Band:	Hooded Menace
Album:	Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	January 2018

01. Sempiternal Grotesqueries
02. In Eerie Deliverance
03. Cathedral Of Labyrinthine Darkness
04. Cascade Of Ashes
05. Charnel Reflections
06. Black Moss
07. Sorrows Of The Moon [Celtic Frost cover] [bonus]

Hooded Menace have had quite a few changes in the line-up since their inception about ten years ago, but mastermind Lasse Pyykkö is the man that has consistently been serving us a cocktail of colossal and sorrowful doom dirges mixed with some pretty terrifying and guttural death metal soundscapes. So, what's his poison this time?

The band's latest offering oscillates equally between death and doom, paying homage to the masters of the style. The ghosts of early Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride are haunting all six tracks in a way that takes you back to the Peaceville years of glory. Heavy driving riffs and sombre melodies create a suffocating aural environment that leaves the listener gagging on the charnel stench.

The amazing cover art portrays the listening experience in the most detailed manner. The music of Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed places us in a subterranean humid cave, completely deprived of sunlight, where ghoulish creatures roam on the surface of murky, fathomless waters and candles provide the only source of light and warmth. Soulless carcasses have become one with the cave's walls, covered in black moss and lurking in the shadows, while suffering an almost motionless torture in sempiternal darkness. If you haven't guessed it already, the lyrical themes are inspired by horror movies of the '70s.

The production by Jaime Gomez Arellano has provided the album with an organic, warm and full sound, just like he did in Paradise Lost's Medusa last year. Hooded Menace are not afraid to reveal their influences and the choice of hiring Arellano to twiddle the knobs has proved a very wise one for he has managed to highlight all the sinister guitar harmonies and the melancholic rhythms the band has crafted.

Even though the Finns are not breaking any new ground, the musicianship and songwriting are so strong that they overcompensate for the lack of originality. Death/doom is once again a big trend in metal and it takes exquisite mastery to stand out from the pack. Releasing a 41-minute album and making it seem too short can only mean success.

Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed is a slimy, labyrinthine cemetery where zombies feed off prey that is caught in dusty cobwebs. Make sure you dive into this black pool of decay, for it is surely going to be one of the best funereal processions of the year.