The End Records
2007
Requiem - Mezzo Forte
About This Album
After four years of relative silence following a sophomore album menacingly named Elegant and Dying, many had assumed that Adelaide, Australia's Virgin Black had probably breathed their last; but the orchestral gothic metal project was in fact very much alive, and simply grappling with the challenge of composing a two-and-a-half-hour, three-part song cycle entitled Requiem. April 2007 saw the release of its first installment on CD, although Requiem: Mezzo Forte, as it was called, actually comprised the trilogy's second chapter, with acts one and three -- all recorded simultaneously à la the Lord of the Rings movies -- still forthcoming. Nevertheless, Virgin Black fans will quickly discover that this first, 52-minute mid-section of what's surely to become the band's magnum opus, already feels like the fulfillment of their thus far nebulous musical destiny. In it, their "gothic metal with strings" template is effectively transformed into an altogether grander full-blown symphony with gothic metal elements, marked by predominantly orchestral movements such as the extravagant "Requiem, Kyrie," the sublime melancholy of "Midnight's Hymn," and the suitably suicidal epic ".
Track List (try tracks 3,4 and 5)

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