Prayer for Cleansing turned out to be one of death metal/black metal's one-album wonders of the late '90s and early 2000s -- that is, they recorded only one album before breaking up. Recorded in 1999, Prayer's only album, The Rain in Endless Fall, went out of print after the band's breakup in 2000 but was reissued in 2003 (when Tribunal hired engineer Jamie King to remaster and remix the disc). And by that time, former Prayer guitarist Paul Waggoner had spent three years in Raleigh, NC's Between the Buried and Me -- so it stood to reason that some of the people who knew Waggoner from that outfit would want to hear what his former band sounded like. Stylistically, this release is best described as death metal/black metal with a dose of hardcore. But even though lead singer David Anthem favors the sort of demonic-sounding vocals that death metal/black metal is known for, Prayer was not promoting the occult -- actually, they had a bit of a straight-edge perspective. The CD's credits state, "The members of Prayer for Cleansing support a drug-free vegan lifestyle," and that certainly isn't the sort of thing that Satanists would say. Of course, the straight-edge movement is a turnoff for some headbangers, who argue that they listen to death metal/black metal to get away from political correctness -- not to listen to preachy lectures on the merits of joining PETA (which is arguably the Operation Rescue of the left), not wearing leather jackets, or giving up beer. But Prayer's only album isn't preachy; reading the lyric sheet, one has to look closely for the straight-edge references because they are delivered in a very subliminal fashion. The Rain in Endless Fall isn't mind-blowing, but it's a generally decent, if uneven, footnote in history of underground death metal/black metal. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi

1		A Dozen Black Roses
2		Feinbhas a Ghabhail
3		Winter's Gloom
4		A Dead Soul Born
5		Sonnet
6		Violent Waves
7		Destiny of Culture
8		Chalice of Repentance
9		Bael Na Mblath
10		Sleep Eternal

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