'Houses of the Unholy' is their most disciplined work. Tatsu Mikami's bass plays a less dominant role here and is the perfect companion to the ultimately dominating riff work that this great album displays while vocalist Hideki Fukasawa remains one of the best singer in the history of the band. Just like on their last record 'The Second Coming' he uses his analogue synths at times and the result is simply overwhelming. It's always exciting, when he's adding some trippy sound f/x to that murderously ripping wall of sound. In fact it's redundant to mention that 'Houses of the Unholy' is varied from start to finish, which is a thing that I personally value. The usual amount of well chosen samples increasing the intensity of this album and they're embedded in a perfect way between most of the seven songs. It's also great to see that CHURCH OF MISERY signed with Rise Above Records, because it was always difficult to find their records in a shop, but this problem should be solved by now. So, all in all, 'Houses of the Unholy' is another quality album from Japan's premier doom band and the next magnificent release in 2009. Trust me , you won't be fretting because you spent your money on it. By the way, the album title is a nice allusion to Led Zep's fifth record. Nice idea. (Clear Spot)