I've been looking forward to this album for quite a long time now. For those of you who aren't familiar with this band, Theatre Of Tragedy play what Einherjer zine described as "gothic death rock." (Hilarious interview with the band in the first issue of that zine, too!) The music is indeed theatrical and sorrowful, as the bandname suggests, and as such is a delight to listen to. It's also packaged nicely, in a smart digipack, with the front cover sporting a topless woman on a bed half covered with a purple sheet... but it's done tastefully, and doesn't seem smutty or pornographic at all. The lyrics are included, which is a good thing since the lyrics are quite interesting (still written in a Shakespearian style).
The 9 tracks on offer here are basically in the same style as on Theatre Of Tragedy's self-titled debut album. The production is a bit stronger this time, though, giving the guitars a heavier sound, and giving the beautiful female vocals more room to breathe (on the first album, the female vocals were a bit too low in the mix). The lady's singing can get a bit "samey," however... you sometimes think "hey, she's singing the same tune as in the other song!" But this doesn't matter, and after a few listens you'll find that there IS enough variation there. Her innocent, angelic tone is again contrasted with some harsh death vocals, which is very effective. The bloke also does some speaking in some songs, which is okay, but when he attempts some clean singing in the song "Black As The Devil Painteth," his limitations as a vocalist become evident. I prefer it when he sticks to the great death vocals, personally, and I hope that the band will continue to do so in their future albums.
Alongside the guitars, there's quite a lot of orchestral string sounds and such. The band also use a lot of piano in their music, helping add to the atmosphere. Some of the songs, like "Fair And Guiling Copesmate Death," have quite a Victorian feel to them... there's even one or two moments where the music delves into harpsichords and Pazuzu-like instrumental sections. In keeping with this, there are also a few samples of dialogue from films (I don't know what films they're from, but they sound like the type of thing you'd get in Hammer Horror films of the '60s and '70s, where Victorian witchcraft and Vampyrism was a popular topic). The song "And When He Falleth" has the longest and best sample... I won't go into detail, I'll let you hear it for yourselves. Suffice to say it's very effective, and not only does it fit the mood but also the rhythm... so thought has clearly gone into it, and they haven't just bunged any old sample in.
The duration of the album is quite impressive, at just over 52 minutes. Although the pace is pretty much the same throughout, the album doesn't get boring, and if you like melodic gothic death metal then I can see no reason why you wouldn't obtain vast amounts of pleasure from this pucker album.
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