Virgin Black - Requiem mezzo forte (2007)

Formed in 1993, in Adelaide, Australia, I was first introduced to Virgin Black in the late-90s, when I stumbled upon a Christian metal show on a local radio station - a show which played its last track only a few weeks later.  That song was "Mother of Cripples", an early doom/death number - and quite possibly their demo. For a band played on a Christian Metal show, VB do not come across as typical of that genre.

The name, which sounds almost bordering on black metal, is said to represent "the juxtaposition of purity and humanity's darkness"*

In 2006, they undertook a project to release a trinity of albums, all named for their sound using the classical terms. I (thanks to my beloved brother) own two of them. I do not own the third one, the most beautiful and classical sounding of the three ("Pianissimo"), because the band took an "extended break" and have still not released it.

"Mezzo Forte" means "moderately loud". This album features the band performing with the Adelaide Symphonic Orchestra.

The cover features a portrait on parchment, one of those old style sepia artworks. The head is aflame, the vivide orange dancing across in stunning contrast to the shades of brown and tan. It is a booklet, and inside the lyrics read as typical goth-doom - poetic, majestic, dark and sorrow-filled.

"Requiem, Kyrie" begins with low, haunting melodies, deep and visceral, the sort that sends a chill down your spine. Chanting, spectral and eerie. Slowly the other instruments creep in, an orcheastra laden with gloom and tragedy. Rising over them, flitting like a gentle breeze bringing with it maudlin hope, the vocals rise and swoop and soar. Heavy with melancholy, desolation and loss, this truly is a requiem.

Heavier, but slow, dirge like, "In Death" has male vocals - merging the low, deep and haunted with the guttural snarls and grunts, punctuated by the rise and fall of the orchestra, the tension of drums and a spectral female choir. A gloriously dark, haunting and spooky symphony.

Harmonious, dark shadows of twilight stretching out across the fields as "Midnight's Hymn" comes upon us. The piano touch of frost. The churning of a double bass, and from the shadows a spectral voice rises, a strange and msyetious figure, as though created by moonlight. A man joins her, his voice low, echoeing, powerful.

"...And I am suffering...." is slow and laden with grief, loss and a hint of longing. The harmony between orchestral instruments and the soaring operatic vocals is truly a majestic combination, an aural delight. There is nothing more sublime, more beautiful than classical and metal joined in glorious harmony. So laden with emotion, power, drama. To anyone who claims that heavy metal is "just noise" - I would challenge them to listen to this album - it is impossible to do so without being moved:

"...when will my sorrow begin to pale?"

The bittersweet harmony of strings opens "Domine", in which the guitars and drums come crashing down, slow and strong. This is a much heavier number, the vocals slipping from guttural growls to higher, tenor-esque despair. There is an edge of menace.

Heart-aching, heart breaking, we step into the dirge that is "Lacrimosa (I am blind with weeping)". Lacrimosa is a beautiful word, would make a lovely Goth name. The harmonies of voice and string replicate the grief that falls upon one's heart, making it leaden with misery. Choirs rise in an anthem to despair.

Finally, it is time to "Rest Eternal" with a song reminscient of the earlier one - slow, heart-wrenching, lade with bittersweet melancholia. Atmospheric, emotive. Haunting.

Beautiful.

This is an album laden with layers and beauty. Unrepentingly sorrow-filled, but never gloomy or depressing, just a symphony of sadness, a requiem. The combination of orchestra and choral vocals, interspersed with the occasional more traditional heavy metal instruments and death metal vocals all combine to create an anthemic, sublime and magnificantly dark and haunting album.

I shall rate it 9/10.

I wish I could get my mitts on ""Pianissimo"... Why not release it already!

* From the source of all knowlege - wikipedia

Deliverance - Camelot-in-Smithereens (1995)

Deliverance formed in the 80s as a thrash band and gradually morphed their way into a more progressive, melodic sound, akin to Queensryche. Taking a decidedly Christian approach, they were generally overlooked in the metal circles, since most non-Christian metallers don't appreciate being preached to. And their lyrics are quite preachy, but they make up for it by being a jolly decent band. This was their poorest selling record at the time of release (or soon thereafter, obviously).

My exposure to Christian Metal was through a local radio station in Golden Bay. I later found one on another station in Christchurch, one week before it disbanded forever. This introduced me to bands like Sacred Warrior, Crystavox, Virgin Black, Seventh Angel* and possibly some others. I swear I've heard Vengence Rising too, but they obviously didn't leave a lasting impression because I cannot remember their song!

 This is one of two Deliverance albums I own. It is their seventh full length album. I should have listened to the other one first (it's an earlier release) but this one hasn't had so much "ear play".

As packaging goes, it's pretty dull. Designed to look Arthurian I think, in that it's all sepia tones and parchment patterned, with the writing and cross/circle designed to look like embossing on leather.  Lyrics inside and no band photo, although the back cover features a photograph of one of those narrow castle windows.

The album opens with the appropriately entitled "Somber Theme (where are you)". Vocalist Jimmy P Brown has a low voice, a high baritone (at my guess) with good strength to it. He sounds rather like Geoff Tate doing the low notes, but does not do the operatic tenor of Tate. Somewhat repetitive but with a strong somber and sonerous sound.

Second track "Lindsay" begins with heavy rifts and eerie distortion, like the climactic build up during a horror movie. Then the drums and bass guitar kicks in.The vocals are low and smooth, edged with honey. I think this may be a song about unwanted pregnancy - at least a spoken bit (half drowned by bass) indicates this. Apparently those between the ages of 15 and 21 make up 42% of unwanetd pregnancies.

"Not Too Good For Me" has a distinctly Queensryche vibe - albeit from their less interesting days. Brown's voice has a good strong vibe to it, and I want to say "cadence" but I'm not 100% sure if I'd be using the term accurately. Wikipedia isn't too helpful on describing how things sound. Much like this blog really. The beginning is slightly echoey and eerie, before a more typical rock vibe steps in.

The moody "Anymore" beings with slow, entwiningly melancholic guitar. The vocals are, once again, mid-low and smooth and rich, like milk chocolate. Funnily enough, I was just discussing the use of the word "anymore" in writing and whether or not it was appropriate to use it. In this case, definitely. The low sound creates a wall of emotional pain and loss, the strumming bass accentuating this, punctuated by sharp percusson.

Picking up the pace, but not the mood we shift into "Book Ends". The vocals are pitched higher, proving that Brown can manage a passable tenor (albeit not for long) - and does sound quite surprisingly like Geoff Tate (in more recent days when his vocal range has shifted down an octave). Songs filled with reading puns are all good by me!

"...I'm on the shelf..."

Even if it is a "finding God" song and the lyrics print the word "two" as the number "2" which I  do not like. But it is better than in the previous track, where they substituted the word "for" for "4". Ick *shudders*.

The tempo picks up and into the rockin' "Beauty and the Beast". Good rhythms and catchy rhymes. Sound kinda familiar? It's a Bowie song. Brown's voice is not entirely disimilar to Bowie, although not quite as low and sehxy. My favourite so far.

"Make my Bed in Hell" begins with low, distorted vocals, moving faster until the words trip over themselves.

By "The Red Roof" I'm starting to zone out a bit. The songs are good - pleasant to listen to and the vocals are appealing. But they're not particularly inspiring and are beginning to blur together. Perhaps this is why it has taken me almost a week to get around to reviewing this album (I keep starting it then getting distracted from dissecting and having to backtrack a track). It ends with evil and meancing distortion, like mists raising from the gates of Hell.

We then move into another low and moody song - "In-U". Again with the horrible text speak. This was published in 1995. Was text speak even really used then? Anyhow, this is the song that kept playing on my ishuffle when I had this album loaded onto it. It's good, strong, with some very powerful and quite stirring moments. Good bit of emotional overload in the chorus. He seems very passionate in his faith:

"Just when I thought my life was through, it was then that I found my faith in the fact that I believe... in U."

How does this album rate? Well, individually the tracks are pleasing to listen to. The vocals are low and smooth, occasionally low enough to be considered properly sexy, but generally a sort of halfway between tenor and baritone that is not variable enough to sustain the interest for an entire album. The pacing of the songs seems to be consistently slow and a little depressive. Lyrics don't seem to be too much preaching or God bothering. Not as dull as the more recent Queensryche, but not nearly as interesting as the older.

I'd give it 7/10 but the use of single letters or numbers instead of words bugs me too much. So I'll dock them half a point  and rate it 6.5/10.

* Although I believe that was actually through Speed Kills 6 and "Falling away from reality" a song about suicide, actually, the whole album ("Lament for the Weary") is about abuse leading to suicidal thoughts and presumerably eventually the finding of God. Pretty depressing for a concept album.

Jacob's Dream - Drama of the Ages (2005)

Who are Jacob's Dream? I cannot remember when - or even why - I bought this album, but it has the distinction of being the only CD in my collection by an artist beginning with "J". I presume it was acquired on a "lets-browse-the-music-store-and-choose-some-bands-to-listen-to". It's also obviously a clearance line - having a hole bored through the barcode on the back cover (and a big crease through it - grrr).

And it's actually pretty good.

The vocals are strong - sort of a mix between Deliverance and Queensryche. Not a description that will help many people (since Deliverance are moderately obscure). Let's just say - higher pitch intermingled with some quite sexy lower vocals and a touch of a raw edge.

The genre is probably somewhere around power metal and progressive, the later aided by the zippy synth sound that beckons us in to the first track. Let's see what they call themselves (to wikipedia!).

Hrm, they are a Christian band - which would explain the vocals, if all Christian metal bands had to sound like Deliverance. Maybe they draw their inspiration from the same sources (well, of course they do lyrically, but I'm talking, musically).

The name should have been a tip-off - it relates to the Book of Genesis.

Well, let us not judge them by their religion, but by the quality of their music. It seems a little odd to me that Christian Metal bands kind of get pushed away to play in the corner, and don't get to hang out with the other bands, and most of them are pretty obscure - after discovering a Christian metal show on a local (community) radio station I collected a selection of songs, and then spent ages trying to work out who "Crestive Ox" were. Turned out it was "Crystavox." Also, a several years mystery over a song called "Little Secrets" that eventually turned out to be by Christian Metal band, Sacred Warrior.

Anyhow, enough exposition, let's start the dissection.

The zippy synth beckons us in to the title track "Drama of the Ages". The chorus is nice and catchy, the lyrics, whilst of course being God-orientated don't seem to be preaching to me (always a plus), indeed, their lyrics read more as fantasy than religion.

"Keeper of the Crown" follows it up. Vocalist Chaz Bond has a strong voice, powerful. I'm starting to see why I bought this album.

"Spinning Leaf" starts as a slower number, and Bond displays the true wealth of his low, rich vocals. Good sound, stirs something deep inside me. I like. A lot. Alas, it doesn't last for the whole song. Oh well, maybe I'll get to hear more of it later. Like the chorus.

"Stand or Fall" has more of the same vocals - including some moderately impressive long notes. I think this is one of the things I liked about Deliverance - the low, sexy vocals the singer occasionally exhibited. But Jacob's Dream do it better.

The pounding and slightly aggressive "Tempest" seems to follow a story of  good vs evil - I can only imagine that the low menacing voice is supposed to be the Devil:

"Where is your God? What are you thinking? Call to him louder; Perhaps he's asleep, maybe he's laughing... You're such a fool! It's been quite a  while, leave him in peace..."

Can we have a ballad please? I think one would be beautiful, thanks ^^

No? Another pounding heavy one again - "Third Way" does have a nifty chorus, vocally. Lyrics are more political than religious -

"A socialist Utopia, equality for all. The ruling elite exempt themselves from the cruel reality."

 Despite having lyrics printed, "Forever Winter" seems to be an instrumental, with the words not starting until almost 4 minutes into the song. "Always winter, never Christmas..." interesting... Isn't that a quote from Narnia or something?

"Drowning Man" finally lets us mellow down a little - at least at first, with its twangy, twiddly guitar and low, croning vocals, but the bass starts a pounding and the guitars pick up rhythm, chug-chug-chugging into full guitar mode and I am cheated of my ballad, with such a wicked little teaser.

"Deceiver of the Nations" is more of the same - variable vocals (maybe the backing vocals are playing a more important role here?), churning guitars. Melodic, yes, but somewhat same-ish after a time.

Love the last verse of "Cutting Words" - very sexy low voice, almost Sisters of Mercy terrain here, almost goth. I'd love to hear more of it.

"Victory" is another churning and heavy song.

The concluding track "At the Gates" seems to start with either a riot or a battle, I'm guessing the second. Alas, it is more of the same as the preceeding tracks and the album concludes without a ballad to speak of. There IS a very nice instrumental piece, buried several minutes after the final song, which is rather pleasing to listen to.

Overall, I highly rate the vocals, and enjoy the sound, but I wish for more of the low and sexy and less of the raw-edged and higher pitched. Lyrically, it was pretty good. Sure, there is a lot of godliness in the lyrics, but I'm okay with that - there was no telling me I'm burning in Hell for not believing, something which really does bug me in the Christian music genre.

I rate this album 7/10 and I believe it will improve on later listenings, when I get to know the songs a wee bit better.