There has been a saying that man creates his own horrors for stimulation, to know that there is something out there that can overcome him both physically and mentally. An essence that came take him out of life's equation with a blink of an eye, with the thrust of the scythe, carving of nails or bite or clawed like teeth. Cult oriented horrors of the past has been the food of many Metal artists over the years. I might add that these horrendous themes existed and inspired many pre-Metal artists in the psychedelic 70s. Forging fistful of heaviness the Finnish duo crew of the HOODED MENACE, since 2007, has been infesting the world with corroded sludge grindings, filthy, yet with classic aspects, Doom / Death Metal as it was teemed by various of extreme bands of the early 90s like early soiled version of PARADISE LOST and AMORPHIS but with additional brutality and malevolence of AUTOPSY, early ENTOMBED and MORBID ANGEL. "Effigies Of Evil", the band's third loutish offering, and first through their new label Relapse Records, is another nerve-rackingjourney through the revulsions of humanity along with finding ways to overcome, yet as in every horror yarn, the repulsion will have the upper hand.

Even if I can't really recognize this release as a classic extreme Metal piece, it had somewhat appealed to my taste, especially with the fuzzy 70s shake of BLACK SABBATH and suitable sound production. As a fan of the first wave of extreme Doom and Death Metal, it was easy for me to be captivated by the atmosphere of the entire release that seemed eerie, depressed, stench of rotting bodies, a whole load of fear and disgust and the screams of dying souls that soon afterwards met their maker (or something else). Though I am not a negative person, I understood what HOODED MENACE were trying to deliver with their sluggish, slow tempo, utterly heavy music, brutal low grunted vocals as if listening to the lord of doom and frequent suffered melodic content. Fear is stomping our midst slowly and carefully with a mission to touch our minds and entities while slowly devouring our agonized existence with a wide selection of monstrosities. "In The Dead We Dwell", which displayed the agony and pain of fighting endlessly with one of the legendary atrocities of Vampires, moved pace after pace slowly with a mouthful of bass, fuzzy and chunky guitars that also produced a few disheartening solos and brutish vocals with confidence and determination. This one was of my favourites along with "Crumbling Insanity" and "Evoken Vulgarity".

On the other hand, I felt that "Effigies Of Evil", though presenting the strongest monolith of the old school fusion of Doom and Death Metal of the classic years of the mixture both in music and sound, should have reached much higher with the rest of its meat grinding submissions. The large sum of the tracks, especially the opening, and terribly vacillating, "Vortex Macabre", showcased epics in order to cover sensations mentioned earlier. However, several of those felt too much, in particular when HOODED MENACE went slow tempo all the way with the same pattern of riffing that almost didn't vary. I saw true potential within "Effigies of Evil", "Curses Scribed in Gore" and "Summoned into Euphoric Madness" as these have a few startling melodies and wonderful heavy riffing that went beyond the slow tempo lumps of meat. With no doubt that HOOSED MENACE can bring back the same impressions of the early extreme Metal scene with further great outcomes, I will just sit here and wait for them.