Music for the terminally black hearted, Hooded menace are not a band to be approached lightly. Over the years the band have slowly unburdened themselves via a series of split releases and EPS (not to mention their three, earth-destroying albums) and it is these, now hard-to-find releases that have been gathered together into one, soul-ravishing record clocking in at 76 minutes and presented as a limited edition that features the art work from each original release on individual cards with the liner notes on the flip side. In short, ‘gloom immemorial’ is a gift to the fans and a chance for latecomers to catch up with one of the grimmest bands out there.
Featuring just eleven tracks spread over a mind-eroding 75 minutes, you card hardly call this rarities package mean. A claustrophobic, darkened hell hole awaits those brave enough to venture in and there’s little in the way of introduction before the listener is plunged into the obsidian horror of ‘fulfill the curse’. Like Autopsy at their most funereal, this is extreme music and the band make no bones about catering to a small, yet fanatical minority. The guitars are white hot on this opening track, the vocals delivered in a deathly bark and listeners with long memories will note the similarities between hooded menace and very early Paradise Lost – that same sense of world-weary horror and icy abandon permeates this release – and there is no doubt that fans of the likes of Thergothon will find much to admire here. A darker, danker track, ‘the eyeless horde’ bubbles up from some unseen crevice ripped in the earth. Sounding like a field recording form the very gates of hell, this leaden trawl of the darkest recesses of the world operates at a near Khanate pace, the guitars underpinned by drums that rarely break free from the horrific sludge of the guitars, although the harmonised solos towards the song’s conclusion are a welcome break from the nightmare. Next up is ‘A decay of mind and flesh’, a song that opens with a lighter touch, even if the distortion returns soon enough. Nonetheless, despite still being heavier than a pile of rusted anvils, the track is an airier piece, possibly aided by the fact that it is an instrumental piece shorn of Lasse’s forbidding bark, and the album benefits from letting a little light into the otherwise unremitting and repellent gloom. It doesn’t last, however, and the band bring the pain with ‘the haunted ossuary’, a sludgy nightmare that wades through vermin-infested sewers in its search for the darkest and most foetid aspects of humanity. Things do not get better for ‘I, devil master’, a song that opens with a cheesy b movie sample and creeping bass line only to plunge the listener into a bubbling tar pit of misery, via series of misery-inducing riffs and snails-pace percussion.
Fading in amidst a swirling haze of static and noise, ‘catacombs of the graceless’ is a dirtier track that slithers in the hinterland between Paradise Lost and Sabbath. It’s a welcome change of pace, stripping away some of the sludgier aspects that make other parts of the album so harrowing, and a psychedelic element even creeps into the band’s otherwise painfully bleak material. Opening with atypical guitar harmonies, ‘abode of the grotesque’ returns to rather grimier pastures and the chugging riffs and deathly vocals are in full force on this devastating track. In contrast, ‘instruments of eternal damnation’ once again utilises a chilling sample to good effect and the band clearly enjoy unleashing a riff that is so indebted to Sabbath it’s astonishing Iommi and co. haven’t been beating down the band’s door with a summons. ‘Chasm of the wraith’ appears to find the listener caught in the midst of a satanic mass, whilst the clean guitars that appear offer a striking contrast to the brutally distorted work found elsewhere. Another song that breaks the flow of the album and brings a touch of light to the darkness, ‘chasm…’ is still a potent brew, but its heaviness is tempered with a touch of melody that is entirely welcome amidst the wreckage. With the album drawing towards its inevitable close, ‘the creeping flesh’ sees the pace once again slow to a deadly crawl as the band once again slip into paradise lost territory. It leaves the faster, dirtier ‘monuments of misery’ to round out the album
Whilst doom can be a stately genre, Hooded Menace gleefully emphasize the harrowing sludge of Thergothon rather than the melodic despair of My Dying Bride and the result is an album that is as dry as bleached bones, as icy as the tundra and almost entirely devoid of pity or remorse. This is the squirming underbelly of humanity laid bare and the sight is not a pretty one. For those of a brave disposition and possessed of a deep, dark love of all things dark and unholy, ‘gloom immemorial’ comes highly recommended. For those of a nervous disposition, or for those who like their gloom to be occasionally pierced by the rays of melody this is a release best avoided. This is the extreme end of doom with a healthy dose of death and sludge thrown in and the result is a musically devastating body of work which is guaranteed to suck the light and warmth out of any home. Approach, by all means, but approach with caution.
