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Missa Pro Defunctis is the second album from Germany's Reign in Blood (wonder where they got that name from?) and as second-wave black metal albums go, it's quite good. The band works some actual riffs into the tremolo picking and blasting drums on "Dawn of a Dying Soul" and the title track, a welcome departure from albums that stick to the "raw" black metal style from beginning to end. The vocals are a mix of haunted wails and raspier shrieks which again, gives Missa Pro Defunctis more character than a lot of Reign in Blood's contemporaries come up with. Don't let these departures from the tenets of "tr00" black metal fool you, however, as this album is a frightening descent into hellish nightmares. Listening to vocalist D. Raise howl the chorus of "Missa Pro Defunctis" will make you sleep with the lights on. A lot of black metal bands these days seem more concerned with the sound whereas Reign in Blood know it is more about the atmosphere, something Missa Pro Defunctis has enough of to fill a tomb.