Reviewed by Tengan
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Special guest: ---
City: Stockholm, Sweden
Venue: The Liffey
Date: 30 August 2014
Inquisition set length: 60 minutes

Inquisition

Inquisition has with their last two albums 'Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm' and 'Obscure Verses for the Multiverse' gone from being a celebrated underground affair to slowly finding their way to a broader recognition within the metal community. In the wake of last years 'Obscure…' the duo's touring once again reached Swedish soil, this time as the main act.

The underground club at The Liffey is small, intimate, gloomy and ideal in theory for the ritualistic black metal of Inquisition. The knee-high stage is situated at the end of a room reminiscent of a small corridor the size of a bomb shelter. How any band with more than two members can share that stage is beyond me.

In practice, the only chance one has of actually seeing the band is to be at the very front. This bears the downside of standing a sound with an immense feedback stemming from the reverb effects of both Dagon's guitar and vocals. Sacrificing the visual experience by moving back along the corridor tube immensely improves the sound however. It is perfectly clear that the basement of The Liffey was not built with concerts in mind, but again it helps to set the mood perfectly and mood is the core of Inquisition's music.

The ritualistic audial incantations constituting the greatness of Inquisition's albums are excellently recreated this evening. Their entire discography is represented with a slight focus on their last two efforts demonstrating the consistency shown throughout their career. Incubus drumming is tight and Dagon's guitar work is true to their studio works to the point where I start to look for any note played wrong to convince myself that it is not pre-recorded. Vocals are as hauntingly chanting as in the studio, but terribly low in the mix during the first half of the set.

The only time they go off script is in the high-pitched parts of some of the tunes. For some reason Dagon choose to go even higher than on record with two issues appearing. First of all the ear-piercing feedback, not the good kind, and second the obvious problem of actually hitting those notes. Whenever these errors occur they totally break the mood of the show.

Said mood is otherwise perfectly set by the combination of an excellent performance from the duo combined with a passive stage approach, Dagon only directly addresses the audience between songs on two occasions. Normally this is a major flaw at any live show, but in the case of Inquisition this gives the impression of a band merely being the channel of a music stemming from forces greater than themselves. They simply appear to be a medium for the great satanic cosmic powers beyond.

The atmosphere from both the venue and the band makes this more of a ritual than a conventional gig. Despite the disruptions caused by the sound and parts of the vocal performance I doubt any Inquisition fan returned to their everyday astral plane dissatisfied.

Performance: 7 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 5 chalices of 10
Best: Nailing the intimate atmosphere of the albums
Worst: The high-pitched vocals

Setlist:
Force of the Floating Tomb
Nefarious Dismal Orations
Command of the Dark Crown
Those of the Night
Embraced by the Unholy Powers of Death and Destruction
Desolate Funeral Chant
We Summon the Winds of Fire (For the Burning of All Holiness)
Master of the Cosmological Black Cauldron
Astral Path to Supreme Majesties
Where Darkness Is Lord and Death the Beginning
Infinite Interstellar Genocide

Related links:
www.facebook.com/inquisition.official