Hooded Menace - Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration

Angry Metal Guy 60

I’ve been hot and cold on Finnish doom-death act Hooded Menace over the years. I enjoyed the heavy, ugly sound of their early albums, but as they slowly progressed into more melodic realms, I felt they lost a bit of their primal sting. I enjoyed albums like Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021s The Tritonus Bell and respected their reset into more jaunty, trad metal melo-doom soundscapes, but it just felt like something was missing. That brings us to their latest release, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration. They’re still moving in the melo-doom direction, and what you get is a wild mish-mash of 80s trad metal, Peaceville-esque Goth doom, and hard rock. It’s ambitious and skillfully executed, but it’s not without bumps and thumps along the way.

After a throwaway intro, Hooded Menace clubs you like an Easter seal with the 7-plus minute riff-o-thon “Pale Masquerade.” You will detect flavor notes of Sentenced, Cemetery, and Cathedral as the terrible trio rocks hard and rides free with more riffs than you can process, all backed by grunting death roars. It’s a wild trip as things twist from doomy passages to straight-up arena metal rocking and every stop in between. The transitions are smooth, and nothing feels duct-taped together as styles and genres ebb and flow. The problem is the length. At multiple times, I felt like another song had started, but nope, it was the same track meandering all over the map. It packs a lot into the 7 minutes, but it feels like too much. This is an issue across Lachrymose, despite a lot of cool moments in each song. “Portrait Without a Face” pays big homage to the Peaceville days of Goth doom with weepy cellos sighing alongside the heavy doom leads, and nods to Paradise Lost are impossible to ignore. Then, around the 3:40 mark, they dump all that in favor of hard-charging Black Royal-esque power chugs, and it’s glorious. It still runs too long, though.

Elsewhere, “Daughters of Lingering Pain” is painfully Paradise Lost in the guitar piece, but the vocals skew to Cemetery classics like Godless Beauty and Black Vanity.¹ This one in particular packs a wicked nostalgia punch that takes me back to the early ’90s when Goth doom was new and shiny. “Lugubrious Dance” also goes back to the band’s early days of straight-up doom worship, and you get some massive riffs on what is the album’s high point and the only track (save for the shocking cover version) that doesn’t suffer for running over 7 minutes. Toward the end of the album, you’re graced by “Save a Prayer,” which took me about 3 minutes to realize is a cover of the classic 80s hit by Duran Duran. Somehow it works very well beaten into a Goth doom style, and as much as it shames me to admit it, it’s one of my favorite moments on the album. Closer “Into Haunted Oblivion” clocks in just shy of 10 minutes, and after an album of 7-minute epics, your ability to swallow another family-sized doom biscuit will be compromised. It’s not a bad tune, and parts remind me again of my beloved Cemetery, and the Peaceville cellos float back in for added atmosphere. It ultimately just tottles on for too long, and by the 6th minute, I start losing my mental grip. At just under 47 minutes, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration feels considerably longer due to the bloatimus maximus.

Although I have issues with the overstuffed songs, I have only good things to say about Lasse Pyykkö’s wild guitar work. He’s an infernal riff machine, and his leads race across several genres. His launching pad is classic doom, but he’s more than happy to shoehorn in scads of traditional/classic metal influences as well as touches of arena rock. You can’t listen to this guy’s playing and not be impressed. I especially enjoy when his rocked out doom style approaches that of prime Cathedral. He’s basically a metal history tour guide, and he knows how to make a riff stick in your head. Harri Kuokkanen’s vocals are fairly one-note, but his rough death roars are effectively raw and grizzly. He does inject personality into the mix, though a few clean passages would be a boon. The template works well; it just needs a touch of restraint.

Hooded Menace have talent to spare, and when they hit their groove, you will be rocked muchly. The songs on Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration vary from very good to merely good, with the lesser tracks held back by their sheer length. If you want to do the rocking melo-doom thing, the songs need to be pared down to rock song lengths, and Hooded Menace refuse to do that. To their credit, this is still almost a 3.5. There’s a lot here to enjoy, but there’s also a lot here. Mileage will vary accordingly.



Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hoodedmenaceofficial | instagram.com/hoodedmenaceofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 3rd, 2025

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