Inquisition
Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith
Season of Mist
26 August 2016
Review by Matt Bolton
On their seventh offering, Columbian duo Inquisition, now residing in Seattle, leave us with this perfect soundtrack to sacrificing goats and the like. Along with an epic title to the record, Bloodshed across the Empyrean Altar beyond the Celestial Zenith, we have some amazing cover art. We get much anticipated new material after Season of Mist re-released the back catalogue, spruced up with stellar art.
Intro: The Force before Darkness, is exactly that, leading into some blistering blast beats from human drum machine Incubus, with opening track From Chaos They Came. It only takes fifteen seconds before we are hit with the infamous riff to start all riffs, with Dagon leading the two-man army.
Wings of Anu, is a track that will go down well, a departure from the early days, however the band have matured as can be seen in the writing and song structure. Also taking a risk is the sound of Dagon’s vocals that took a little while to get used to, as the pitch has been lowered, sounding less amphibian, giving a stronger impact, although it is still 100% Inquisition.
There is no filler here and you can easily lose yourself in tracks such as, The Flames Of Infinite Blackness Before Creation, which starts off slow paced with a steady beat and Dagon’s eerie guitar stylings, leading into Mystical Blood, with its blast beats and Dagon singing of Satan, a close mate of his, whom I sure would be banging his head to every note.
Other highlights include, Through the Divine Spirit of Satan a Glorious Universe Is Known, where the man gets mentioned yet again, even in the title this time, with its nifty guitar solo and acoustic guitar outro, leading into title track, which is an absolute epic piece. The guitar riffs that start out are just a taste of what is to come. I.e. the stomping riffs that you will be banging your heads to in no time. So do yourself a favour and go out and grab every record. Worship the amazing black metal created and be sure to back it up with a live experience. Hail Satan! Hail Inquistion!
