Elegant... and Dying

The expectations for this second full-length from Australia's Virgin Black were very high for me. Their previous album Sombre Romantic is a complete masterpiece and a rather unique one as well, at least for my taste of metal. Everything seemed to fit together perfectly on that album, and the songs were build up around a vast multitude of emotions. But could Virgin Black really pull it off again? Well, on Elegant... and Dying they do give it a worthy shot, but doesn't come nearly as close.

Elegant... and Dying is a very well composed album with lots of emotion throughout its 9 songs (8 if you count the two parts of "And the Kiss of God's mouth" as one). Just as expected, there's a great deal of slow, moody, dark passages in their music. Lots of piano, keyboards, cello, slow drums and just dark atmosphere. And on the opposite side of the scale, we hear Virgin Black go at it with crushingly heavy guitars, black metal-ish parts (at least for the guitars) and some parts that seem almost chaotic.

All this is what I had expected, but what I didn't expect was the structure of the songs. Virgin Black composes some really long songs on this album, none shorter than 6 minutes. It gives each song room to explore many musical aspects and ventures into many different moods and musical territories. They are clearly going into a more progressive direction on this album. It makes every song a small journey in itself as there are so many things going on. However, it also makes the songs seem a bit too much alike. It's almost as if you could shuffle the different parts of the songs around with parts from other songs on the album, and it wouldn't make that much of a difference. Parts that do stand out to me is the intro to and the very beginning of "And the Kiss of God's Mouth" which is a full on assault of gorgeous melody and heavy guitars. Also the melodic part of "Beloved" is not to be messed with. And finally the heavy/black part of "The Everlasting" including that awesome and intense chaos-drum-part in the middle of the song. These passages are like hooks to me. I am grabbed and know exactly where I am and what's going on with the music. On the other hand, if I fell asleep during one song and woke up during another, I might not notice that the song had changed into another one, as many other aspects of the songs seem a bit too much alike and the overall feel of each song is rather similar to each other.

Rowan London's vocal performance is in some aspects the trademark of the band, and he surely doesn't disappoint here. He's so amazing at what he does, and seems very much in touch with the music. He delivers the softest and most hauntingly passages, as well as a ton of whispering (which just like the previous album also works really well here) and some great black metal screams.
The other trademark would be Samantha Escarbe's solos. She still delivers some great parts, but nothing as memorable as she has done before. But then again, she has done solos on an almost inhumane level, so it's perfectly fine if she's just "good" ;-)

Virgin black still seems to have issues with religion/Christianity, yet seems to find some sort of comfort in personal beliefs. In my opinion, this is the basis of some very well written and very personal lyrics. Definitely well thought-through and mature stuff.

To rate an album based on other albums of the same band is a bit unfair. Especially for a band like Virgin Black with a release like Sombre Romantic! And I do know that it does seem like that in some parts of my review, and in that aspect, this album is a bit of a letdown. However, on its own, Elegant... and Dying is an magnificent release that does show Virgin Black as a great band that masters both aggressive and melancholic music. And more so than many other bands. This might not be the album to start ones journey with Virgin Black, but it still is a powerful and captivating release!

Note: I also have to say, I am truly fond of the idea about those "hidden" in-between intros and outros Virgin Black puts on their albums between some songs. It's a fun idea and works nicely as a "step on the journey" as each track really is.

Virgin Black take themselves very seriously and if you have the patience or the temperament to do so too, you might be rewarded by some great music. The Australians play a very slow, melodic form of doom metal that should appeal most to those of a romantic persuasion. The closest comparisons I can think of are to Therion's Theli, though much more melancholy and with more mixed vocals, and latter-day My Dying Bride, on albums like Songs of Darkness, Words of Light and Evinta, which was entirely without metal instrumentation. Virgin Black sound more like a symphonic band who discovered metal than the other way round, so keyboards and classical elements are really pushed to the fore here.

This makes the songs a little dull from my point of view, particularly as they are all long (we're talking around 7 or 8 minutes, and 'The Everlasting' lasts for 17) and ideas don't progress that quickly. Since the songs are based around doom and classical ideas, they don't pick up the pace at all, but opt for a physical and emotional duel of crushing riffs and crushing angst. The riffs are deep and slow, completely dropping out of the mix several times in each song to make room for a quiet section. Apart from a few leads, the guitars mostly leave melody to the classical instruments, which are present in the form of piano, cello, violins, flute, choral voices, and so on. The rhythm section is also restrained, merely keeping slow time and not much else. Thus, there isn't much going on from a metal point of view. However, the vocals make the songs very dramatic and emotional, turning the whole event into a kind of funeral doom soliloquy played to a primarily gothic audience.

This may sound exciting to some, but the overt gothic tendencies of Elegant...and Dying (like the title wasn't a clue) do stretch the patience of your average metal fan. I can tolerate other genres of music and there are many non-metal bands and artists that I like, but for me the thickness and fullness of metal is what makes it my favourite type of music. By fullness, I'm not talking about loudness or even general "rightness", more the fact that metal has a very dense sound compared to other genres, meaning that it is a bigger experience to listen to - it doesn't ever fade into the background or stop demanding your attention. This is why a metalhead is usually recognisable in public: you can see their long hair, or their band shirts, or their piercings, or even just the glint in their eye that screams "This is my way of life!". It demands dedication for you to reap its rewards.

Sadly, Virgin Black don't quite manage to keep up any kind of intensity on Elegant...and Dying, because they neglect to provide that fullness of sound that makes metal so special. I wouldn't deny that classical music can come very close to metal in being all-encompassing, but many of the classical sections on this album are either incongruous or just plain boring. From the middle of 'Cult of Crucifixion', there are no fewer than 5 drops from a level of emotional elevation to a quiet, pointless piano melody, one of which is simply one note played over and over. Sometimes, the constant flitting back and forth between determination and inadequate misery is like listening to the first music class of a couple of depressed teenagers who were born into a world where The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Beatles swapped places.

As such it's hard to pick out any parts of the album that stand above the others, because the same excess of (or maybe lack of) ambition dogs pretty much every song. The opening instrumental is actually pretty strong, because it sticks to its task for long enough to build into something significant, while 'The Everlasting' is surprisingly coherent considering its length and the band's weird combination of melancholy and ADD. 'And the Kiss of God's Mouth', with its opening flurry of melodic guitar work, and 'Renaissance' are perhaps the best songs here, but the album works better as a whole, when it has time to unfold its wings and spread its dark mood over the listener. This may appeal to some metal fans, but it's probably more suitable for moody background music or to play in a graveyard in a despair of melancholy.

Many people misjudges the gothic and doom metal genre, partly because they are judging it from another perspective and also because they simply don’t understand it. To me, gothic and doom metal is like abstract and surrealistic art – you should accept it as it is and make it part of you. You can’t expect the bands of these genres to blow your mind away with super fast and heavy guitar riffs and double-bass exploding sounds!

Instead, gothic and doom metal should be appreciated for what it is – the typical slow, mysterious and deep, dark sounds with which it is loaded… Virgin Black certainly made a huge success with this album, as they created a very deep and dark atmosphere from another world with this music. The vocals is something totally different and it keeps you nailed to your chair, wondering “what is coming next?”. To me, listening to this album, is like walking in a dream…it’s as if you escape from reality and get kidnapped to another world where you can experience this deep and mysterious gothic atmosphere filled with mysticism and dreams. The first track, “Adorned in ashes”, creates this atmosphere and it carries on until the last track. The third and fourth tracks fade into each other and from there it is like every song fades into the next. The vocals of Rowan London is very neat and it is certainly something totally different. The vocals and the music on this album goes together like peas and carrots.

The whole album almost sounds like one long song of elegy and misery filled with a religious undertone. It is important that one should not judge this album from a pure dualistic perspective, but from a perspective that makes you realize that this is something totally different and fresh. This band certainly has their own style and they sound much different from other gothic and doom metal bands. If you are into gothic and doom metal, this album is a good buy!

Virgin Black are an Australian Doom/Symphonic Gothic Metal band whom have released two full-lengths to date and are planning on releasing a further three in 2007, good news for the fans, which i consider myself to be. The aptly named "Elegant And Dying" is Virgin Black's second full-length album, consisting of nine songs and is a hefty 74 minutes long.

I wouldn't go as far to say i'm a die-hard fan of the band, but i do enjoy listening to their music when i'm in the right mood to do so. Primarily i stick to my Black Metal, but when i stumbled across this Australian act, i decided it was worth giving them my time to at least try some of their material. Virgin Black are decent, they're not brilliant, but they're not bad either. I wouldn't say they're mediocre or anything like that, but they lack a certainly quality to really make them stand out. My first point when it comes to this album is the disappointing vocals. The vocalist is ... Different. His vocalist are just extremely odd. Very operatic, or at least he seems to be trying for that style. He doesn't pull it off very well to be honest. However indifferent i feel about the vocals, which to be honest are usually the downfall of most bands, i can't fault Virgin Black's musicianship and songwriting. This is where the Doom elements of their music prevail for me. The music can vary at times, from mid tempo to quite slow and monotonous. Some nice riffs and varied drum patterns keep the music interesting enough to hold the listeners attention. The production is top notch however, one thing that cannot be faulted. The mood and tone of the music is very melancholic, which as i mentioned earlier makes the album title apt in terms of what the music is like.

The music tends to merge in my opinion so it makes it quite difficult to give a real analysis of what this album is all about. I'm probably projecting Virgin Black in a bad light, but i don't mean to. They're talented at what they do, but is that enough? Most likely not for most. It's worth a listen if you happen to stumble across it. The real highlight of this album for me is "Velvet Tongue".

To me, there are not enough synonyms in the thesaurus for the word “good” to properly describe this album. To say it is worse than Sombre Romantic is simply comparing two separate entities, which are both amazing and beautiful in their own rights. Elegant and Dying proves once again Virgin Black’s ability to mix dramatic, beautiful, operatic vocalization with high black metal screams, guitar solos from Samantha Escarbe that can send shivers down a persons spine and topping it all of with fantastic lyricism.

Though all tracks are amazing, the one which to me stands out most is their song Our Wings are Burning; it is a perfect example of the bands music. The song manages to keep a captive ear throughout with their wide range of vocal abilities. The composition is beautiful piece which starts slowly and comes to almost a stop then breaks into a faster chorus, with clean operatic vocals and black metal screams, followed by one of the most beautiful guitar solos I have heard. All of the aspects of their music blend beautifully to create musical ups and downs throughout the entire album. Taking all into consideration this is a must have album for any fan of the genre.

After 2001's beautiful "Sombre Romantic," I had very high hopes for this album, but unfortunately it does not live up to my expectations. While SR was epic without trying to be epic, this album tries for the epic and ends up sounding pretentious, tedious, and worst of all boring. The songs are longer, but have less ideas, and while their first album was an intriguing collage of different musical ideas and styles, this one is numbingly similar throughout. Rowan's vocals, while technically better, lack the emotion they once had, and Samantha's leads suffer a similar fate. Sparse orchestration has given way to bombastic excess. Overall, then, if you're new to this band, get the first album, and if you already have "Sombre Romantic" and want more, prepare to be disappointed.