Labels: Season Of Mist
Review by: Alex Deller
Hooded Menace are one of those bands who, at this point, represent a good solid bet rather than a mind-altering proposition. Deep down you know that ‘Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed’ is unlikely to be a game-changer, but you can bet your last piece of plundered Templar treasure that it’ll be an enjoyable slice of death-doom morbidity. True to form, it delivers: there are no missteps and no lapses of taste or judgement. Shambling riffs are raised from the dead and then cast back into the grave, while melancholic guitar leads whirl overhead like tattered black carrion crows. Harri Kuokkanen’s vocals are a choked glottal growl; drums pound like protection spells being chiselled into mausoleum doors. And if you’re not going to find anything as soul-witheringly painful as you might on the new Mournful Congregation record then that’s just fine, because when all’s said and done the sound of Candlemass locking horns with Autopsy still sounds damn pretty great, right?