Now this is just filthy.  And I don’t mean any kind of filthy, I mean FILTHY.  This is like the floor at the favorite hole in the wall bar where you’ve seen way too many metal shows.  But it’s a glorious filth that you won’t want to wash off any time soon.  Finland’s Hooded Menace are back with their 3^rd full length, their first on Relapse, and it’s a bruising, nasty slab of old school death/doom done right.  I picked up on these guys after really digging their last LP Never Cross the Dead, and was really looking forward to this one.  It didn’t disappoint.

Featuring a nasty, downtuned guitar tone straight out of the local cemetery, courtesy of Teemu Hannonen (Phlegethon), a cacophonous roar from vocalist Lasse Pyykkö (Claws, Phlegethon), and a just-high-in-the-mix-to-add-the-perfect-bottom-end bass tone (also by Pyykkö), this album has it all.  Right from the get go, the ten minute opener takes you through all the parts of this album: mud-trudging doom, old school death metal, and even some classic hard rock sections where the pace picks up just a bit.  The other tracks mix these elements together in one form or another, without ever losing the bread and butter doom ingredients.  And get the ibuprofen ready because the head bob moments come soon and often on this one; a guitar tone this heavy is best enjoyed like a nice scotch: slow.

But the pace varies throughout the 51 minute run time, so you won’t feel the need to reach for the skip button or glance at your watch.  This gives drummer Pekka Koskelo a lot of room to breathe and mix in some really tasty fills, something that can be lacking in the breakneck speed of a lot of death metal these days.  The production is dead on as well, not too clean but far from sounding like it was recorded in a garage.  The lyrics are rooted in old school horror movies, and you could totally see one of these songs being the opening theme to Tales from the Crypt (kids younger than 25, get your Google on).  You even get some well-placed movies samples, which it’s nice to say are not bothersome in the least.  If you’re a fan of Asphyx, Claws, Coffins, or anything off Razorback Records, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

 

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