Inquisition

The band Inquisition was formed in 1988 in Cali, Colombia by Dagon. The band started as a thrash metal act, and in 1994 evolved into raw black metal.

In 1996, Dagon left Colombia and moved back to the United States to continue Inquisition and search for a new drummer. That same year Dagon met Incubus, who joined the band on drums and the creation of their debut full length album began. This line-up has remained stable for more than ten years and is now seen as the classic Inquisition line-up.

Inquisition resides north of Seattle, Washington, USA.

The band's style of black metal involves slow, deep and dark riffing combined with sudden tempo changes to faster sections based around blast beats and high-speed riffing; at times adding melodic solos. The classic Inquisition sound involves the combination of old school thrash metal-influenced riffs with darker and more chaotic black metal, primarily involving fast, tremolo picked minor-key guitar riffs, thus creating the trademark "Inquisition sound".

Another notable element of the Inquisition sound is Incubus' blast beat style, in which the snare works together with the hi-hat or ride while alternating the two bass drums, as opposed to alternating the snare and kick, the more traditional form. This style is somewhat uncommon in black metal, being used much more prevalently in brutal death metal.

Dagon's voice is rather monotonous, with the intention of inducing a trance-like feeling. Dagon has said that the vocals he expresses are not to reflect that of a human, but rather that of an unseen entity in demonic form and screaming or shouting will not connect the message correctly.