Blood Stained Dusk – Black Faith Inquisition (2008)

Blood Stained Dusk hail from …. Alabama, USA?. This American Black Metal masters feature the every enigmatic Pest on vocals and with this they have guaranteed their place in the Black Metal hall of fame. But it’s not only the vocalist that make this band great, all musicians in the band play they instruments with hate and fury to produce on the most brutal releases I’ve heard from 2008.

The guitar work is intense and never let goes, and this band does not play 4 minutes songs, most song in this album are well over 9 minutes. The intensity of the songs only decreases when the ritualistic keyboard passages occur, only to be picked up again, and the blasphemous blasting continues. The keyboards create a majestic cold atmosphere that keeps the listener attentive to whatever surprise is coming next.

I have to note that this release features brutal black metal that is very melodic in nature, not as harsh as the likes of Horna, but it features the same intensity surrounded by a more melodic atmosphere. Great guitar solos adorn this music from time to time, just adding more dimensions to this brilliant release.

This band sounds a lot like the early albums of Scandinavian black metal bands (Emperor, Satyricon and Dissection). Each song has it’s own individual characteristics to make them great and stand out from each other. Making this album very fresh and it does not feature any dull moments.

The drumming intensity is admirable, and it also provides great changes in the pace of the music to incorporate more rhythmical and melodic parts that will have everybody head banging from start to end.

I must say that I was not expecting this release to be this good, and from now on I’ll be waiting for this bands new release, and looking for their back catalog.

Country: USA