Virgin Black
Sombre Romantic
The End, 2002

This Australian band present a cultured form of orchestral gothic doom metal, wedding mournful emotions and dark atmospheres with symphonic elements. Compositional arrangements reveal a knowledge of classical music theory, as each song is defined by movements independently significant yet essential to the entirety. The employment of cello, choirs, electronic percussion, and keyboards assist in the creation of an involved sound-picture with tendencies towards elaborations on particular themes, usually followed by a sweptback passage in deceptive contradiction. The intention is to establish and maintain a pensive ambience through a variety of musical embellishments, exploring the rich sonic realms of dark emotions through the medium of modern music styles haunted by the spirit of classical traditions.

Virgin Black’s music relies predominantly upon the drama of suspense. Each song, and indeed the entire album, unfolds to reveal its essence through the sequence of passages dramatically building towards a desired climax. Suspenseful pauses and departures keep the attentive listener interested and engaged, in anticipation of a powerful, beautiful culmination. The band are excellent in this department, enveloping its audience in dramatic suspense while creating a sorrowful yet contemplative atmosphere, never quite suicidal but always in careful observation of an inner despair whose coldness can never fade. Yet, because it is often the case that the longed-for climax either never truly arrives or fails to satisfy the suspense that aspired towards it, Virgin Black’s music leaves the honest listener unfulfilled, cheated, and ultimately disappointed. The impressive ideas employed by the band in the development of compositional character are therefore like broken promises or seducers of invested hope offering nothing in return. The songs are abstractly arranged, lack cohesion, and most importantly, lack any sense of direction. This all makes for a terribly fragmented listening experience. The grossest offender in this manner is the opening "Opera De Romanci", which sets a wonderfully dramatic stage on which the listener expects some tremendous finale to occur, only to be left empty in the end as the band fails to deliver a fitting conclusion. A close second to this major disappointment arrives in "Weep For Me", which sets a gloriously dark and sorrowful atmosphere through nail-on-the-head melancholic doom metal adorned with a heart-piercing lead guitar melody, yet fades away without ever elaborating on this idea, as if the band could not identify how to do so, but did not wish to let such a fantastic piece of music miss out on making the album. It is a tremendous build all for naught in nearly every song on the album, with only the spectacular "Museum Of Iscariot" proving to be the exception. Here, at last, Virgin Black get it right. The morose theater of this song is full of desperate emotion through the lamented singing over stark acoustic guitar, followed by a guitar solo of astounding and gripping raw emotion. The track gradually and gracefully builds, with each movement making an intelligent transition to its next logical level, rising in vividness while keenly aware of timely dynamics, concluding in reflective passion. This compelling song, which guides the listener through its entirety with a smoothness of flow like a beautifully unfolding story, should be the model for everything this band ever attempts, as it is exactly what every other song on this album yearns to be, but fails.

An unsettled spiritual condition is explored through the lyrics, and the album’s conceptual theme is a vigorous yet sorrow-filled examination of religious philosophy, a search for spiritual truth through an acknowledgment of the insignificance of the physical manifestation of the soul. Through a heightened sense of awareness discovered through deep solitude, wherein the darkness of existence is contemplated, all "evil" is revealed as the same as all "good" in the end. All is one. The realization of this brings to the observer a level of understanding which allows, through the knowledge acquired from spiritual reflection, a sufficient condition for an affirmation or denial of this world. It is at this moment of realization that the subject can feel the entire universe existing purely in the mind of the observer, and the continuance of everything depends on where this observer goes from this point forward. The universe has no sympathy, and must carry out its operation regardless of the sorrows and desires of one simple individual. The heart cries "Impossible!", and yearns for something beyond this reality...

"...My eyes will see,
If my spirit lives."

But the world is manifested suffering, and everlasting peace is a hopeless dream. And so the thrashing about of flesh-encased souls is everywhere the condition of life, constructing belief systems to assist in the understanding and to offer some hope for a better world beyond the grave. Mournful plight of humanity marches on and on, forever in search of some truth that can never be revealed in this time or place, desperately longing for a revelation to provide some answer, some meaning, to this seemingly hopeless state. Left with only the comfort of faith, the world is rejected as unfit for human flourishing, and so it is, but what promise can faith offer, when it comes from the same world that is rejected? Everything we know comes from this world, and nothing else can be known, as no other worlds exist to us. The struggle lies in the choice of rejection or affirmation, and neither promises true salvation.

"The sun receives an empty gaze
It mourns
It knows my life is gone
No more to offer
But my flesh to this soil"

In study of these fascinating lyrics of intense soul-searching, the unrealized potential of this album is truly a pity. It should be a much better work than it is. At times, the music achieves effective results through the clever utilization of ideas, such as the sudden peaks in intensity during "Walk Without Limbs", highlighted by aggressive riffs and impassioned screams arriving without warning from cold and quiet keyboard ambience. This is demanding music, to be sure, but it is weakened by the failure of the writing in terms of creating satisfying conclusions, as well as an uneven production that leaves the snare drum painfully thin in sound, which detracts from the overall power of the music. A focus on these primary shortcomings should prove positive for future endeavors for this talented and ambitious group.

* Sombre Romantic was originally self-released in 2001. It was re-released on The End Records in 2002, along with the three-song Trance EP.

7/22/07

1. Opera De Romanci
I: Stare
2. II: Embrace
3. Walk Without Limbs
4. Of Your Beauty
5. Drink The Midnight Hymn
6. Museum Of Iscariot
I: Stagnation
II: Death
III: Procession
7. Lamenting Kiss
8. Weep For Me
9. I Sleep With The Emperor
10. A Poets Tears Of Porcelain

Virgin Black
Elegant...And Dying
The End, 2003

Virgin Black produce another mournfully dramatic work of dark, symphonic gothic/doom metal on second full-length, Elegant...And Dying. Sorrowful riffs, serviceable rhythms, melancholic melodies, and desperate vocals form the sonic core, as rich, solemn guitar leads, choirs, and contemplative sections defined by stark piano, ambient keyboards, and clean guitar, adorn the music with a dark, somber atmosphere. Thematically emphasized is an inner/natural spirituality over indoctrinated religion in pursuit for a connection with a universal spirit as a personally and intimately discovered "God", rather than fear-forced allegiance to a human-constructed deity. In this view, Virgin Black endorse life according to personal experience from which one gains knowledge of the world through sheer existence, and arranges one’s life accordingly, not in obedience to a list of rigid commandments which fail to take into consideration the circumstantial and emotional nature of human existence.

"Look at us dying
A field of human crucifixes, weathered and fading
Heaven hears nothing as the priests are wailing
And they’re crushing our souls"

The band pose the question: Must one embrace what cannot be denied? All knowledge acquired through experience, once correctly processed and reflected upon, reveals a way that the world is. Even if that way is disturbing to one’s desires, what is discovered to be true, in whatever method that discovery has been formulated, must be accepted until a new realization proves this discovery as false. But certainly, such painful discoveries must not always be embraced, though embracing some, such as our mortality, can enrich the human experience. Self-sacrifice leads to existential despair, though Virgin Black struggle with the idea of turning their backs to the world for the attainment of some higher purpose. What is this higher purpose? If turning one’s back to the "world" means resisting the ways of the common mass for the development of a more inwardly rewarding and fulfilling life, then there is something to be attained. But beyond this world, this earth, this flesh, nothing can be truly known, no matter how firmly one’s beliefs and hopes stand in opposition to this. It is not the world, but the transient, finite nature of the self that is the source of all true suffering. The world is only a stage. Virgin Black find that "all is lost but hope". Yet hope is suffering in the form of longing to fill a void or of deliverance from another manner of suffering. What sense is hope for a better world beyond this life? Is this not wasted hope, and hence, needless suffering?

Overall, this album is more focused in its compositional evolutions compared to the band’s intriguing yet apportioned debut. Most tracks are rewarded a fitting conclusion, which makes for a more satisfying listen in terms of emotional gratification and aesthetic culmination, something Sombre Romantic promised on the surface yet ultimately failed to deliver in the end. A stronger, fuller production presents a more balanced sound, though there are still some issues with the sound of the snare drum. This time around, Virgin Black work a central idea into an expansion of the essential theme to create songs that sound and feel more purposeful and thought-out. This means a more minimalist affair than before, though that description applies only to the restraint the band have placed on implementing elements that may stand isolated as interesting, yet are insignificant to the whole, or worse, detract from the entirety. A few wayward compositions on Elegant...And Dying are afflicted by this as well, which upsets consistency and flow, particularly the longer tracks found on the second half of this disc. Virgin Black aim for a stark theater of melodramatic metal music, and that ambition is what sets this band apart from the common lot of gothic/symphonic/doom bands. They possess a genuine understanding of classical music theory which influences the form and direction of their music, contrary to most bands with similar aspirations who lack the sufficient knowledge to fully realize their intentions. Virgin Black are interested in creating high-brow metal music that will find its audience in the more cultured metal or gothic music fan, as well as the more adventurous lover of classical music. At this stage, their potential is boiling over. If they ever reach it remains to be seen, though this album finds the band coming close..

8/4/07

1. Adorned In Ashes
2. Velvet Tongue
3. And The Kiss Of God’s Mouth Part 1
4. Part 2
5. Renaissance
6. The Everlasting
7. Cult Of Crucifixion
8. Beloved
9. Our Wings Are Burning

Virgin Black

The End

Virgin Black Discography

Trance EP (Self-released, 1998/The End, 2002)
Sombre Romantic (Self-released, 2001/The End, 2002)
Elegant...And Dying (The End, 2003)
Requiem - Mezzo Forte (The End, 2007)