Wizened by their well-earned stature as the fiery Satanic blade for the United States occult black metal campaign for legitimacy in the pop metal caused post-millennium wreckage of death music in the new era Seattle, Washington-area black metal duo Inquisition have smartly avoided the earthly emotional nudity and cloying romanticism typically inherited by the oft trendy, misdirected generations of the craft. Sustaining outsized growth album over album since the late 90’s we can approach their work on ‘Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence‘ knowing it will sum into signature black metallic dread-eared wonderment and resound loudly with their own cursed-mark stamped within its haze ridden atmosphere yet we cannot predict the nuanced direction their search for dark knowledge beyond tradition has taken them in the interim. The unknown, the unexpected and the horrifying distortion of perception still act as the sustenance which has kept their astral form’s levitation whirring on-high for decades and here the machine’s motor is lacking none of its piston action or room-filling cough.

Formed in western Colombia circa 1990 the early days of Inquisition were an extension of the extreme thrash musician Dagon had fostered in Guillotina for a couple of years prior. There is a dual reputation to mind here wherein all pre-1996 or so material is essentially black/thrash metal which served as an important milestone for the Colombian underground extreme metal spheres at the time. The signature of the band arrived in its most raw state soon after wherein a ringing atmospheric guitar tone obsessed over the possibilities of the black metal riff while Dagon‘s monotonic spoken-sung style of oration gave their work an unforgettable personae which matched his ringing slow work amidst the (then) more blast-prone work of drummer Incubus. That signature and the core pact of two has been unfaltering since then and no doubt anyone who’d been around since their early days will recognize the unmistakable wrath of the duo in approach of ‘Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence‘.

While I would typically split a nine album discography into eras, or simply remark on my favorites in brief description, in the case of Inquisition it is probably more important to suggest that their work necessitated itself, spoke for itself in both live and on-record settings as each album improved its aesthetic, production values (to some degree, at least) and began to create a unique direction for itself. In the late 2000’s they’d amassed a large following per their fourth LP (‘Nefarious Dismal Orations‘, 2007) which soon gave way to bigger opportunities and the eventual “breaking out” which was served by everyone’s rightful favorite ‘Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm‘ in 2010. The appropriate level of quickly escalating consistency into a well-known name to compare this to is probably Taake. Of course folks who have followed me since the early days online might recall this era of the band inspiring some of the longest and probably strangest writing from me to date as Inquisition had earned a spot as one of my favorite bands before they’d continued moving on within their own evolution, signing to Season of Mist and exploring their rock guitar interests more thoroughly on ‘Obscure Verses for the Multiverse‘ (2013) an album which’d landed as #6 on my Best of 2013 for its uniquely accessible/catchy qualities. If you’ve not spent years touching upon these milestones in their discography over the years you might not appreciate the blend of the old, the new, and the entirely rethought which features on this new release. At the very least some context for 2020’s ‘Black Mass for a Mass Grave‘ being similarly cumulative is arguably necessary, as that album was more prone to heavy rock inspiration by direct comparison.

One of the great virtues of Inquisition‘s lyricism and themes is their tendency to describe a fairly simple scene or phenomenon in as many words as possible and the next moment use a handful of words to invoke imagery on a scale difficult to comprehend. Here on ‘Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence‘ supernatural depictions reach for the fantastical, delving into dreamlike realms and extraterrestrial-set Satanic rituals of worship and surrealistic beauty and this is somewhat fitting for the intimate melodic guitar lines which act as the thruster for opener “Witchcraft Within a Gothic Tomb”, a relatively punishing meter and stroke of the drums which should be a vivifying drone into view for the longtime fan returning to their realm (see also: the classic rhythmic verve of “A Hidden Ceremony of Blood and Flesh”.); The first few pieces should immediately indicate that these pieces are meant to strike upon their core impact and move on to the next scene. A quick glance at the running order should likewise give the impression that that album will move between its ideas and tangents fairly quickly compared to the last few releases as we find them halving the average song length down to about three and a half minutes and never stretching above the five minute mark, a somewhat unprecedented brevity all things considered and this leaves a couple of ‘Ominous Doctrine…‘ level pieces (“Force of Death is the Force of Life”, “Sorcery Through Crystal Eyes in Search of the Devil”) feeling, compacted into half-realized but still satisfying delve.

The first and perhaps most clear clear standout among several stunning new devices, “Memories Within an Empty Castle in Ruins”, features a voluminous and ethereal chorale synth to introduce its melodic lilt, one of many points on this album where Dagon‘s use of synth/keyboards (see also: “Lord of Absolute Darkness and Infinite Light”) appears to stretch beyond the dungeon synth project he has been tinkering with over the last few years and enter some manner of underwater realm per the guitar effects used for certain refrain. Ever the architect of layers and easy solutions to the “bedroom black metal” conundrum per a skeletal crew, these keys are used to imply rather than clobber the listener over the head and their use transforms for the duration of the full listen. We find a similarly stated phrase, or, a different guitar-lead momentum follow up on the previous song within “Primordial Philosophy and Pure Spirit” a surprisingly “new-age” feeling voice, once again using shuddering guitar effects in distorted shoegazing excess to create a striding melodious series of bigger swipes per the suggested guidance of the previous piece’s basic patternation. This could be read as triumphal, potentially even sentimental per the simple majesty with which it is presented, and I’d found these two pieces to be the clinching moment, the fangs of the full listen that would demand repeated listens and important melodic markers on the pathway through the downward floating haze of the ~45 minute run of the album.

As this thread intensifies the shape of the album becomes a bit more clear, wherein the psychedelic dreaming lure of certain songs eventually fuse into the droning, surrealistic attack otherwise. As I’d suggested newer ideas, auld signature craft, and new wares sourced from their combination (see: the eerie punkish glow of “Light of My Dark Essence”.) How it all bleeds and swirls together becomes important as there is no reasonable point to disconnect and step-away from the varietal flood of pieces which gush from ‘Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence‘ as we reach beyond Side A, now attaining a style which sees well beyond records like ‘Magnificent Glorification of Lucifer‘ while likewise feeling connected to the more pristine voice of the band beyond their sort of breakout release, ‘Obscure Verses for the Multiverse‘, while quieting some (not all) of their heavy rock guitar interest. The harsh atmospheric rush of the main rhythm guitar tone should feel less shockingly stoked with mid-tones at this point of induction, the signature drum sound of Inquisition retains its inhuman snare precision and we continue to discover new tonal reach (“Sorcery Through Crystal Eyes in Search of the Devil”) and vocal stylings (“Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence”) as the maudlin and ‘epic’-stoked ideas seem to pour from final four pieces on the full listen.

The multitude of modes, atmospheric drift, and general float between the more brutal droning whip of certain songs on ‘Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence‘ seem to phase past too quickly for a band known for sticking around too long and belaboring the ear with their hypnotic style. This is a symptom of the over-active heavy music excess of today wherein I’ve come to expect novel ideas to be drained of blood year over year, album after album and in realizing that I have to hand it to Inquisition for finding new pathways through their own manner of fusion herein and letting some of their most profound moments pass without strangling them dry. This’d ultimately inspired far more revisits than the previous two releases from the band on my part as I’d found the whole of the LP haunting and energizing at once, having long been a fan of both the heady and droning extremes presented here. Likewise the iteration presented by the folks tapped into for art direction (cover art from Vincent Fouquet) and sound design/production values (Alejandro Corredor) have done well to begin to characterize this post-cancellation era of the band further, an era which seems to be brimming with classic sounds and refreshed ideas. A high recommendation.

http://label.agoniarecords.com/index.php?a=0NhEiQBw88lAHpRQgBf4v9mDiUEuwERoCChEOejzNOcD8HiCE%2FPTTA%3D%3D

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