Why, why…when you have such a cool name is it ruined with a shitty production?? This doesn’t make your band any more artistic, or avant-garde. It just makes your music sound bad, no two ways around it. If many of these black, death/doom metal bands would get a grasp on that maybe they’d get more listeners. But then again, I know often this is intentional. With Hooded Menace, comparing to others I hear elements from similar bands like Asphyx and Autopsy, the cited Bolt Thrower, to Entombed, but much slower songs. Still, with the grinding unpolished riffing.

Giving credit where credit is due…the eleven minute ‘Blood For The Burning Oath / Dungeons of The Disembodied’, of this four song E.p.?, tries to bring the listener on a journey through the use of guitar, bass and drums, with the added sound effects of ritual bells and voices in despair. But the music is too sludgy, fuzzy guitars, and growling vocals all buried in the mix. Things get better once the tempo picks up, but the vocals are just too murky, and the arrangement doesn’t quite go anywhere until the last five minutes where it changes into the ‘Dungeons of the Disembodied’. And that’s only mildly, still it plods along like a wet bag of mud, even within the breaks in heavy guitars, throbbing bass, and drums. ‘Elysium of Dripping Death’ again suffers the same fate, which at least does pick up the pacing half way for a better Candlemass feel with flow and the melodic guitar leads. Its just too doomy for dooms sake.