Inquisition — Obscure Verses for the Multiverse

Inquisition really is one of those bands you either love or hate. Very few people feel apathetic about their music largely due to the, well, “unique” vocals that come attached. Yes, I’ll admit that I was one of the sad, sad people who actually disliked Inquisition the first time I heard them. “Why is the vocalist ruining this otherwise fantastic black metal with his Popeye impression?” I wondered when I first listened to Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm back in 2011. After a number of listens though, I found myself enjoying Ominous Doctrines more and more, and it even ended up on my best of 2011 list. With the release of Obscure Verses for the Multiverse I was interested if they’d managed to maintain the high quality of their previous album, and for the most part they have, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Obscure Verses for the Multiverse follows in the footsteps of Ominous Doctrines and continues Inquisition’s tradition of doing so much with so little. It’s really remarkable what this band does with just a guitar and drums. The band is made up of just two members – Dagon, who handles guitars and vocals, and drummer Incubus. That’s right, there’s no bassist. Bass guitar doesn’t get nearly as much credit as it should, and in black metal it’s usually only apparent when the bass isn’t present enough, and the shrill, trebly tremolos stand out on their own. Inquisition avoids this pitfall with Dagon’s style of riffing. The man’s the Tony Iommi of black metal – a bottomless source of killer riffs, and there isn’t a single Inquisition song that doesn’t have at least a few amazing guitar sections. Songs like “Inversion of Ethereal White Stars,” “Joined by Dark Matter, Repelled by Dark Energy,” and “Darkness Flows Towards Unseen Horizons” continue Inquisition’s tradition of providing a ceaseless torrent of fantastic guitar work. The bending, groovy riffs twist and turn, and create a hypnotic, otherworldly atmosphere like the album art suggests. Incubus gives a performance just as tight and energetic as we’ve come to expect, and switches from furious blast beats to calmer sections effortlessly and often.

The speed of Obscure Verses for the Multiverse is generally slower than that on Ominous Doctrines, and the songs tend to be mid-paced, winding tracks. There are moments of full-out aggression as well a number of slow, ringing chords, but songs are mostly somewhere in between. Lacking the variety present on Ominous Doctrines is the albums only weakness. Yes, some listeners will complain about Dagon’s vocals, but the vocal performance, while unusual, fits perfectly with the guitars and drums. Dagon’s croaked, demonic vocals add to mystical qualities of the instrumental work and make the songs seem like eldritch psalms to Satan. They do take some time to get used to, but once you’ve become accustomed to Dagon’s Abbath-like vocals, it’s impossible to imagine Inquisition without them. The production on Obscure Verses is likely the best of their albums, but this doesn’t hold the album back like modern production work on big labels often does.

There really isn’t much more to talk about here. If you liked the direction Inquisition took with Ominous Doctrines, you’ll probably enjoy the material on Obscure Verses to the Multiverse. It may not be as good as their work on their previous album, but it’s still an excellent release and well worth checking out. If you’re one of the poor people who just can’t seem to get past Dagon’s vocals, well, you’re missing out on one of the best albums of 2013 and one fantastic band. As for the rest of us, we’ll enjoy our black, cosmological praises to the Dark One without you.