Hooded Menace Announce New Album, Debut First Single

Finland’s Hooded Menace are back! The heaviest band ever to take their name from a slang term for an uncircumcised penis have announced that they’ll release a new album, The Tritonus Bell, on August 27. It was mixed by King Diamond’s Andy LaRocque; the cover art is by Wes Benscoter (bottom of this post).

Additionally, the band has dropped the first single from that album, “Blood Ornaments.”

Comments guitarist Lasse Pyykkö:

“It is with utter excitement that we premiere the first track off our new album The Tritonus Bell! There’re definitely some new flavours added to the mix, and ‘Blood Ornaments’ comes with some of our most intriguing ingredients yet – and a bloody side taste. There’s a contrast between death/doom misery and head-bangable heavy metal riffs like never heard before in Hooded Menace’s music, making ‘Blood Ornaments’ my favorite track from the album.

“Obviously a lot of inspiration for The Tritonus Bell comes from the usual suspects Candlemass, Paradise Lost, and Trouble, but also classic ’80s heavy metal such as Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Dio, and Ozzy Osbourne. Even if you can’t always put your finger on it, they all definitely played a big role in why The Tritonus Bell turned out the way it did. When it comes to mixing and mastering, we had the pleasure of working with King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque/Sonic Train Studios, who made sure everything would sound great, and I can honestly say I’ve never been more satisfied with the results sound- and music-wise.”

You can listen to “Blood Ornaments” below. It’s a long track — nine minutes, to be precise — but not a second is wasted; instead of thinking “Hey, is this over yet?”, you’ll be thinking “I’m so glad this over yet!”

The Tritonus Bell track listing:

1. “Chthonic Exordium”
2. “Chime Diabolicus”
3. “Blood Ornaments”
4. “Those Who Absorb the Night”
5. “Corpus Asunder”
6. “Scattered Into Dark”
7. “Instruments of Somber Finality”

[via Lambgoat]