Australia's premier experimentalists, Virgin Black bring us Requiem - Fortissimo. A death/doom album of unexpected primal potency that may well convert Virgin Black listeners to the deathly side of music and convert deathly music listeners to the side of Virgin Black. The album is the extreme partner to 2007's Mezzo-Forte and the yet to be released Pianissimo. Fortissimo features glimpses of classical instrumentation, soprano voice and choral arrangements but is dominated by the thunderous growls of Rowan London (who does not sing melodically at all in this outing) and the genuinely menacing death choir.

Traditionally, a requiem is performed as a funeral rite, and is a composition associated with the expression of grief and mourning. Positioning themselves as part of this ongoing musical tradition, Virgin Black have composed a work of mournful splendour. On Requiem, the experience of sorrow and anguish is transmuted into genuine emotional insight. This is music characterised by an emotional abandonment so intense it effects a transcendence-through-suffering; deeply harrowing yet utterly revelatory. 

Virgin Black's 2001 debut, Sombre Romantic, was heralded as a landmark opus of operatic dark metal. It was a meticulously crafted album in which principal songwriters Rowan London and Samantha Escarbe combined the intensity and aggression of extreme metal elements with a beauty and elegance inspired by classical composition. It's 2003 follow-up, Elegant... and Dying, was an album of even greater sophistication and complexity. With its startling white artwork and its deceptively open, accessible song writing, Elegant... seemed, at first, to be more uplifting and less anguished than its sometimes frenzied and eclectic predecessor, but the gentle exterior masked a vehement outpouring of grief and fragility.

Virgin Black's latest venture, Requiem, promises to be the most challenging and spectacular of its career. In this groundbreaking endeavour, London and Escarbe have composed and produced three albums simultaneously. Each album is a stand-alone work and will be released separately, but the three albums are also fundamentally interconnected, each linked through recurring musical themes and motifs.

The first album of the series, Requiem - Pianissimo, exudes a tragic melancholy. Inspired by the traditions of the Romantic era of classical composition, Pianissimo is an entirely classical album featuring magnificent orchestral and choral arrangements, along with tenor, mezzo-soprano and soprano solo voices. All scores were composed by London and Escarbe, and performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The second of the series, Requiem - Mezzo Forte, further develops the classical and operatic influences within a more identifiably 'metal' framework. Combining traditional metal instrumentation with rich orchestral arrangements, Mezzo Forte captures the dramatic, dark melodic sensibility that Virgin Black fans have come to love and respect. The final album of the series, Requiem - Fortissimo, is a fierce statement of grief, and the band’s heaviest work yet. Combining the brutality of death/doom with an unmistakable sophistication and majesty, Fortissimo concludes the series with a display of greater savagery and abandon.

When the complete series is played end-to-end, listeners will be treated to an evolving soundscape of increasing intensity. With a total duration of over two and a half hours, Requiem is a unique sonic experience. A masterpiece of solemn grandeur from a band at the forefront of musical innovation.  

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