The IVth Crusade

The album was recorded in August 1992 at Sawmill Studios in Cornwall, produced by the band with Colin Richardson and engineered by John Cornfield. It was mixed at Fon studios in Sheffield by Alan Fisch and Steve Harris. The line-up is Karl Willetts singing, Gavin Ward and Barry Thomson on guitars, Jo Bench on bass and Andrew Whale on drums. Compared with War Master the tempo drops a long way, and the record is built out of heavy riffs and thickness rather than speed. The influence of doom metal bands such as Candlemass and Pentagram is audible, which brings it close to what is called death-doom. The third track, "Embers", opens and closes on the same figure that "Cenotaph" used on the previous album. The title comes from the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople, and the sleeve reproduces a painting by Eugène Delacroix. In 2025 Joe DiVita of Loudwire named it the best death metal record of 1992, calling that year the most crowded the genre has had. The running order here is the original's as printed.