Where 90s death metal meets 80s doom metal and a string of ultra-cult 70s horror flicks, you get Hooded Menace: 10 pounds of fuck in a five-pound bag. Like Asphyx, Autopsy, Winter and early Entombed jamming with Cathedral’s Forest Of Equilibrium lineup and Paradise Lost circa Lost Paradise, Effigies Of Evil is heavy with a 500-foot capital H.
Fronted by Lasse Pyykkö, former Phlegethon/current Acid Witch man, the band’s third album scarcely deviates from the pattern laid down by the first two – 2008’s Fulfill The Curse and 2010’s Never Cross the Dead – and if anything is an even more effective pastiche of and homage to the various genres it stitches together.
Crucially, they’ve proved beyond doubt that this thing has a shelf life beyond that usually associated with pet projects. Like Baron Frankenstein labouring long into the turbulent night, these freaky Finns have once again locked themselves away and created a monster. Considering that this entire thing was basically put together for a bit of a laugh, Effigies Of Evil is no mean feat.
