Virgin Black - Elegant... And Dying

The Metal Archives features two very negative reviews of this album, and I can't understand why. Perhaps the reviewers were expecting Darkthrone. With their sophomore album, Virgin Black have moved beyond the strictures of metal. Rather, this album sounds like what goth music should be. Quiet, melancholy, brooding, and passionate, Virgin Black manages to combine operatic clean vocals, growling guitars, harsh screams, and soaring solos into a cohesive work that maintains a mood of contemplation without sacrificing emotionality. This album is like Pentacostal church music reworked for introspective atheists. Virgin Black seems to feel the need for God's love and forgiveness just as much as any member of a charismatic church, but inhabits a world where such a thing cannot exist. The resulting void is rendered into an hour and fifteen minutes of deeply personal music.