Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence

Hard to believe this is the ninth album for Inquisition, who labored long in the underground before being recognized as a consistently great band. It's been four years since the masterful Black Mass for a Mass Grave and, of course, the hard part about following up a great album is having to match it. Inquisition are back to their long album titles with Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence, but overall I find this a step back. It's hard to really pin down, but I think it ends up being a combination of several factors: a more polished production, which removes some of the heaviness and underground vibe, a lack of variation in tempos, which makes these songs sound more like one long song, and Dagon's vocals being more monotonous, so they don't really sound emotive. A lot of the riffs and melodies on here are as good as anything this band has ever produced, but the overall songwriting and sound fall a bit short.