For Those About Squawk: Waldo Pecks on Hooded Menace, Aborted and Trna

What’s up, guys? It’s your old boy Waldo to spout off about some upcoming releases. You know, “I’m not elitist, you just have bad taste.” This is my favorite intro I’ve ever pecked, so I’m sticking with it. So, stay tuned, see what the fellas get into, you might just learn something…

Hooded Menace are back at it again with The Tritonus Bell on Season of Mist. It’s always been kinda hard to peg these guys down, they certainly rock. And the last record I heard (although it’s been a while) was a little more in the vein of a mid-paced, trad death metal band. That being said, that’s EXACTLY what this is, there are no surprises here. Nods to Candlemass, Mercyful Fate, Paradise Lost, and Trouble all seem to pop up, without sounding like any of them, or all of them. The production is what’s not really kicking my tailfeathers here. The vocals are property brootal and have a lot of grit, but the melodic guitar lines (and the guitars as a whole) don’t really growl enough for me. Speaking of the vocals, and this is SUPER heavy on the quotes here, the “older style” is missed, but only a little bit. What we have here is a solid death/doom effort, and songwriting wise, HM is top in their game. As always, there is not a lot of differences between this and other HM releases, but this birdbrain thinks that’s a good thing. Reliable death doom in a world that is unreliable. 7 Fucking Pecks.

How does one really even start to review Aborted’s 12th album, Maniacult? I feel like this band has had so many near hits, and just as many near misses in their career. I can best I can describe this ais grindcore influenced brutal death metal. That sums it up neatly, right? Well, sorta. Aborted has never really gotten that much attention (in the U.S. anyway) and if any of their records would be the one to get them that attention, it’ be this. Opening with a creepy intro, this kinda ticks all of the boxes required for the genre. The biggest problem is, it’s cool, it’s good, it’s brutal, it’s just I dunno, KINDA samey? Aborted tends to get better with every release and this is certainly true for Maniacult. Vocalist Sven screams, growls, and grunts over these eleven tracks, but there’s just something that’s not quite there. I dig it, but I dunno, I can’t see this being in super heavy rotation. Check it out, maybe you’ll feel differently. 6 Fucking Pecks.

How did I know that a band called Trna would be some sort of epic black metal cascading over you like a wave? Well, Itsok on Candlelight is exactly that. Man, I really hate when I can’t get super into or hate a record. Check the video below, that’s kind of what you need to know about this record. It’s middling at best. There are a lot of strong ideas here, but it just ends up plodding along and although there’s cool moods—and it’s definitely dark—there may be too much material here to capture the average listener’s ear. Blackgaze-styled black metal mixed with Isis, throw in a couple of acoustic passages and that’s it. You Have the Whole Record, summed up in one sentence. 4 Fucking Pecks.

Until next time… Waldo OUT!