Australia's dark-metal-hybrid act Virgin Black are following up their well-received 2003 offering, “Elegant...and dying”, by releasing three albums simultaneously in 2006 on The End Records.
Each of the three albums is a separate entity, but each is also linked through recurring musical themes and artistic motifs. When fully unfurled in all its grandeur, listeners will experience a grandiloquent two and a half hour requiem mass with three stages of evolution.
Requiem – pianissimo is an entirely classical album with instrumentation performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and featuring spectacular choral arrangements along with tenor, mezzo-soprano and soprano solo voices. “Requiem – pianissimo” forsakes guitars and drums in favour of the melancholic tragedy and bombastic dynamics of classical composition.
Requiem – mezzo forte is where the band joins the orchestra and strikes a balance more reminiscent of previous Virgin Black outings, albeit with greater epic breadth.
The final album, Requiem – fortissimo, unleashes a sound infinitely heavier than anything in Virgin Black’s history. While still retaining an air of classical sensibility, it concludes the series with an intense dose of death/doom.
