Virgin Black "Elegant... and Dying" CD
[The End]
The second full-length from this Australian gothic doom metal quintet begins with a lengthy and somewhat bland track consisting almost entirely of bombastic orchestral synth arrangements with occasional singing in the distance - leading me to believe that perhaps I might not enjoy this disc as much as their previous outing. Such sentiments continue as the following track, "Velvet Tongue", begins with overdramatic spoken vocals and electronic textures before distorted guitars finally kick in with some nice, slow melodic doom riffing. The problem is, the guitar tone is really pretty weak, lacking density in favor of an interesting sort of rugged texture that leaves things sounding a bit thin, especially due to the fact that the drums are very taut and unnatural sounding as well. I like the way they handle the synths when they're used in more of a modern/experimental manner, rather than the orchestral applications. The only other drawback to the production is that there's no bass guitar in the mix at all. The vocals sound very nice. I mean, shit, most of the songwriting here is pretty good. It's strange because for the most part I like the songs better than the first record, but there are certain portions that I think are rather terrible, and the recording isn't working out for them at all in my opinion. It needs to be a lot thicker and smoother to translate the emotion of the material effectively (and it does come close when distorted guitars are out of the picture). The songs can also be too long, though. Seven minutes, eight minutes, nine minutes... 20 minutes... it's just a bit much for what they're doing in certain instances. "And the Kiss of God's Mouth Part 1" is a brief instrumental (basically, there is some very faint whispering at the end) with an incredible solo, and I would absolutely love to hear a lot more work with that approach in their other songs. "Beloved" is definitely one of the best songs, it's a bit more straightforward and mixes a lot of different vocal styles as well as shifting effortlessly from heavy to calm passages, etc. Very cool. For the most part I think the visuals are cool here. I like that the outer packaging is bright white, while the inner pages are black with dark gray text. There are some band photos and such with the lyrics, but the images on the front cover and back of the booklet are exceptionally awesome... very interesting. Most every song contains some sort of reference to god in one form or another, and I get the feeling that this is a concept album not only due to that, but to the recurrence of phrases such as "all is lost but hope". "On the crest of fire, our wings are burning, How glorious the pain, And the ways of god, shriek out of tune, All is lost but hope, On the crest of fire, Our wings are burning, To the wind's anthem, All is lost but hope." Honestly I do get used to the mix and the guitar tone after about 20 minutes of listening to the record, but nonetheless, with a tighter sound and a slight bit of work in the writing department (i.e. cutting out the cheese) this band is on the road to becoming a definite force. Not bad... I was hoping for more, but not bad. (6/10)
Running time - 74:24, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: And the Kiss of God's Mouth Part 1, And the Kiss of God's Mouth Part 2, Beloved]
The End Records - http://www.theendrecords.com

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