HOODED MENACE

HOODED MENACE     “Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration”

By Dr. Abner Mality

HOODED MENACE is not at all the same band they were when they started 20 years ago. And why should they be? The tricky part is...is their evolution headed up or down?

It took a while for me to thoroughly get into the clumsily titled “Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration” but I finally made that pilgrimage. The band has been slowly changing their style for years now and while I didn’t care for the last HOODED MENACE album at all, this one is awfully compelling if you enjoy the likes of CANDLEMASS and PARADISE LOST. Gone is the gore-soaked death/doom of the early albums which relied on cavernous down-tuned plod. I love those albums myself, especially the debut, but “LMoO” has its own pleasures. More than ever, the CANDLEMASS influence is present and best heard on “Pale Masquerade”. But added to that sound is a very obvious tip of the hat to mid-period PARADISE LOST, with a kind of Gothic sadness seeping into the bones of “Portrait Without A Face” and “Daughters of Lingering Pain”. If you have any love at all for those two bands as well as MY DYING BRIDE or SWALLOW THE SUN, this record is a must.

“Portrait Without A Face” and “Daughters of Lingering Pain” emerge as the best tracks here, with some truly great doom riffs and an almost MERCYFUL FATE type of song structure that yields some quicker tempos and sharp soloing. One constant throughout are the gruff death vocals of Harry Kuokkanen, which never switch to clean crooning. The biggest surprise is the cover of DURAN DURAN’s “Save A Prayer”, which works fairly well but honestly still seems lightweight for HOODED MENACE despite the rough vocals. “Lugubrious Dance” and “Into Haunted Oblivion” struck me as a bit more on the average side, but they keep the style of the “new” HOODED MENACE intact.

This band used to be known for the bone-freezing horror of the Blind Dead, but now have emerged as something a bit more elegant and subtle.

SEASON OF MIST 

HOODED MENACE