Review by Adam M on October 20, 2016.

Bringing massive riffs to the table, we have another excursion into black metal by Inquisition. It is a meaty affair with tons of guitar licks to worship. It does take several listens to dig into the material here, but the wait is worth it as there is a huge impact to the material here.

The music is still close to the type of music Immortal plays, but there seems to be a dirtier, more evil vibe at present here. This elevates the music into its own territory that is a wonder to behold. The riffing is sort of similar to what can be found by bands in the thrash genre with huge sweeping arcs. It is massive sounding, more than bands from even that genre, for example. There is no denying that these huge riffs are the main draw of Inquisition and what attracts people to the outfit. There are so many strong moments on this disc that it is hard to pick a favorite. However, the tracks work well as stand-alone songs and don’t particularly need to be played in any particular sequence. In fact, for black metal the album is very listenable as a collection of songs. The problem with the album is that the songs could be more memorable. The guitar licks traverse over you and have an impact, but not one that makes you want to remember the tracks. This is forgiven because the listener will want to listen to the album again due to the power of the riffs alone and nothing else. Compared directly to Immortal’s material, this album ranks up there with most of it, but not along with the band’s very best albums like At the Heart of Winter.

This can be a nice companion piece to the new Abbath album, however, as it is a similar quality to that. Those looking for solid black metal should look no further than Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Alter Beyond the Celestial Zenith.

Rating: 8 out of 10