Hooded Menace / Horse Latitudes

The more I listen to Hooded Menace, the more hooked I become. They are one of the few contemporary acts in metal today that really catch my ear in a deep way. I've reviewed several of their splits here lately and was intrigued by this one due to the unorthodox nature of Horse Latitudes instrumentation. Things shook out as follows:

Hooded Menace's "Instruments Of Eternal Damnation" is a nine-minute near-masterpiece of slow-crawling, creepy horror -- the Hooded Menace template taken at funereal pace. The guitar riffs are sludgy, slow, and heavily distorted yet also imbued with melodic components, hints of psychotic psychedelica. It's a powerful sound, working well even at a pace as slow as this one. Lasse Pyykkö's vocals sound ancient, festering, enshrouded in necrotic secrets. He matches his vocals well to his riffs; everything sounds putrid, set in perfect opposition to highlight the gorgeous lead playing and melodic accentuation. The drums pulse cryptic time and though slow-moving the track never once succumbs to tedium. Another solidly memorable track from a band who is ever growing in my esteem.

Sadly, the Horse Latitudes side of this split is execrable. This is ten minutes of my life that I would like to have back. Things start well. There's a spooky organ intro bleeding into acapella Gregorian style chanting, a somewhat cliche but still interesting start. The big bass hit and demonic vocal regurgitations are initially compelling but things fall apart fast once the drums kick in. This is some boring drumming, overly reliant on just bashing the cymbals in a monotonous cacophony. And the vocals turn from creepy to comical. Seriously, mindless and wordless grunting would be better than this crappy attempt at deep singing. Now I usually dig unorthodox instrumentation but the two bass, no guitar approach just doesn't work here. The sound is hollow, scooped-out, and tedious to the ears.

"Instruments Of Eternal Damnation:" 92%
"Flame Of Will:" 35%
Total: 63.5 (rounded up)