Requiem Aeternam was originally formed in Uruguay in 1995 as a melodic blackened death metal band featuring future, now current, Opeth members Martin Lopez (drums) and Martin Mendez (bass), plus Pablo Magallanes on guitars and guitarist/vocalist Jose Romero of Inner Sanctum. Since the band’s inception the band’s overall style, and line-up, has changed dramatically. Jose Romero is the only remaining member of the original line-up and has since moved to New York city and enlisted the help of bassist Maciej Kupiszewski (ex-Ante Lucem) and former Immolation drummer Alex Hernandez for the recording of the group’s latest full length offering Philosopher. Requiem Aeternam of 2004 sounds absolutely nothing like they once did, in fact they aren’t even from the same planet; this is just an entirely new project using the group’s old name. The music this talented trio plays is a bizarre mixture of many different musical influences. They cover everything from black metal, to death metal, to hardcore, to traditional South American music, to… well, you get the idea. The musicianship on this effort is unparalleled; the guitar playing is top notch and technical, same with the bass and this is by far Alex Hernandez’s best work behind the drum kit. The lyrical subject matter is also rather unique and interesting, as Jose also happens to be a bit of a philosopher himself, having written a book on the subject, and his lyrics are based on the writings of famous philosophers, like Nietzsche and Tzu. Where the album comes up short is in the songs themselves. Technically, this album is brilliant, but I would honestly never listen to this album again; there’s just no specific direction. The band is neither a black metal band, nor a death metal band, nor a traditional South American band, they’re a blend of everything, an extremely chunky blend where everything clashes which becomes incredibly annoying very quickly. When I say everything clashes, I mean EVERYTHING clashes, the vocals range from a Serj Tankian whine, to a guttural shriek, to a hardcore yell, but none of the vocal approaches really flows with the music, and it just becomes a great irritant. I’ve actually read a few reviews of this where the reviewer didn’t understand what was going on, and didn’t listen to the album fully and simply wrote it off saying it’s something for fans of System Of A Down due to the vocal approach, but, I honestly don’t think their average fan would comprehend this or even come close to liking it. Requiem Aeternam’s biggest flaw is that the music goes on and on and on, with no idea of where it’s going, with seemingly random elements added for no particular reason. Perhaps this is an experiment of Jose’s to see how people would react to so much happening all at once. All I can say is that as an art piece Philosopher is brilliant, but as a viable piece of music that people would not only want to buy, but listen to repeatedly, it fails horribly, and it’s not an album I will listen to ever again after this review is done. Yet another idea that was good in theory but terrible in practice.

Written By: Teufel