Inquisition ‎"Obscure Verses For The Multiverse" CD

I have seen many ideas combined with the Satanic origins of black metal: suicide, pagan faiths, not to mention a whole host of racist beliefs. Inquisition, however, manages to congeal Satanic ideology with motifs in lyrics that border on pantheism. The repeated references to cosmic forces and astronomy are strange, to be sure, but Dagon makes them work.
Dagon's voice itself is an integral part of this album. Most people who try to sing with a vocal fry sound really cheap or weak, but the force with which Dagon delivers his lyrics can't be understated. Another benefit of the vocal fry is that it doesn't draw overmuch attention to itself: a shriek would bring the vocals into the limelight and a growl might be drowned out in the guitar work, but the absence of a bass line lets Dagon's vocal fry find its way into the music in a very satisfying way indeed.
The guitar work is another high point of the album. It's actually quite surprising that there's only one guitar part here (and that Inquisition performs live with only two members!), because half the time it sounds like there's a rhythm part and a lead part. But that there's only one instrument leads Dagon to quite a few creative patterns. He doesn't engage in the repetitive tremolo picking that might serve as a backing guitar part in other black metal acts, nor does he truly perform chilling, hair-raising solos. From start to finish, the guitar work is a central component of the album, not in the background, nor truly the main part of the music either. Similar statements can be made about percussion. It's fast, its aggressive, its technical, but it doesn't draw too much attention to itself.
So what makes this album so good? Well apart from the brilliant composition and how well the three "instruments" work with one another, and the lyrical content aside, it's rather pleasant to the ear. Black metal need not be dissonant and un-listenable, apparently--Obscure Verses for the Multiverse isn't catchy, not really, but it's fast, its pulse-pounding, the vocals are threatening and dark but not truly evil, and technical and creative guitar work make this album one of the greats for 2013. I strongly recommend it to all black metal fans.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...