INQUISITOR is a Melodic, Avant-Garde/Black Metal band based out of Lithuania. Formed in 2002, this is their second full-length release, and contains six tracks. "Hearken, Memmius" leads off the album. The speedy wall of sound and Black Metal screams combine with a heavy dissonance to create a track that stays within the traditional realm of this genre but with its own unique spin. The vocals are more prominent than is sometimes heard, and there is a change of pace towards the end of the track to a more staccato guitar and bass attack. "Hence the Mouthful of Time" is a slower, more grinding song that still puts forth a lot of sound, especially from the furious drumming throughout, but piano melodies haunt the background amidst the odd mix of instrumentation. This is where I think the Avant-Garde elements come into the forefront. If there was ever a mix of artful musical interpretation in this genre, I haven't heard it.

In contrast, the darkness of "Quae Sint" is tempered by piano, as if a maddened ghost in his final resting place is playing in an empty church, long hollowed by fire and the slow decay of time. At times I get a DIMMU BORGIR vibe from some of the chord progressions and overall structures but if only a hint. The complexities and depth of the music is really underscored here. It looms over you with ominous tones and threatens to burst but holds you in suspension the entire time. "Evidence, The Inexorable Dowry" opens with the discord of some strummed guitar chords and stretches into the corners a little more with some discernible structure and harmonies amidst the chaos. The eerie final minute raises the hairs on your neck to the alert level. "Of Waters and Circling Thetis" rolls back around to an all-out assault where the level of sound reaches near break-neck elevation. But, the Avant-Garde elements remain strong. Anytime the piano notes come through it just takes the track to a totally different place in the space/time continuum. You really have to listen to it several times to really gain the impact and prowess of what it would take to compose something of this sound. It is actually very impressive.

Closing the album is the eight minute masterpiece entitled "Peri Hermeneias." Clean vocals lead off the song with some running piano parts that are completely harmonious together. When the Black vocals come in the track gains some additional depth and texture, and it is very reminiscent of some of the modern day Metal giants like NE OBLIVISCARIS. Subtly shifting and changing throughout, this song sews together a plethora of various fabrics that connect in way that almost defies possibility. Once again the evolving genre of modern Black Metal pushes forth another unique album that really shows the growth and complexity that it can offer. Black Metal used to be a pretty standard product that was fairly narrow in its scope, but that is clearly not the case any longer. "Clinamen/Esisteme" is an album that continues to prove this point. Creative, unique, deep in meaning, textural and musical in a way that I haven't really heard before, it is worth getting for the compositional style points alone.