Divine Requiem

DIVINE REQUIEM was a pretty obscure Heavy Metal act from Ptolemaida (West Macedonia) that existed between 1997-1999 in its original form. As far as available material goes, their total catalogue is limited to only two compositions. The early lineup featured on the track “The Great Prophecy” – presented on the Alone Records compilation CD “Vibes from Below” (1999) – included at least two members of the Ptolemaida-based Progressive Power Metal band EVERFLOW: Markos Valavanis (vocals – EVERFLOW, ANXIETY), Takis Tairidis (guitars – ANXIETY) along with John Typou (guitars), Dimitris Savvoulidis (guitars), Stathis Diamantidis (bass) and Stelios Moysiadis (drums). A well-played and all-around professional-sounding recording (done at Underground Studio, Thessaloniki) for such a young band, “The Great Prophecy” is an anthemic, MAIDEN-esque number that begs the question why this band didn’t record more material! We wouldn’t mind a whole demo full of this stuff, please.

The second available song, entitled “The Prophecy II” was seemingly recorded during a brief reunion in 2002 at Sinners Studio and featured a reduced lineup featuring Markos Valavanis (vocals), Dimitris Tairidis (guitars) and Dimitris Savvoulidis (bass) and engineer Merkourios Koutroutsios on keyboards. It follows in a slightly modified style a bit akin to traditional US Power-Prog à la TITAN FORCE. Although somewhat rougher than “The Great Prophecy”, it’s arguably the more complex composition.

Well, that’s about all we can tell you right now about DIVINE REQUIEM. The good guys over at Hellenic Forces zine (they always manage to dig out to good stuff, don’t they?) included “The Great Prophecy” in the first volume of their “Hellenic Forces” compilation series, doing their best to make sure that the world doesn’t forget about this once-promising band.

Compilation appearances:
* Vibes from Below [CD, Comp: Alone, 1999]
* Hellenic Forces Compilation Vol. 1 [CDr, Comp: Self-released (Hellenic Forces Fanzine), 2004]