Requiem Aeternam Bio

Requiem Aeternam began its activities in September of 1995 in Montevideo (Uruguay) featuring their first demo in a local compilation. At that time the line-up consisted of Martín López (Amon Amarth; Opeth) on drums, Martín Méndez (Opeth) on bass, Pablo Magallanes on guitar and José Romero (Inner Sanctum) handling guitar and vocal duties.

After some member changes, the line-up settled with Fabián Redondo on drums, Marcelo Aguilar on bass and José Romero on guitar and vocals. By then, the band recorded "Eternally Dying EP", which was subsequently released in 1997 by Death Row Productions.

At the end of that year the band entered the Record Studios in Montevideo to work on its first full-length release. The material was mixed in Santiago (Chile) by José Luis Corral (Criminal; Inner Sanctum) and mastered in Buenos Aires (Argentina) by David Santos (Riff; Hermética). "Eternally Dying" was released worldwide in July of 1998 through ICorp.




As part of the album's promotion, the video clip for opening track "Infamy" was aired by MTV Latina and MTV Brazil as well as many others channels in Latin America. Noting the success achieved with the major music television stations, the band later shot the second video for "Come Back". Finally, the promotional efforts were consummated with the "Eternally Tour", which included several shows in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

In April of 2002 Romero published a book entitled "Escritos Prohibidos" (Forbidden Writings). This book deals primarily with topics of Philosophy, Economy and Politics. It also features a Poetic chapter, which includes the original version of the song that shared its title with Requiem Aeternam's debut album.




Later that year Romero moved to New York City (USA) in order to organize the production of the second album. While completing the latest material, the band drafted a new line-up with addition of Maciej Kupiszewski on bass and Alex Hernández (Immolation) on drums.

"Philosopher" was recorded and mixed between May and June of 2004 at Big Blue Meenie Studios in Jersey City (USA) by Joe Pedulla and Arun Venkatesh (Overkill; All Out War), and mastered the following July at Bionic Mastering in New York City by Tom Hutten (Iggy Pop; Foo Fighters; Cro-Mags).

Each of the "Philosopher" song's lyric is based on the work of a specific philosopher, including Gautama, Seneca, Rousseau, Heraclitus, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Tzu. There is also one based on Romero's book "Forbidden Writings". The musical performance achieved is stellar, as exemplified by Hernández's work behind the drumkit. This, not to mention the sound registered at Big Blue Meenie, is only overshadowed by the identity of the musical composition. Thus, Requiem Aeternam describes its music as "Dialectical Metal", defined by its contrasts, oppositions, inequalities...