{"id":7547,"date":"2012-09-11T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T00:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=7547"},"modified":"2014-07-16T12:14:48","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T12:14:48","slug":"album-review-hooded-menace-effigies-of-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-hooded-menace-effigies-of-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"HOODED MENACE – Effigies Of Evil (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOODED MENACE
Effigies Of Evil<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nRelapse (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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With so many death, thrash and doom bands emerging, and hardly any sounding interesting, let alone original, I have to admit to being rather endeared by the deathly doom of Finnish band Hooded Menace.<\/p>\n

The band name doesn\u2019t do them any favours to be honest, and neither does the image \u2013 they look like a gang of teenage hoodies on stage \u2013 but Effigies Of Evil<\/em>, their third full-length release, is a ponderous, gnarly slab of a platter that features the quicksand vocals of Lasse Pyykk\u00f6.<\/p>\n

The doom metal genre is rather crowded at the moment, but due to the lack of invention, and the fact too many bands seem intent on worshipping the weed, the scene can become rather tiresome and predictable. Hooded Menace and their squelching rhythms \u2013 constructed by Pyykk\u00f6 (who also handles bass and guitar), Pekka Koskelo (drums) and Teemu Hannonen (guitar) \u2013 provide some respite from the Sabbath<\/a>arian overdose we\u2019ve been accustomed to over the years with all these dope-smoking bands. Instead, they vomit out an unearthly slow-mo noise that I\u2019ve not heard since those dark days of Sorrow\u2019s Forgotten Sunrise<\/em> (1991), although Hooded Menace prefer a dirtier dirge, rather than speeding things up to a deathlier pace.<\/p>\n

Those who\u2019ve not heard much from these guys would possibly have been introduced to them via the \u2018Evoken Vulgarity\u2019 promo clips on YouTube. Thankfully, \u2018Evoken Vulgarity\u2019 is one of the album\u2019s best tracks; a crawling mass of doomy chaos that features some twisted, down-tuned guitars, grubby solos and a foetid vocal delivery that barely rears its ugly head beyond a sleepy ooze. Hooded Menace construct epic atmospheres within their gloomy passages. I\u2019ve always been a fan of bands that use creaky old film samples, and they complement the music nicely, and feature almost three-minutes in, accompanied by an eerie bass.<\/p>\n

Another quality Hooded Menace has is their ability to play their monolithic doom at a slightly more uptempo rate when required, rather than dragging the listener into a one-dimensional elevator of evil that never shifts beyond a snail pace. \u2018Crumbling Insanity\u2019 is a perfect example of how the initial funereal doom sludge picks up the pace, the drums accompanying a deep chug as those gurgled vocals litter the track.<\/p>\n

There are some excellent riffs on here. Hooded Menace preferring not to smother its audience with a dull drone, instead there are elements of a Candlemass groove, and while production is crisp, we are still treated to a batch of foetid sounding tracks that sound as if they\u2019ve been wrenched from a bone-strewn coffin.<\/p>\n

Some have argued that this opus doesn\u2019t match the band\u2019s 2008 debut, Fulfill The Curse<\/em>. But I disagree, having found myself spinning this record numerous times, succumbing to the infectious weight and drool which climaxes with the superbly atmospheric album closer, \u2018Retribution In Eternity\u2019. This is more of a two-minute incantation rather than actual song, except for that mournful guitar wail, but it\u2019s a perfect way to end this guttural cacophony.<\/p>\n

Hooded Menace may not be the next big doom thing, but their churchyard chills are ideal for a night beneath a bestial moon.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOODED MENACEEffigies Of Evil Relapse (2012)Rating: 7.5\/10 With so many death, thrash and doom bands emerging, and hardly any sounding interesting, let alone original, I have to admit to being rather endeared by the deathly doom of Finnish band Hooded Menace. The band name doesn\u2019t do them any favours to be honest, and neither does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,401],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-hooded-menace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7547"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20323,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7547\/revisions\/20323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}