supraliminal's Full Review: Theatre of Tragedy by Theatre Of Tragedy
Theater of Tragedy's self titled opus was their first full length album, though I'd purchased Velvet Darkness They Fear long before this album. Theater of Tragedy plays a breed of gothic/morose metal with mixed male growling and beautiful female vocals courtesy of Liv Kristine, and is unique from most bands in that their lyrics are written in the style of old European theater. I like the lyrical approach, even though it means I sometimes don't really have a clue what these guys are talking about.
This self titled debut is easily the heaviest in TOT's library as well as the fastest paced, which isn't all that fast, but maintains a medium pace more often than their other albums. The music tends to be rather doomy sounding, thick and depressed rhythm guitars with either no lead or a mid-pitch noodle alongside the rhythm. As with most (actually, in my experience ALL) music of this nature there are no solos, and I really wish someone playing this style would fix that, because a hauntingly beautiful solo could only improve this kind of music, especially considering the lengthy songs with not-very-fast pacing.
I love Liv Kristine's voice, very soothing and heavenly, but as with TOT's other albums, I am left with a feeling of being teased. It's almost as though she doesn't quite know what to do with her beautiful voice, such that sometimes she reminds me of someone yodeling in the shower to some music playing in the background. Sometimes I just feel like she is just singing as opposed to singing with the music, she's not really getting into the song. Still, if I have to listen to someone yodel, I'd love to listen to Liv Kristine.
Rounding out the music is the keyboards, which stick to mostly piano pieces vice some cryptic/atmospheric/gothic boards. I'm scratching my head trying to decide if the music could use some more of the latter type of boards. I'm satisfied with the pianos and guitars creating the haunting soundscapes, so the music isn't lacking anything, but again it may have made for some welcome change of pace in the middle of a long slow-paced song. Violins also lend a voice from time to time.
The album opens with "A Hamlet For A Slothful Vassal", which starts out with doomy guitar and pianos very much like the music on Velvet...., but just under two minutes into the song comes a rare moment of a TOT riff fast enough and good enough to pump your fist to in excitement, leaving no doubt that you have just picked up TOT's heaviest release. I wish they had a lot more of those moments.
Next is "Cheerful Dirge", which is anything but cheerful (and I have no idea what those lyrics are saying, so I'm not sure why the song was called this) which follows basically the same formula of doomy piano accented beginning leading up to faster paced chorus, even some thirst quenching double bass rolls.
"To These Words I Beheld No Tongue" is the next song, and I think this is my favorite TOT song on any album, certainly on this one. Painfully beautiful intro a la Liv Kristine and some clean tone guitar, jumping into a foot stomping verse before (unfortunately) getting somewhat mired in a doomy mid section that feels like it's not getting anywhere, then blessedly going back to Liv Kristine and her clean guitar friend before closing with the quicker paced and catchy even rhythm.
Track four is entitled "Hollow-Hearted, Heart Departed" and gets kudos for the second coolest song title on this album. The song follows the now familiar album pattern, slow and doomy, then a duet featuring Liv and some piano, then some faster paced stuff, repeat. Liv still comes off as yodeling, and I don't particularly find myself put in the mood suggested by the song title, especially after the haunting vocals in the previous song. Then again, anything would sound like a let down after track three.
Song five, "...A Distance There Is..." is a piano, violin, and Liv Kristine only song which in light of my position that she sounds like she's yodeling is a complete waste of over eight minutes. I keep skipping back to track three.
Next up is "Sweet Art Thou", which gets a thumbs down for the title but is a pretty good song. You guessed it, typical formula, but the pianos and Liv Kristine both sound like they are cooperating fully with the rest of the band. She suddenly doesn't sound like she's yodeling, which makes this a damn good song. I still keep skipping back to track three, but now it's only to hear an awesome song instead of avoid a poor one.
"Mire" is the seventh track, opening up with a strange (pointless perhaps?) piano part which I could have done without before breaking into some pretty cool clean guitar rhythms (makes me want to skip back to track three again), then goes into an unexpected harshly whispered section. Aauugghh, that piano part makes a return to close the song. The song breaks up the mire of an album with a similar pattern on most every track, pretty good stuff (minus that piano).
"Dying.... I Feel Only Apathy" is by far the coolest titled song, but with a return to the very familiar doomy and slow to medium and catchy to doomy again pattern I'm starting to feel some monotony. After about three and a half minutes comes a very catchy guitar part that shatters the monotony just when I was about to skip back to track three again.
"Monotone" closes the album, an instrumental that somehow (despite the not too fast speed that is) manages to please my ears. Some very nice clean guitar accentuated by bell like boards show up hear, and I'm kind of wondering if maybe the whole album should've used less piano and more of the clean guitar instead. TOT plays guitars that are about as close as they ever get to energetic. The song ends after enough time to entertain but not so long that I got bored.
In looking back at this review, it almost sounds like I didn't like this album, but that serves to illustrate this album's weakness.... good stuff, but they just don't do enough different things to jump out at you and rave about except for track three. I mean, how many different ways can you describe songs that while not sounding the same take you to pretty much the same place. Anyway, despite the complaints, this is a good album. Anyone who liked Velvet Darkness They Fear will probably enjoy this release as well. Fans of Sins of Thy Beloved and Nightwish may want to check this album out (and vice versa).
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.