1. Hey Lasse, recently my college Fastred has interviewed Mikka from October Falls starting with a question about this year's terrible freezing winter in Finland. So now with Hooded Menace we have to discuss the summer, that's for sure..:) It is so extraordinary as the winter was? It just that we could understand the change of seasons in Finland here in Czech ...:-)

Hi man! Yeah, the winer was extremely freezing with tons of snow and the summer was extremely hot! We even broke the Finnish warmth record with the temperature risen to over +37 celsius up here in North Karelia. So it was an extraordinary summer indeed. I´m not a summer person really. Too much heat only makes me lazy and crazy so I´m glad about this arrival of autumn. I like how you can really clearly see the differences between all four seasons in Finland. Autumn is my favorite. It´s the season of expectations and hopes. Sorta like a new beginning. I dig that feeling about it.

2. HOODED MENACE is on the scene for a kind of short time, if i am not mistaken, you have celebrated the third anniversary of being active on the metal scene. I would like to ask about the difference between your first and the second album. There is a strong and clear musical concept of HOODED MENACE, deeply rooted in the early times of death/doom, so we could expect just the the variety of recording techniques and utilizing new experience, am i right? Could you compare "Never Cross the Dead" and "Fulfill the Curse" in such a way?

We started in the summer of 2007, so we are pretty young band but we all have been involved in the metal scene for years. I started in 1988 with my death/thrash band Phlegethon but when the band split up in ´92 I disappeared and "came back" in 2006.

Hooded Menace is strongly influenced by early Cathedral, Winter, 80´s Candlemass, Autopsy, Asphyx, old Paradise Lost and such. My influences lie in the past so you can´t really find any modern influences in our music. Anyhow, I think our combination of death and doom doesn´t sound like some worn out "tribute to the old times" type of thing, you know. This is the stuff that comes naturally out when I write slow and crushingly heavy metal and I might be too close to analyze it but with a good taste, relatively high self-criticism and a little bit of talent you can take all those old elements, throw them in a blender and come up with something of your own... more or less... an identifiable sound. I´m not saying that we are very original band, no way! No one think so. But certainly I would say we have found our own thing as much as we do owe to the old masters. When I was writing our debut album there was Candlemass and Cathedral on a plate. Now when/if I look for inspiration I can basically put on our own albums and that does it.

The new album is more diverse than "Fulfill The Curse". We have stretched the extremities. The slow is slower, dark is darker but then again it´s more melodic or at least there are more melodies this time around. It´s got more depth and dimensions but I think it´s safe to say that if you liked the debut, you are gonna like the new one as well. I don´t see it as a giant step really but a step forward it is and that´s how it should be. A little progress is good as long as you don´t forget your roots. There are particular elements that needs to be in Hooded Menace´s music: heaviness, menacing atmosphere, tempo variations from very slow to mid-paced tempo, some graceful melodies etc. As long as we can write good, fresh (in a rotten way) songs that fit to that formula, it´ll be fine. The day we aren´t able do that anymore, our journey has come to an end.

3. I consider "Never Cross the Dead" as an briliant example of the old demonic death/doom. I was very satisfied with your new record, because it sent me back in time and so i take only the possitive feelings from it. Not just by reviving old doom compositions, but mainly thanks to the fact, that it's simply good. You were influenced by grandfathers of grave metal like Candlemass, old Cathedral or the duch butchers Asphyx, there is no doubt. Your mission is to bring back to life this forgotten origin of doom and leave there some essence of yourself. For example i can really hear in "Never Cross the Dead" some kind of the typical finnish sense for melody, which simply can't offer any band from other state . How would you describe your own contribution to this ancient legacy?

Thanks! Glad to hear you dig the album! As I said this is what comes out by nature. I grew up listening to those aforementioned bands. When we started I thought there weren´t too many really great death/doom bands around and no one was doing it exactly the way I had envisioned would be the best. As much as we owe to the classics I think we have something more to offer than just a tribute trip, you know. Decent songwriting is everything. We don´t play the same riffs like 2 minutes in hope of giving the appearance of "depression", we don´t use keyboards to create an "atmosphere"... we don´t need any of that to achieve the sound and atmosphere we want. We focus on writing pretty simple yet a bit twisted, memorable songs with catchy, heavy riffs and are still very much able to deliver the dark vibes we want to. That´s also what we have heard from the people... that we don´t bore them to death because there´s enough twists and turns in our songs to keep it interesting yet menacing.

4. Talking about your lyrics, they are mainly concerned about the classic horrors of the 70ties like "Return of the Evil Dead" or " Horror of the Zombie", which is really attractive to me, however it's not so original after all. I belive that there is an infinite amount of certain disturbing events in your lyrics :-D. But the thing no one could ignore is the graphical concept of the Hooded Menace album with the Templars, who are devastating the land and the bodies of their victimes while sitting on horseback. Are those demons included in the lyrics as well? I also expect that you would use them on the next cover arts, would you?

Yeah, the concept is nothing new but it works damn well. We couldn´t think of anything else for this band. There´s no Hooded Menace without horror. I have executed original concepts with Phlegethon back in the day. We had very surrealist, totally weird lyrics and also the music was sometimes a bit extravagant...so getting back to basics, so to speak, is actually very refreshing to me. These lyrical subjects haven´t worn out to me at all. And yes, the graphics and the lyrics go hand in hand. You can expect us using the eyelessTemplar Knights for our graphics in the future as well. The Blind Dead will never die, haha!

5. One more thing about the text. I would like to know, how many people were participating on the "Never Cross the Dead" album or had some direct influence on it? In the case of the first cd, there was an information about five persons.

There were five people (Lucio, Billy, Tanya, Kevin, Elektrokutioner) contributing lyrics for "Never Cross The Dead". They have been around since we started. For the new material we have already been working with Tanya, Kevin and Lucio. Seems like they will be the "key-writers" for the next album.


6. Signing with the Profound Lore Rec. seems to me as an important improvement, because the label is widely considered as top quality with an sufficient amount of various good or even better bands. Was your departure from Razorblack caused by the offer you simply can't refuse? What was the way of cooperation with the Razorblack, was there just an one album contract? Could you somehow define the difference in cooperation between those companies from your own point of view?

We got a few offers and decided to go with Profound Lore. It was simply the best. A spoken deal with Razorback was for the first album and if no one offered us a better deal we ´d have recorded "Never Cross the Dead" and god knows how many albums for Razorback. That would have been very facile choice if no one else wasn´t interested but situations changed... Now we get better promotion, distribution and all that support that we think we need and deserve at this phase. It´s all more "pro" now. This deal gave the album better circumstances. Razorback has a nose for good music, they opened us the doors and Billy was almost like a fourth member of the band with his lyrics and ideas so it was very cosy and a lot of fun to work with the label. But once we got a chance it was time to move on and I´m happy we did. I don´t have a bad word to say about Profound Lore.

7. Except the full lenght "Never Cross the Dead" album, there is also a split with Anima Morte released by Czech label Doomentia Records. Are you satisfied with the result in general and how did this idea came? I don't know Anima Morte, could you help to discover more about them?

The idea of us covering Anima Morte track and vice versa spawned in my head. I think it was a cool idea since Hooded Menace and Anima Morte don´t sound alike but in fact because of the strong horror-soundtrack influence (Anima Morte being pure Italian horror-soundtrack worship!) the both bands have, they actually had quite a lot in common, so a split like that could turn out to an interesting experiment. Something a bit different, you know. So I introduced my idea to Lukas from Doomentia and he said he will put it out. Anima Morte guys were all up for it so we started working on it. I´m very satisfied with the result. Our version sounds like it could be a Hooded Menace song and Anima Morte made our track to sound like it was theirs. That´s what I wanted to hear and that´s what I want people to hear... how much in common we actually have. Also the art drawn by Justin Bartlett turned out awesome so yeah, I´ve got nothing to complain.

8. Still about Czech labels, it's good to mention that Epidemie Records has been recently taking care of other finnish projects from doomy metal genre. Those are Umbra Nihil and Aarni, who are really just a little doomy. Do you know those Oul experimentators? And what is your opinion regarding those extraordinary elements in such a genres like doom or death metal?

I don´t know those bands. So they are a bit experimental and also doomy? Usually that is not my cup of tea but I do like Bloody Panda for example. They are good. .

9. How much do you care about merchandise? Especially today in the age of downloading, it's maybe the only reasonable income for the band? I pitfully haven't discovered any of your stuff on the Doomentia records website, however it could be nice to scare the neighboors early in the mornig with the image of dead templars on the t-shirt, hehe? So where could I find something?

Sure it´s good to have merchandise available but we are not making as much profit out of it as we could since in most cases the merchandise is not produced by us but some company, our friends and so. I have produced only one t-shirt design by myself. I guess I´m a bit lazy and too dumb to care about the biz, haha... after all, all I care is that the stuff is available and that the deals we make are fair. You can find Hooded Menace shirts from Doomentia (soon), EveryDayHate (soon), Relapse, Razorback/Hexamorphosis Prod., Ahdistuksen Aihio Prod. and also one more t-shirt deal is in plans. So there should be plenty around.

10. I belive you would agree with me that the most effective way of promoting your cd among the fans would be concerts. Are HOODED MENACE concerting a lot? And how often do you concert abroad? I know about some planned futur egigs on some festivals in Holland or England? Are those any big festivals? Do you plan to do any gigs in Prague, Brno or Ostrava in the future as well? :-)

We haven´t played live yet. I never liked performing that much and it was only after we got this current line up together that we agreed to do a couple of shows. If it´s something we really enjoy then there will be more gigs, I guess. Of course performing is a good way to promote your band but if you are not having fun doing it, it´s not worth it. This isn´t our job and it´s not supposed to feel like one, you know. Our first gig will be at Black Mass Ritual Fest III in Helsinki, Finland October 1st. 2010. Other bands on the bill are Nirvana 2002, Necros Christos, Dead Congregation, Demigod, Sadistic Intent, Grave Miasma etc. So it´s a killer line up and needless to say we are pretty excited sharing the stage with these amazing bands. And like you said, we are confirmed to play at the festivals in Holland and UK as well. Live Evil Fest in London is "curated" by Fenriz. Meaning all the performing bands are taken from his "Band of the Week" blog. Other bands include Angel Witch, Vulcano, Obliteration etc. Dutch Doom Days in Rotterdam has Place of Skulls, Revelation and Fall of the Idols among others. A few weeks back we were confirmed to play at Maryland Death Fest 2011. So yes, all those are relatively big happenings at least from our perspective as we haven´t played a single gig yet! I guess I´m bit of a Czech fan so Brno and Prague gigs sound killer at least on a paper! I mean, first we have to find out if playing shows is what we really want to do more in the future. To me creating and documenting music is more important than performing. Also the best way for me to enjoy the music is listening to it from the records at home in my own privacy. So I´m not the most enthusiastic gig person in any way.


11. Lasse, could you just say a word about you engagement in Phlegethon? What's the position of this legendary band, which exists about twenty years, nevertheless issued a lot of demos and one ep, in Finland? .

Phlegethon is more or less on hold for now. At the moment it feels like dragging a dead horse. I don´t have a line up for the band and I haven´t even had time to think about it much lately. I guess I´m not too interested to continue it as a one man band. It would rule if I got the old members to join the band or at least one or two of them but unfortunately it seems impossible. So time will tell if there will be any new material. At least the "The Ashes Brought" DVD will be released in 2010 on Doomentia, so all nostalgia hungry freaks look forward to that!

12. I've recently discovered, that there is gonna be a split with the legendary veterans Asphyx, which i belive, is a great advertisement and deal for HOODED MENACE. Which song are you gonna use for such an opportunity? And do you know what will Aphyx use? Will they record any new material for this album? .

Oh yes, to me this split is pretty much a dream come true! Such an honor really! Of course it will get quite a lot of attention because of the mighty Asphyx which is nice. We have recorded a very strong track called "Abode of the Grotesque" for this split. It was recorded in "Never Cross The Dead" sessions so our line up on this split is Pekka and me. The same thing with our splits with Anima Morte and Coffins. I guess Asphyx´s track will be a new piece entitled "We Doom you to Death". Sounds promising, hehe!

13. Lasse, thank you very much for your time during the responses and for good work on "Never Cross the Dead", and now we just have to look forward to the near future with your stylish templar arrangements! .

Thanks so much for this interview! Take care and watch out for the new invasions from our undead camp!