INQUISITORS OF SATAN

Inquisitors of Satan is the second full-length studio album by French black metal act Deathspell Omega. The band released a couple of split LPs with other black metal acts between their first two studio albums but Inquisitors of Satan is their second studio album with only Deathspell Omega songs. The album was originally released on LP limited to 350 hand-numbered copies but it was re-released on CD in 2003 by the Northern Heritage label.

The music on the album is old school black metal with lots of blast beats and raspy vocals. The songs have a raw and primitive sound and while there are some variation in the songs there is not much variation between the songs. It´s not long ago that I reviewed the Manifestations 2002 (2008) album which was an unreleased album that was recorded shortly after Inquisitors of Satan. The music on that album was very much like the music on Inquisitors of Satan but of higher quality IMO. Only a notch that is.

The musicianship is generally very good in Deathspell Omega but guitarist Hasjarl does stand out as being the creative force in the band. His playing conjures up images in my mind of cold baren wastelands with cripled trees and nothing but utter despair. No sun will ever shine.

The production is lo-fi but better than the early releases from the band and I can enjoy the music without being too distracted by bad sound quality.

Inquisitors of Satan is another release from Deathspell Omega that speaks only to hardcore fans of old school black metal and if I had to choose one album from the early period from the band it wouldn´t be this one. As I said above I find Manifestations 2002 to be the best release from the early period and I would purchase that one before purchasing anything else from that period. Inquisitors of Satan is a 2 star album IMO.