Alex84

Brr, what a dark and vaguely apocalyptic record. "Army Dreamers" is marked by unparalleled cynicism while "Breathing" expresses feelings from the late Cold War combined with the leaden atmosphere of part of the 80s. Noteworthy are Kate Bush's low-budget videos, like the one for "Babooshka," where she acts solely with her body, just as she did in "Wuthering Heights." A great artist who doesn't need too many special effects, although I do appreciate special effects a lot.

2 CDs, 16 songs (including 3 interludes), for a total of 80 minutes of music. 80 minutes of pure beauty. Especially the second CD is of unmatched poetry and sophistication. The best track, in my opinion, is the title track, with its obsessive, suspended, and hallucinatory atmosphere.

Another river album from Tori. Like boys for Peele, Scarlet's walk, and the Beekeeper, it will take many listens to truly recognize all the songs. In my opinion, it's much more similar to Scarlet's walk than to the Beekeeper. It features a very American and gritty sound, with some hints of electronics. Very beautiful, but 23 songs risk becoming dull if one isn't focused on listening to it as it deserves. So far, the last song has really stuck with me. The lyrics are steeped in that kind of feminism that is very trendy in American academic circles. Mother goddess, incarnations of femininity, female strength opposed to negative male force (listen to dragon). Fortunately, Tori isn't a frustrated and bitter feminist; on the contrary, she always manages to come across as likable.

Longtime fans of the theatre, when they listened to musique, must have had a syncope. I understand them, because musique and assembly don't sound like theatre albums at all, even though they are very beautiful. I really love electronic music, and that's why I appreciate them, even though the change in direction has been truly drastic. But perhaps they did the right thing. They were such a forward-thinking group in their genre that they exhausted it in three albums and would have risked endlessly reiterating the standards they invented.

This album is one of my absolute favorites. So charged, dark, evocative, medievalish, and brutal. I find it hard to pinpoint a single flaw. Emotionally speaking, of course, I don't have the slightest clue about technical expertise in the musical field.

An album from '98 that serves as an inspiration for the subsequent gothic works of many bands. Listening to it, I noticed the influences that Tristania develop from World of Glass onward. There are the embryonic Sirenia and the atmospheres of Nightwish's ballads when they were just starting out. In short, this album is a piece of history. Wonderful Venus, where Liv's voice is enchanting and hypnotic like never before.

Let's continue to speak ill of this album. Sister nightfall, I believe, or the song after (here's that repetitiveness again) is lifted outright in the second to last song. The title track, on the other hand, is once again copied from of ruins and a red nightfall by Tristania. Perhaps the only admirable song is the last one, the only one with "sirenic" traits. By the way, why can't a band with so much growl and twisted, sick lyrics evoke even the slightest fear? A growl that doesn't bring out the beast within you has failed; does Veland know this? Bah, metal for teenagers just starting out.

At first, this album seemed flat and passionless to me. It took months, but I understood its essence, like an illumination. I see a solid continuity between the pre- and post-Veland albums. The first was drenched in a languorous, Gothic unease, with medieval tones. The second expressed a brutal and barbaric medievalism, where even love is fire and not languor. The third projects these same anxieties into a futuristic and simultaneously mystical imaginary, while "ashes" projects them into the modern and contemporary world. Okay, there’s no magic, blood, and steel, but there’s the turmoil and darkness lurking in the corners of our streets. In short, a great evolution for Tristania, creating a truly original and powerful album, a real joy especially for the instrumental parts. A very unsettling album in my opinion, and very dark. Rest in peace to Veland’s soul, capable only of stretching a good idea across three monotonous albums, while other bands could beautifully condense it into a single song.

Beautiful experimental album, decadent and futuristic. Who said that Veland was the heart of Tristania? Evidently, his bandmates are equally talented. Simple backup musicians wouldn't be able to write such refined and complex scores for the choirs. I am particularly a fan of the wonderful baritone voice of Osten Bergoj.

Tristania have created a baroque and visceral masterpiece with beyond the veil, and then they had the foresight to change course, crystallizing the quality of their work without diminishing it with subsequent albums in its likeness. This new album feels like a culmination of all their previous works, but unfortunately it fails to touch the heights of beyond the veil. "Mercyside" is very beautiful, but for me, the most moving songs are the two ballads. "Destination departure," brushed by chill-out sounds, and especially the touching "deadlands." It's also worth mentioning "sacrilege," truly experimental and futuristic. Sirenia pales in comparison to Tristania. Vibeke rules!