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Effigies Of Evil is the third full-length from Finnish duo Hooded Menace, and their first for new label Relapse. The band, comprising Lasse Pyykkö (guitars, bass and vocals) and Pekka Koskelo (drums), released Never Cross The Dead in 2010 to the delight of fans with a love of cult horror and filthy ‘70s doomscapes.

Hooded Menace have since released four great splits. Effigies Of Evil now continues that impressive run of work, being a blood-curdling trawl of pulverizing, diabolic heaviness.

Effigies Of Evil is murky, misanthropic and malicious. Hooded Menace blend mid-tempo death metal (of a Scandinavian brogue) with vintage doom pared back to its foulest root—à la early Cathedral. The resulting Cthulhu crawl is methodic and sinister, and the album creeps forth with a trepidatious tempo.

Opening the album with the 10-minute "Vortex Macabre" is an astute move, as the song encapsulates everything you need to know about Hooded Menace's dark and grooving articulations. Gore-laden doom riffs are hauled through a quagmire, with Pyykkö accenting the putrescent stench with guttural vocals and speedier riffing and soloing.

Appropriately, it all comes loaded with the kind of supernaturalism and tonality that makes it sound as if it were recorded in a pitch-black cavern filled with writhing corpses of the undead. Those same stylistic modulations—grime melding to gloom—underscore the entirety of Effigies Of Evil.

If you’re seeking dynamic or progressive fluctuations it'd be best to look elsewhere, as this is an old-school dirge.

Still, it's important to point out that although Effigies Of Evil adheres to rigid parameters, it’s not remotely monotonous or repetitious.

Hooded Menace does gurgling, heaving doom and death exceptionally well. Tracks like "In the Dead We Dwell," "Curses Scribed in Gore" and "Summoned into Euphoric Madness" are full of hulking, enthralling riffs, and Koskelo's percussion adds plenty of ominous mass.

You look to a band like Hooded Menace to provide horrifying heft with substantial suffocation, and they definitely deliver on that front. Their yawning, downtuned songs evoke a slothful, evil groove. Hooded Menace's obsession with occultism is perfectly portrayed on a track like "Evoken Vulgarity," and the use of horror film samples scattered throughout the album further emphasizes its cult accent.

Effigies Of Evil is Hooded Menace's best album yet. For anyone seeking metal draped in viscera and reeking of retro-flecked terrors, it's bound to appeal. Slow and cruel mountainous riffs are dispensed with a macabre grin. It's the kind of album that'll drain the blood and send chills up your spine. It is protracted torture and bloodthirstiness combined. Given Hooded Menace's desire to conjure up eldritch horrors, Effigies Of Evil is a complete, albeit nightmarish, triumph.

(released September 11, 2012 on Relapse Records)



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