HOODED MENACE

Doom acts have by and large not been a staple of the Razorback Records roster; that distinction has gone mainly to old school, gory death, thrash, and to some extent grind. However, two of the three new releases have fit the doom mold: the macabre psychedelic doom swirl of ACID WITCH's "Witchtanic Hellucinations" and the more traditional, though decidedly deathly, doom of HOODED MENACE's "Fulfill the Curse", the subject of this review. Though I find the ACID WITCH release to be the better of the two from an overall view, "Fulfill the Curse" is nothing to sneeze at.

What distinguishes "Fulfill the Curse" from traditional doom releases is the Razorback makeover, which includes the shocking horror movie lyrical imprint (including contributions from Razorback's own Billy Nocera),Putrid's consistently high quality artwork, and the ungodly growls of guitarist Leper of BERZANO. Then there is that dreadful aura that always coats a Razorback release, the kind that makes you feel a little uneasy and a little dirty.

The music comes with a sickening guitar/bass tone and a respectable amount of arrangement variety. A sizeable chunk of the music is of course driven by a gargantuan plod with dismally moaning lead guitar parts. But even a lumbering behemoth like "Beauty and the Feast" convulses and shakes enough to provide a reprieve from all the cemetery burrowing. An actual melodic lead spices up "The Eyeless Horde" and "The Love Song of Gotho, Hunchback of the Morgue" really mixes it up with a kind of "Children of the Grave" (yeah, I know, once again) riff and rhythm. The guitar is then stripped away, revealing a disgusting bass/drum/vocal break, and then kicks up the pace even further. The track, which features the lyrics of Lucio Holocausto, is most appropriately dedicated to "the godfathers of Spanish horror… Amando De Ossorio, Jorge Grau, Jose Larraz, Jesus Franco, Leon Klimonsky and Jacinto Molina."

The short of it is that "Fulfill the Curse" works as a worthy addition to the doom genre and is a good fit on the Razorback roster. Gruesome stuff; relish it.