Hooded Menace – Gloom Immemorial

Few bands forget where they come from. But sadly, it is rare that they remember to thank those who helped get them to where they are today. Thankfully, Finnish Hooded Menace is not one of them. In fact, he is working very hard to please his fans, to the point where he released his newest compilation album, Gloom Immemorial – Which consists of the most popular tracks taken from all of his demos, EP’s and Split-EP’s (and that is a considerable amount). The end result is eleven tracks with a running total of an impressive one hour and fifteen minutes. So basically, as a fan-service, the four Finnish musicians went through eight years worth of material, picked out a mixture of their own and their fans favourite songs and released it in a simple, long (and very good) record.

Obviously a compilation album can, almost by its definition, not offer anything new. This is most certainly the case here, at any rate. That being said, however, I see nothing wrong with that. Hooded Menace first rose to prominence through their own unique blend of Death and Doom Metal, and I find it very evident in the chosen eleven tracks exactly why that is. They have managed to create their own unique style of music by mixing the two almost radically different genres, yet still managing to make it clear what their roots are. Both are very impressive feats, and the near-generous nature of the band just makes it all the better.

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