Never Cross the Dead

There is something that sets doom metal apart from the rest of the pack, something that goes well beyond the generally slower tempos and simplicity. It could be best summed up as the fear and anticipation of an impending event, as opposed to the event itself, being stretched out like a blanket upon the ears and seeming to go on without end. While its earliest expressions were generally confined to feelings of hopelessness with a purely real world sense or a semi-real one while under the influence of mind-altering substances, death/doom is a bit less shy about the otherworldly side of fatalism, playing off an even darker imagery that calls for a more exaggerated experience. Given that death metal is generally known to contrast with doom metal in terms of tempo, often the earliest examples of the hybrid involved a greater level of tonal dissonance, but usually relied more on the guttural vocal delivery to contrast itself from the more traditional strains.

Hooded Menace, a band that carries all of the characteristics of a revivalist outfit, exemplifies every single one of these characteristics to a sheer fault on their sophomore effort "Never Cross The Dead". Elements of Autopsy and the slower menacing character of mid 90s Morbid Angel play a slightly more sizable role in the character of their sound than the largely iconic early purveyors of the death/doom style Anathema, My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, though at times one can't help but hear overt Saint Vitus and Candlemass elements leap out of the guitar work at times. Particularly during the quicker parts of "Night Of The Deathcult" it's pretty easy to recognize the trudging Black Sabbath character of the riff work, almost like a twisted, horrific take on the blues based rock character that original spawned "Hand Of Doom" and a couple other pioneering works of the early 70s.

There is a lot to like about the way this album strikes the ears, as it expresses itself through a rigidly disciplined middle ground between free flowing jam band rock and precise melodic contour. Lead guitar breaks occur in a tasteful and heavily retro character, avoiding the swarming streams of notes generally heard out of Trey Azagthoth and other early 90s death metal guitarists and listening more like a meeting point between Tony Iommi's bluesy licks and Dave Chandler's noisy wanderings. Melodic guitar breaks occur with about the same frequency as a typical Iron Maiden epic, but with a less predictable tonality to them, almost as if leading the listener through a labyrinth of potential turns but continually getting lost, and yet on the intro of "The House Of Hammer" it almost hits with a pure traditional metal vibe played at a funeral-like tempo. The drum work is generally simplistic but prone to frequent fills and shifts in feel, not all that different from a slightly more reserved Bill Ward, while generally the bass plays it safe and augments the murky depths of the guitar lines as the vocals never really leave the bottom reaches of an otherworldly groan with a typical mixture of sorrow and dread.

About the only thing that works against this album is that it limits itself a bit too much in terms of expression, resulting in songs that fairly similar sounding and an atmosphere that remains largely unvaried. Granted, this is something that was typical to most earlier examples of this style, save the occasional employing of keyboards which often served to help bolster and augment the overall density of the resulting wall of sound. Nevertheless, this is an excellent rehash of a style that has largely been abandoned by its original pioneers in favor of a lighter, softer gothic rock character of sound, and one that definitely expresses a sense of metal purity that reminds heavily of the older days where there was a greater degree of closeness between every respective sub-genre. While a far cry from "Master Of Reality", its influence upon "Never Cross The Dead" can still be picked up amid the heavy level of evolution that occurred from the 70s to the 90s. Sometimes old tricks work about as well as new ones, be it exploring territory that was first hit almost 20 years prior, or featuring a couple of Nazgûl-like characters on the album cover.