ALBUM REVIEW: Hooded Menace – Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed

A very belated review but this is a release that has been talked among tons in the Death Metal and Doom Metal communities alike and figured I would at last get round to checking it out and putting in my two cents. The vocalist is someone I saw live in a pub a few years back in his Doom Metal band Horse Latitudes (very interesting and worth checking out).

1. Sempiternal Grotesqueries opens with classic death-doom riffs. The atmosphere is both brutal and gothic, it drags beautifully and has a gorgeous mournful feel. The guitars, drums and bass all set the foundation perfectly and then the vocals cut through with precise mixing and it just sounds perfect. The song picks up the pace with plenty of old school death metal vibes and nothing stagnates despite it being over 10 minutes long. The doom-tinged sludgy death metal is perfected to a science here. The utilisation of shreds in the solo sounds killer too!
2. In Eerie Deliverance attacks the listener with bombastic blasts and barrages of well orchestrated Doom! The track is crushingly heavy yet somehow has a free and ethereal feeling. It is catchy, heavy and makes me want the bang my head, which at the end of the day is what I want from this kind of music. The spoken parts add a real nice darkness to the piece.
3. Cathedral of Labyrinthine Darkness slows the pace and gives way for layers of atmosphere and darkness to take over. The songwriting is absolutely amazing and remains to keep a perfect pace despite tempo changes and vastly different styles utilised.
4. Cascade of Ashes has a lovely lead intro and an absolutely diabolical death atmosphere that just weighs down and has immensely evil vibes. It is so beautifully melodic and a track full of intensity. The riffs are catchy and just simply mesmerising, the drums are original and varied, the bass is crushing and the vocals are so raw and guttural.
5. Charnel Reflections has a really nice clean intro which descends into more dragging, brutal and hypnotic death-doom. This song is a perfect example of how the genres fuse so perfectly together to create something equally grim and ritualistic.
6. Black Moss is the closing track and starts with a nice melodic riff fading in, and really amazing lead guitar work. Ending in medieval sounding acoustic guitar this song closes the album excellently and with class.

The album is a masterpiece of death-doom and should definitely be checked out, perfect vocals and instrumentation! -9/10