Virgin Black - Sombre Romantic (10 tracks) +Album Reviews

The Dark Ages with amps

Scott Sweet | Colorado Springs, CO | 12/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Virgin Black is the darkest band I've found whose music and lyrics address spiritual crisis without mocking it. While a lot of metal sounds like the heat of killing, this band sounds like an hour later, when we stop and look at the dead all around us. If you've heard Saviour Machine, Virgin Black moves slower and heavier in that direction.

"Opera de Romanci" opens with a cello and Gregorian chant promising darkness to come. "Embrace" makes good on it with a dose of slow metal and orchestration worthy of a film score. Virgin Black strikes a great balance, alternating between "funeral metal" and orchestration. "Walk Without Limbs" starts with a cool beat, like Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business". Then it changes gears into an industrial-rock sound unusual for this band.

"Of Your Beauty" finally puts Rowan London's operatic voice in front. His voice and the exceptional lyrics pull the listener into a place where it's always 4 a.m., and Winter never quite yields to Spring. "Drink The Midnight Hymn" jumps out of the speakers with a dose of speed metal and shrieking akin to Mayhem. On this CD and the following "Elegant...and Dying", the songs change speeds and modes often. Samantha Escarbe plays guitar with restraint, valuing the songs over solos.

"Museum of Iscariot" is a three-part suite with a lot of variety, and less intensity than some of the tracks before and after. "Lamenting Kiss" has a semi-industrial beat and an opening chant that sounds like a train siren losing strength with distance. Then London's voice takes the lead again. "A Poet's Tears of Porcelain" is a powerful finale - Escarbe finally busts out some fierce guitar melodies. The metal cuts off abruptly, leaving a brief chanted melody to end the whole thing. The image I get from this album is of someone lying down on a stone altar in the dark, eyes open, and waiting."

Opera metal music is reborn again

"Giles The Axeman" | North Carolina | 10/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"virgin black is an unbeleivable band i could'nt beleive my ears when i bought this cd and listen to it, iv'e been listening to opeth for the past six months and virgin black is the only band that has pulled me from listening to opeth. new comers trust me don't listen to the 30 second sound clips because theres not enough there to let you know what kind of band they are i recommend just buy the album you want be disappointed, if youre looking for something different then virgin black is the way to start"

Something more then what you'd expect.

Theseus the Glove | New Port Richey, FL | 08/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sombre Romantic is a step up if you will in the gothic metal genre. It is a very solid album from start to finish but has alot of layers that keep things interesting. Its not what you would really consider to be a "religious" album but there are many undertones that help get the message across. This point being made very clear in "Museum of Iscariot" which talks of Jesus from Judas' point of view.

Rowan's vocal stylings change to meet the moods of every song on this album, from low opera type to screaming, in a superb way that stays consistent and never gets old. If you are into relaxed darkwave/goth music this is a perfect album to purchase."

***comfort in darkness***

Mr. Robert C. Wilson | London, uk | 10/17/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In the current musical mood of whiney bands singing about fake depression and supposedly "dark" passages of songs...ie. 15 seconds of a minor chord, it is ironacaly refreshing to find a band that projects genuine sadness in their music. This is not done through whiney vocals and teenage-poetry lyrics however. It is conveyed through a mixture of beautiful, classically trained vocal passages, mournful piano amd sweeping strings which are all mixed into virgins black dark yet beautiful brand of doom metal meeting neoclassical music.

The band themselves say that they sound like "comfort in dakness" and this is excactly right. Although the music is dark , it is not bleak suck as bands like opeth, and it is not cold like agalloch, but warm and beautiful.

This album consists of 10 tracks. Some of them can run together and pass without huge distinction, however this album will be worth any pennies you part with for the pure beauty of the albums better tracks. songs 1,2,4,6 are some of the darkest sounds ive ever heard. Imagine a mixture of gregorian chants anthony and the Johnsons, an orchestra and black metal.

The guitars could be better and are at times uninteresting, but this album is not about riffs and choruses, it is about atmospher, mood, texture and dynamics. I personally find that this release along with all of VB's efforts is carried by the vocals which are amazing. They are mournful and beautiful, classically trained though he is, he also has black metal influances and has high ,black screams at times.

It is the sort of album where individual songs themselves are not hugely important, but rather the listener should allow himself to be submerged in the warm darkness of the music. This is truly comfort in darkness and is definatly worth buying if you like ;

Orchestral black metal

opeth's darker moments

agalloch

anthony and the johnsons

my dying bride

anathema

etc..."

Good first effort

Brian Skala | Fort Worth, TX United States | 04/22/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not crazy about this album like I am with Elegant and Dying and Requim:Mezzo Forte but after many listens I am starting to get around to liking it. The album has alot of variety and jumps around alot. I really like the cello playing on this album and Rowan's vocals and keyboard/piano playing is very good. Drums sound interesting on this album...sometimes sound. The album as a whole is good to ok...can't seem to get a terrific listening experince at the end like I can with the other albums, but there are some terrific songs on this album. The idea for this album really paved the future for this band and is a good first effort."

Search - Virgin Black :: Sombre Romantic

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