like the beginning of something bigger, a summoning that isn’t done yet. And in a scene that too often loses itself in production gimmicks and image games, Total Night Terror stands like a burning altar , dirty, defiant, and deeply real.

If you're the kind of metalhead who still digs for tapes in back-alley distros or scrolls Bandcamp at 3 a.m. looking for something real, this is your band. Total Night Terror doesn’t care about algorithms. They care about riffs that bite, drums that sound like gunfire, and vocals that sound like the gates of Hell cracking open.

So follow them, listen to them, and if you ever get the chance, see them live. Because once this kind of energy is unleashed in person, there’s no turning back.

Total Night Terror Online:

Bandcamp: https://totalnightterror.bandcamp.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/total.night.terror
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/totalnightterror
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@total.night.terror
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@totalnightterror
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/es/artist/total-night-terror/1733036279
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gfHxtcLJQFdpmD3Ucat1C