Nefarious Dismal Orations

Inquisition have more power than most black metallers, yet they are but two. Featuring only vocals, drums, and guitars, Nefarious Dismal Orations is genuinely frightening. In such a basic setting, each element is crucial. The vocals are utterly unique, a deliberately dead-sounding croak. It's the metal equivalent of the flat affect. The drums are pummeling, yet they also feel icy, thanks to compressed, steely production. Driving this machine are guitars, which sound amazingly huge coming from one person. Sans counterpoint or harmonies, riffing is the axis of evil here. These are some of the catchiest metal riffs ever written; "Strike of the Morning Star" pulses with hypnotic jangles, while "Through the Infinite Sphere Our Majesty Will Rise" slams between lower and upper registers with malevolence. The title track rumbles menacingly before launching into a fusillade of nagging bends. They're ballistic, like a shower of white-hot projectiles. As the grandiose song titles imply, there's quite a bit of pretension here. But when the undead vocals proclaim, "Strong as iron and steel I attack with hate/Dark legions in service of Satan strike with lethal fate," one can't help but believe them. ~ Cosmo Lee