Review of Virgin Black - Elegant... And Dying

A dark landscape marred by the death of a king, his son lamenting in the pouring rain with his father's blood upon his hands.. these are the mental images that Virgin Black's latest album - "Elegant.. and Dying" - brings about. Doom metal at it's most mediocre, Virgin Black's good metal songwriting was too few and far between various, meandering, dissonant piano interludes and atrocious vocals. About the vocals: they're among the worst I've ever heard. Someone forgot to tell the singer that he is absolutely terrible, whiny, and 7.62mm-bullet-to-the-head worthy. It sounds like a dying hyena or something. I was practically in pain while listening to his over-emotional, verge-of-tears vocals; they literally ruined the album. What could've otherwise been an introspective, contemplating musical journey, was marred by the epitome of crap. Sadly his vocals bring down the musicianship score. Vocals aside, the musicianship/songwriting here isn't half bad. There are some nice doomy moments, and in the aptly titled 20 minute epic "The Everlasting", there are even some somewhat black metal moments! I was surprised by those, and they were quite welcome, but then the vocals kick in again and make the vomit rise past the sphincter. The metal moments are way too few on this album, you have to wade through so much crap to get to the good stuff. If I were to produce a "Wrathchild's Cut" of this album, it would probably be about 15 mintues long as opposed to 1 hour and 14 minutes. And I'd delete the vocals entirely, as they are complete and utter pig vomit. I wouldn't recommend this album to the non-masochist population, be forewarned. It's not nearly bleak enough in Australia to create a doom metal band, and Virgin Black is proof positive. Wrathchild's Choice Cuts: Kiss of God's Mouth II: This was a surprisingly good song, the vocals weren't as bad as other points on the album and the riffs were nice and doomy

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Virgin Black

Elegant... And Dying

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