All Men Unto Me
Requiem
27 June 2025
Requiem is All Men Unto Me’s second release, re-imagining an ancient mourning in a real, contemporary setting taking the broad emotional arcs of the Missa pro Defunctis, these structures pave way for new songs, ruminating on patriarchal power systems and the conditions of transmasculinity within these, through the haze of Queer reverence and forgiveness. Marrying traditional Anglican soundworlds of electro-pneumatic church organ and stacked choral vocals with heavier sounds, closer to experimental/noise rock and doom metal, Requiem sits at times near Swans, Kayo Dot, Lingua Ignota, Greet Death, and Scott Walker. A through line from debut album In Chemical Transit to Requiem is Rylan Gleave’s late-breaking voice, the imperfections that transition has left within it audible.
Now 7 years on Testosterone, Gleave’s vocal delivery spans the avant-metal shrieks as heard in live performances for Ashenspire, through to agonisingly-faltering falsetto learned for Paraorchestra’s version of The Drift for Sky Arts. Gleave’s venture further away from contemporary classical music is audible in this record, the rotating All Men Unto Me lineup closer to a band than an ensemble, with Scott McLean’s production drawing out moments of both incredible tenderness and hostility. Requiem is not an album about one person or experience, but a journey through the emotional core of survivorship, Disability, and dignity.
This album has been developed via Sound and Music's New Voices programme and Paraorchestra's Musician in Residence position, and will release on the 27th of June via Scottish Label The Larvarium, following a premiere as part of the PRS’s New Music Biennial Festival in Bradford and the Southbank Centre (London).