Hooded Menace – Darkness Drips Forth [EP] [Album Review]

The doom genre, by nature, is a punishing, brutal one thanks to albums like Darkness Drips Forth by bands like Hooded Menace from Finland who make the genre all the more crushing by churning out some of the filthiest sounding doomy riffs you’re ever likely to assault your ears with.

Despite only being four tracks long, Darkness Drips Forth clocks in at just over 54 minutes with each track weighing in at a meaty ten minutes plus in length. Sludgy as hell, the album groans under the weight of those doomy, pummelling riffs. Grinding out some pulsing, distorted riffs, Hooded Menance have created a sound on tracks like ‘Elysium Of Dripping Death’ where the whole thing begins to creak under the weight of some of the most morose, droning heaviness you’ll have had the absolute displeasure of infecting your ears with. At best listened to in a dark, quiet room, Darkness Drips Forth is a complex, layered beast of a record mainly down to the fact that, when the band interweave sound effects into their sludgy heaviness, their material becomes an all the more disturbing experience.

While there is enough on Darkness Drips Forth to keep it varied enough for the kind of punter who is giving this a passing listen, Hooded Menace don’t forget their roots for the hardcore doom fans. Four albums into their career, Darkness Drips Forth might not be an album to everyone’s taste but it is one that while sticking true to the doom metal blueprint, is more than happy to plunge the genre to new levels of despair.

Track Listing:

01. Blood For The Burning Oath, Dungeons Of The Disembodied
02. Elysium Of Dripping Death
03. Ashen With Solemn Decay
04. Beyond Deserted Flesh

Running Time: 54:10
Release Date: October 30, 2015

Check out the track ‘Elysium Of Dripping Death’ here.