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Rating: The return of Theatre Of Tragedy is celebrated with this "Storm" (2006), which brings the band back to us after four years of silence and a significant lineup change, with the departure of the famous Liv-Kristine Espenaes in favor of newcomer Nell.
Expected at the turn by former fans disappointed by the previous "Assembly," the six-piece from Stavanger offers a platter that represents the ideal continuation of the artistic path begun with "Musique" in 2000, while partially abandoning the strong doses of electronics that were well present in the recent past, subject to fierce and sometimes incomprehensible criticism from the metal public.
Dreamlike atmospheres and visions of ethereal sweetness accompany us in the twelve compositions offered here, where the leading role is played by Nell's splendid vocals and Lorentz Aspen's soft keyboard chords in a perpetual encounter and clash between vibes full of modernism and easily engaging pop-metal textures. Raymond does not change his vocal style one iota, yet it reveals itself to be warmer and more sinuous, leaving behind the cybernetic adjustments we had become accustomed to in the two previous efforts. The rhythmic aspect settles on robust, distorted mid-tempos in an industrial-metal manner but also capable of being delicate and enveloping in the softer passages while the guitar crunch reveals "muscles" reminiscent of the Norwegians’ distinctly hard attitude. In terms of influences, there's an air of dark-pop atmosphere in the dual vocals, where dance-based loops entirely disappear, giving the group the opportunity to explore new paths filled with emotion and abandoning one of the characteristics that made them detested by the narrow-mindedness of many former admirers.
Regarding the tracks, I would focus on the compositional skill in crafting effective songs, devoid of embellishments or convolutions of any sort, ready to explode in refrains that are hardly banal, enriched by a vocal emphasis of great talent. Adorable "Storm," splendidly opened by simple ivory chords and very effective in the chorus sweetened by crystalline female vocals, while "Begin And End" is less melancholic, offering us pop-rock settings veiled by a lively attitude in Claussen's granite riffs. The ballad "Fade" stands out where Nell's vocal work is prominent, dragging us into a sweet hurricane of summer and sunny dreams but also frescoed with very deep nostalgic tones. A different approach is found in "Exile" and "Disintegration" where some of the sound architectures already used in "Assembly" are revisited, between electronic breaks, expanded guitars, and rhythms now charged with cold solidity, now velvety and subtle. The exchange of emotions behind the microphone is excellent, a peculiar characteristic of ours that expresses itself differently nowadays but always proves unique and fitting.
The closure entrusted to the little gem of "Debris" perfectly aligns with the new course, flooding us with velvety emotions intensely paired with a gruff riffing of clear doom-metal derivation, which, although not as prominent as in the times of the eponymous debut album, remains well present in the structure of the individual tracks, never disappearing even in the most fragile and melodious episodes presented here.
In short, a mature, coherent work undoubtedly endowed with the essentiality that was missing in the experiments of the last six years, capable of maintaining the artistic value of the Norwegians intact, giving them the opportunity to continue a sonic exploration that seems to have no limits or fears of any kind. The skepticism that accompanies them will not be dispelled by this "Storm," but even those who have mocked them might find interesting points. A very welcome comeback.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Storm (03:46)
Can you see the storm getting closer now?
Tell me how it feels being out there
A moment's glimpse of his vignette
As he shone a light on the falling wall
Instant pictures form shattered persons
Whenever he leaves there's a tainted mark
Flashbacks of his stark sleep filter out through smoke
Revoking from the past things less provoked
Any which day, there is no relief
Adhesive words, spoken silently
The shattered man
Can you see the storm getting closer now?
Tell me how it feels being out there
I want to stay with you, and I see it clear now
You are giving me no choice
Let the rain pour down
He's holding for the moment of the fall
Stolen knowledge by minds unformed
Regulate the demolition of annexe for the differing thoughts
Discarded sparks left years ago
Evoked a language much more austere
Reverberating with figments
He left a trace of translucence
Shattered man
There's a shattered man in a shattered land
02 Silence (03:47)
This interference's shifting
A soft accent cascading
A second glimpse of falling TVs
Draws me in too easily
Some kind of nonchalance
Contains my will to chance
The avidity of youth
The naïvety of you
Somewhere where silence ended is where I reassemble
My lens to take your photograph
Which I throw away autographed
And there's an illegal tender
And there's a senseless sensor
And there's a notion we don't need
And they leave just like you
Never come undone
You deceive just like me
Next to me
Though I'll never even see you
Next to you
Never seen such beauty
Two persons in a vista
The third one says she's hollow
A moist and lashing spoken tongue
The words silent since I was young
In the flickerlight we're interlaced and face to face
Someone is blurring now, abiding time as I avow
And there's a soft surrender
And there's a stark contender
And there are notions we do need
I will never come undone.
06 Begin and End (04:28)
Don't know inside from upside-down
We praise the famed unwittingly
If we had read that we are but illiterate
What would we do?
Keep inventory of things that we do not owe
Even at a standstill we are spinning round and round
We're lost but found
Nowhere is right here
Talk to us long enough and you will be perplexed
Begin and end
We talked in a language that we didn't understand
Hiding things that were obscure while the people are searching
Leaving our lives, staying in the same location
Proving me to you, proving you to me
Looking at pictures of people we do not know
A first preview of something we have seen before
A host of one tracing the invisible
We danced side by side to a different monotone
We practised our stargaze every day in the daylight
A plan with no abstract outlined in the concrete
A man opposite us is out-of-sight and unknown
Never far nor all too near.
08 Senseless (04:33)
Ever wonder about which words were said?
Watch slow moving pictures pass instead
I disassembled what was mundane
Looking for what's left and does remain
I challenge the truth,
I'm fighting illusions
Come, let's be receptive
To all the senseless delusions
Moments that bore the years of youth
Now a hintless trace of me and you
Synchronise our words that are sincere
Articulated in ways hard to hear
Let us recognise the end
Seal it from within
I know love did confound us then
And there's no one there, all alone again
Never will I leave before all's been said and done
And I turn to you: "Can you see the fading sun?"
09 Exile (04:02)
Synchronise the flow of intersections
Catalogue all still heartbeats
Franchise the machinations of
The bourgeois-fangled reverie
Gleaming in flamboyancy
Resign to solid chrome
Ohmic opposition is futile
And impedes upon ideas worthwhile
Delicate, infallible construction
We know now what destructiveness comes from
We are living - there's no deed in indulgence
A faded glory, relying on 'Me and Mine'
The exile from human ecstasy
To a place where we're engineered
Seminars on entangled escalators
Meetings with silent translators
A flashback of dystopia
Warning in sleep with a recurring trace
All the fragments and segments
Of fluid sequences
The pretence of a universal race
Not made of metal is moot
Delicate, infallible construction
We know now what destructiveness comes from
10 Disintegration (04:48)
It's blurring out of sight
The faces flickering in the
tinsel light on the esplanades
Fluid and vanishing
Dissolving, hiding things
In your room, after the scene,
when the faces shift
Into someone else
The arcade is
echoing
In a shattered self, the figure's
shimmering
Alter all the static thoughts
Into
something less than what was sought
The splendour of
within
Inner helplessness no more
Empty habits cure
the needs
Solely to concede
Never disagree
Seek
obscurity in lucidity
My identity is dying,
Someone said: "Can you believe this line?"
And for all I
know there's a cure
Faltering, reversing forward
Sentiment's never odd or even
The minds are solid as
liquid
It's reverberant and faint
Vaguely
luminous
Everything has changed
And nothing is the
same
11 Debris (05:03)
While he was asleep holding her hand
The dreams
smouldered
She opened her heart, he tore it apart
Gazed into his smile
He said he had constraint
He was ostracised and feint
She had gone over and
under
A tattoo of a loser
These are the rings that
fell apart
These are the things that tore his heart
These were the dreams that he was causing
These were the
gleams that she was pausing
We're nothing but
debris
Floating on a silver lake
There's nothing
left to take
As we slowly fall apart
We unite you
through me
As we separate with fate
We're nothing
but debris
Her words confound, dim and unsound
Daring the logic
Defying off-hand, nothing unplanned
Phase into the vile
Let me speak again, pursue the
praise - not too soon
In two yields construed by me and
you
Tracing the cause and case
As we stand here face
to face
Simple twofoldness is our brace
That makes it
feel like you and me
Opportunity isn't what we
lost
We have lost our senses
Walk with me now to
another place
Where no one else has been before
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Other reviews
By DarKNight
This 'Storm' left me very disappointed, turning out to be notably more fake than the previous 'Assembly.'
It’s a shame to see her made up in a horrendous way in the 'Storm' video, while she tries to be sensual (not succeeding at all) moving like a drunk on the verge of a breakdown.
