Out of Switzerland hails this underground act. Brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Phil R.XP(all music, words and vocals), Visions of Eternity appears to be the band's debut output. Two ladies landed their voices too: Claudia and Cori doing the dialogues.
The musical direction taken by Requiem Eternam is a mixture of doom, gothic and a bit of Celtic too. Once again, the artwork of the cover is not misleading. This music is melodic and a bit epic too. You will hear various vocals in different languages. The English and French tongues are often used, but some foreign one too, perhaps Latin, I'm not really certain. The overall feel is somewhat demo-ish like, especially due to the way the vocals were recorded. They have a way too bright sound, which is annoying actually. This is unfortunate, since the voices are quite good as such. The compositions are varied and often have samplings and different tempos. You can hear bells, rain, thunder, birds and vocals that all add a pleasant touch of ambience. Some keyboards are appearing here and there too, but they have the cheesy sounding style; once again, this is unfortunate. The guitar riffs are a bit shy, although not extremely so. On the other hand, the songs come with calmer parts that include nice clean arpeggios; another touch of melodiousness. To come back on the vocal ranges, the listener will also witness Gregorian chant and a bit of female operatic voices as well. A few tracks caught my attention on this release such as: "Abandon Every Hope", "The Suffering City" and "Prisoner of Love".
All in all, not a bad disc as such. It could have used a better sound production and maybe with maturing song writing, Requiem Eternam could bring some tasty doom/gothic music.
Track listing:
1- Abandon Every Hope
2- Into the Blind World
3- The Third Circle
4- Angel Guide
5- The Terrible Wait
6- Prisoner of Love
7- The Eternal Bliss
8- Divine Union
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