Standing in darkness, soaked to the bone, with years of chilling destruction and devastation behind him, Julian ‘Jay’ Hardy’s journey finally comes to an end. The slow and stomping march that saw this shell of a man traverse through various levels of supernatural possession has now led us to “Requiem”; the third and final piece of the three acts that form the Ultima Pluvia EP.
Through the loss of his girlfriend Rachel, succumbing to The Gloom, PTSD-plagued loved ones, alternate dimensions, a tortured relationship with God, the arrival of Sherlock Bones, cycles of revenge killings, and startling revelations of identity and reality, “Requiem” closes the book on Jay with a celebratory fanfare. Blending orchestral majesty with dense heaviness, the track tugs downward like a weighted coat that is soon to be shed.
“We’ve reached the end of an era”
In Flesh & Bones, we learned that Jay and Sherlock were one and the same due to the possession of Jay’s body, and that the deeds done by Sherlock were therefore enacted by a compromised Jay, which startingly included the death of Rachel. Having found the strength to shut Sherlock out of his life, The Gloom In The Corner were compelled to establish closure to this story and find full resolution to what listeners have been following alongside them since Fear Me.
Reflective of his life to this point in time and now preparing to die, Jay surrenders to the forces of existence and believes that something beautiful will come from his death. Seeking to be ultimately forgotten as he kneels before God in a raging storm, the soaring track implies Jay’s departure from one dimension and floaty dissipation to a non-existence, or at least an existence that no longer has him whole and palpable.
The stirring track is a fitting final piece to this ‘last supper’ imagery that we’ve seen gradually develop for Ultima Pluvia with “Violence” and “Warfare”, perhaps making way for The Gloom In The Corner to create beyond the confines of a conceptual world. Watch the Mike Lee-Graham music video below, which impressively captures Jay’s journey and eventual demise, and soak in the grandeur of this story by listening to Ultima Pluvia.
