ALBUM REVIEW: Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell


I must admit that for as deep as my love for Doom Metal goes, I’ve always been rather picky about Death/Doom in particular. The subgenre’s dedication to atmospheric melancholy is certainly commendable, but a lot of those bands seem to lack the ear-catching melodies and riffs that drew me to this style in the first place. Hooded Menace has certainly stood out as a leading voice in recent years, but a lot of their past work has been in the “almost there” category for me as a listener. Fortunately, the band’s sixth full-length album offers hints of possible change in this regard.

One of the biggest things that sets The Tritonus Bell (Season of Mist) apart from past efforts is more hustle and polish in the musicianship. The songs feature the usual morose moods and drawn-out lengths but pairs them with more active drumming, guitar work driven by vibrant tones and more melodic phrasing, and legibly growled vocals. Much has been made of the band expressing more of their Classic Metal inspiration, most obviously with the bonus cover of W.A.S.P.’s ‘The Torture Never Stops,’ but comparisons to groups like Paradise Lost are more readily apparent.

This shift in performance also gives the songwriting a little more variety than before. ‘Blood Ornaments’ puts in some hearty momentum and sturdy tempo changes across its nine-minute duration while ‘Corpus Asunder’ takes a more up-tempo direction with some clean vocals at the beginning to spruce things up. Elsewhere, ‘Those Who Absorb The Night’ is a comparably straightforward Doom attack that hints at the even more concentrated attack that comes with the methodical ‘Scattered Into Dark.’

It’s hard to say whether The Tritonus Bell is Hooded Menace’s best album “objectively,” but it’s easily the most fun release they’ve ever put out. While a more polished presentation may threaten to undermine the more oppressive atmosphere that had been established with their earlier outings, I’m here for the energetic musicianship and more melodically minded structures. I may still prefer bands like 1914 or Acid Witch when it comes to Death/Doom but Hooded Menace makes a strong case as a powerful contender.

Buy the album here: https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/album/the-tritonus-bell

8 / 10

CHIRS LATTA