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Inquisition. A band that I swore I would never review again. Nearly two months after I reviewed the Hell's Headbangers 2010 reissue of their debut album, I received a lot of flack from the underground Black Metal community. From insults that I don't know "shit about fuck", which makes me giggle as it was used on the back of a Cradle of Filth DVD as a quote from Bam Margera, to death threats, to a message from Dagon, vocalist of Inquisition, or a crazed fan pretending to be him and I didn't see the difference in the e-mail. At the time, it was disturbing, but today, many of these messages have been added saved, and became another believe it or not story, and one particular e-mail printed out and hanging in my living room as a discussion piece when friends come to visit. But, it seems Hell's Headbangers has a different opinion about that, and in a notification e-mail from their PR director, Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm, the fifth full-length effort from Inquisiton, was available for review. While Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult is a well received album among the underground Black Metal community, it suffered greatly from the vocal approach utilized. Sure, it sounded almost like a ritualistic approach, almost like chanting, but the problem was that there was an extreme lack of energy behind them, and the music simply wasn't the more inspiring either. Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm finds Inquisition utilizing the same musical and vocal approaches, but everything sounds tighter with more effort behind them, clearly showing some great maturity over the years to reach this point. The ritual-like vocal approach shows a little range and effort, nicely complimenting many of the tracks, though there are still some times where it just doesn't work out, such as how the performance of such random words to emphasize certain aspects of the songs, much like certain Thrash musicians would use in their material for any sudden builds in intensity or speed, such as on "Astral Path to Supreme Majesties" with the uttering of the word "whoa" [December 2nd, 2010: this was pointed out by a reader tp be "woe" and not "whoa"]. Musically, is a very strong album. Inquisition doesn't seem to stray far from any of their previous material for Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm, but at the same time continues to grow and create heavier Black Metal tracks of various speeds and approaches for their second wave Black Metal sound. "Astral Path to Supreme Majesties" is a well conceived song that just hammers away at the listener right from the start, offering a good amount of changes in the music, though retaining the same speed, with plenty of technical guitar-work and drumming to keep the song somewhat complex against the traditional rhaspy-spoken word chanting vocals. This song also features some moments where you would just expect clean singing to break out, but the band never violates from their predetermined layout, which ends up being a good thing given the music of the band. However, this doesn't quite wind up being the case for "Desolate Funeral Chant", a much slower paced track that uses the same vocal approach as all the other tracks, but has brief moments for the chorus where the vocals go off the rhaspier style, and become a little more melodic and cleanly sung, giving off a crazed, almost desperate atmosphere to the track, but only for two words before diving right back into the other approach. While this is far from a bad thing, it's also a rather odd section to the song, but it suits the atmosphere of the song nicely, and makes the chorus really stand out among the rest of the album. The production on Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm is nicely done. While the music on this release is actually very clear, a fault that often affects the heaviness and impact of any Metal release, there's still a great deal of distortion on the guitars that keeps many of the tracks sounding crushing on the listener, and the drums add so much to the album, thanks mostly due to some of the extra technicality that some tracks see, yet also offer great restraint to work with the overall atmosphere of the song. The title track, "Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm" is proof enough of this, being a strong track that features a more simplistic approach to the music, but various drumming patterns throughout that nicely capture the haunting, yet punishing environment the band is clearly trying to get across to the listener, as well as making it one of the more impressive tracks on the album. However, while the song itself is very impressive, the vocals wind up not doing it justice. While there's clearly more emphasis presented on the track, a much deeper vocal style would have better suited this song in the long run. Of course, the added cowbell (or just wooden block, not sure exactly what is utilized due to how long in the mix it is) for this track gives it a nice touch, adding just enough of an additional layer to the music to grab the listener from the throat, but in the end it just sounds unecessary and actually casts a Melodic approach along the lines of later Carcass then Black Metal. Of course this sound appears on many other tracks, including the following "Crepuscular Battle Hymn", which has the same kind of atmosphere you would expect from the title, and it works nicely to create a blood pounding war cry. However, what winds up lacking due to the production is the overall atmosphere. While the album sounds rather crushing and brutal to the listener, there are just some tracks that simply don't carry that kind of atmosphere, or any real atmosphere at all outside well done Black Metal. This does wind up hurting some of the tracks on here, though they mostly seem to rely on being heavy, fast-paced songs in the first place. However, the just-shy-of-one-minute instrumental track "Conjuration" winds up suffering from it. Due to the clearer production quality of the album, this track winds up losing some of it's bite, sounding a little more generic, as well as lacking a raw enough atmosphere to capture the haunting effect of the instrumental in the first place. Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm makes for a great Black Metal album, showing a good amount of energy in the vocals, and a considerable amount of energy with the music as well. Over the years, it's clear the band has grown and matured, while keeping to the roots that caused this group to be some infamous in certain Black Metal circles. While the rhaspy chant-like vocal approach hasn't been scrapped, it just sounds a lot better, suiting the music on here far nicer then before. It also doesn't help that there is the clean singng observed, as well as a nice use of gutteral during "Across the Abyss Ancient Horns Gray", which is something that definitely needs to be explored further on future releases. Either way, Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm is, perhaps, the most impressive, energetic, and well recorded Inquisition album up to this point. |
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