All Men Unto Me: Requiem Is A Dream
Requiem is the sublime new album by ALL MEN UNTO ME, their second in all, and it is an emotional, grandiose and a above all extremely powerful listening experience that will take your breath away from start to finish. We had the pleasure of talking to vocalist/organist Rylan Gleave from ALL MEN UNTO ME (who also plays in experimental black metallers ASHENSPIRE) to hear all about Requiem and taking this stunning music from the studio to the stage.
We begin with Rylan recalling the recent experience of performing tracks from Requiem at the esteemed Southbank Centre as part of their recent summer time events. “It was a fantastic experience. Such an amazing venue. We performed as part of the New Music Biennial festival. I was put forward from that through PARAORCHESTRA. I just received their musician in residence alumni commission, and they said, we’d love to put you forward for this festival.”
Rylan speaks fondly of the experience of playing those songs from Requiem in a live setting, and the challenges faced in replicating certain aspects of the vast sound of the album. “I think it’s very difficult to recreate the album exactly, mainly because I used a really big church organ, and that is not portable! Instead, we arranged these organ parts into a synth part and a sample part. In terms of how it’s presented live, I think very true to the essence of the music and the feeling of it, but we’ve had to be a little bit flexible with how,” he shares. “I found it a really wonderful experience recording it, and being able to tap into that emotional pool of energy, to channel the vocals. But I think a lot of my strengths as a performer lie in dramatic live contexts.”
Rylan then divulges the themes that are explored on Requiem, and how important it was to explore them. “I find it quite a weird one to talk about, because, in a way, a lot of the album is deeply uncertain. I don’t think it arrives at, a conclusion at any point. The overarching themes talk about the conditions of trans masculinity in a patriarchal society, and how that is framed on the reference points of the Anglican Church, or evangelical Christianity, I think it plays a lot with this idea of what forgiveness looks like, and how that translates out of Christian context, and what it means to forgive someone who has deeply wronged you.”
Rylan then passionately continues. “There’s different elements of emotion that are drawn out, heightened almost and more like persona than act. I think it was really important for me to explore that. Requiem came out of a time of processing lots of different experiences and journeys. Timing wise, it came at a very important point in my own journey to settle on exploring those things at that time.”
Although the album hadn’t reached a conclusion of sorts, when asked if there was room for expansion into future music and exploring these ideas further, the answer was curious to say the least. “That’s a really good question. Maybe. I’ve not really thought about it in those terms. I think when I was writing it, I think I was trying to decide how I felt about a lot of the stuff I was talking about. The last track, In Paradisum, it’s very emotional. It feels quite raw to me, even performing it now, but I think at the time of conceiving it and writing, I was like, yeah, by the time I get to this point, it’s all gonna be neatly wrapped up.”
Talk then turned to how the music of ALL MEN UNTO ME has evolved since the debut record In Chemical Transit, as Rylan explains. “Quite dramatically. I really like that album, but it really didn’t have an audience. I made that for me, and it was a really important thing for me to do as an artist. But I really wasn’t thinking about who else would resonate with it, or who could be interested in it. I feel Requiem is a lot more informed by working with ASHENSPIRE and PARAORCHESTRA, the more rock and metal adjacent bits that I like doing outside of that. I think that’s more the direction that I see it going again.”
We finish this great conversation off by discussing the possibility of new music from ALL MEN UNTO ME, and importantly, when they could emerge. “I think so much care has gone into the release of Requiem, and sorting these live performances. It’s been quite a few months solid, just thinking about how it will translate to exist in the world. Unfortunately, it’s not left a lot of time for thinking about new stuff. But there will be another album at some point. It might not be within two years, maybe five.”
With that being the case, it has to be said that good things come to those who wait, so for now, immerse yourself in the brilliance that is Requiem, it is a beautiful and emotional experience.
Requiem is out now via The Lavarium.
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