ALBUM REVIEW: Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration – Hooded Menace

Although they have a career spanning close to two decades, Finland’s HOODED MENACE have enjoyed a spike in notoriety in recent times. Largely, this is due to 2018’s excellent Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021’s stellar follow-up, The Tritonus Bell, cementing the band as a genuine heavyweight in death-doom. Now, four years later, comes album number seven, Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration, and it’s arguably the band’s magnum opus.
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Largely, this is due to the fact that Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration isn’t a bog-standard death-doom record that never moves into second gear. That crushing essence is still there of course, acting as the foundation of HOODED MENACE‘s weight as the skull crushing riffs in Pale Masquerade can attest to. However, throughout the album runs a clear influence for the flare and elegance of vintage 80s heavy metal. A trait first explored on their previous record, here, it feels like the band have embraced it into their DNA and the result is simply outstanding.

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Largely, this is due to the lengthy compositions that HOODED MENACE have created here. With additional runtime to truly breathe, what we are treated to is sublime epics, passages of music play that hit with such conviction it’s hard not to get swept up. Tracks like the aforementioned Pale Masquerade and Portrait Without A Face are prime examples of this, with the latter demonstrating expert musicianship from band leader Lasse Pyykkö, whose playing consistently impresses, and the additional cello provided by former bassist Antti Poutanen is a subtle but incredibly effective play.
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Additionally, the way in which the band cleverly utilise dynamic pace changes, moments where Pyykkö unleashes the shackles and drops killer riff after killer riff and the accompanying chaos that follows is world class. Lugubrious Dance – arguably one of the album’s highlights – contorts and evolves over its near seven and a half runtime, offering passages that crawls at glacial pace before unleashing a vintage heavy metal assault full of killer headbangable riffs and slick solo work that just speaks to the heart of what it means to be a heavy metal fan. Such is clear with the surprise and eyebrow raising cover of DURAN DURAN‘s Save a Prayer. On paper, this should be a steaming bag of crap and has every recipe for a weird misfire, but it’s arguably one of the finest moments on the record as HOODED MANCE deliver a reinvented goth masterclass in one of the album’s biggest highs. It’s lightning in the bottle moments like these that helps elevate Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration, and indeed HOODED MENACE, into stratospheric heights.


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And for all its heavy metal pomp and flare, HOODED MENACE still know how to sound utterly ferocious. Harri Kuokkanen delivers a career-defining performance here, his gutturals punchy and able to cut through the noise like a hot knife through butter. They keep you grounded as mourning riffs cascade in over the growls in epic finale Into Haunted Oblivion, or lending their weight to make a slick passage of play all the more cool as hell in Pale Masquerade. The delivery is spot on, elevated by a superb mix and production job.

With Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration, HOODED MENACE have delivered an outstanding heavy metal record. Establishing their death-doom traits as a bedrock allowing for their more creative muscles to flex is a move that has paid dividends. Jam-packed full of hooks and memorable moments, and devastatingly heavy, Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration is HOODED MENACE at the top of their game.

Rating: 9/10


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Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration is out now via Season Of Mist.

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