Hans Gruber and the Die Hards: “Trepanation”

Happy Halloween! We’re hittin’ this hallow-day with…Hans Gruber and the Die Hards?! Wait a minute, haven’t we already decreed that the iconic Bruce Willis/Alan Rickman action comedy is a Christmas staple? Well…whatever.

What we do know for sure is that this Austin five-piece has spent the past decade funneling their passions into all things punk, ska, crossover, and beyond into an all-year-round “trick and treat” creed of casual tomfoolery and unforgettable stage antics. And if you didn’t think Hans Gruber and the Die Hards were a perfect fit for Halloween, you haven’t been paying close enough attention; just look at the tracklist from their 2022 magnum opus With A Vengeance and shudder at song titles like “Blood on the Walls”, “Monster of Walgren Lake”, and “Nothing Like a Good Old Fashioned Witch Hunt”.

The latest from the quintet is their EP split with The Sensations Tokyo Two Step that dropped in early September, right around the same time HGDH celebrated their 10-year anniversary and kicked off the national tour that currently finds them on the Eastern Seaboard. Now, yes, Tokyo Two Step does contain a cover of that Halloween classic “I Put A Spell On You”. But if this election season giving you a sense of Act III freefall, almost like you’re plummeting forty stories straight into the media circus corralled around Nakatomi Plaza, you may just want to dig a hole into your brain and blast some horn-heavy hardcore. If that’s the case, then “Trepanation” is for you. Less of a headbanger and more of skull scraper, “Trepanation” is all over the goddamned place…in the best way possible. And even at just two minutes, it’s plenty enough to rile your spirits, get you wanting to don a costume (literally, emotionally, or what have you), and treat yourself to an intense Halloween in ghoulish rudeboy fashion.

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