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Rating: This is an album that essentially lives off two different souls, which often remain separate, but when they come into contact, they explode, creating the best moments of the entire ensemble. The more violent soul is entrusted to the screaming vocals and sharp guitars like never before, demonstrating that death elements have always been present in Tristania's sound, now more than ever. The second is majestically sweet, ethereal (sometimes almost rarefied and impalpable), a sign that melancholy does not arise from nothing (or just from the female voice – something many bands today seem to think) but must be sought deep within, and it is not always easy to perceive (all this is at the expense of the keyboards, but the choice is necessary to make the overall character of the album more complex). Herein lies the substantial difference with other albums: the sensations here must be sought, understood, and assimilated. "Ashes" is therefore the band's most difficult album, it doesn't strike immediately, but must be comprehended. And I would dare to claim that this is also their darkest work, being far from the romantic and twilight tones of previous works, but much more psychological and subconscious.
Many points for reflection (as had already happened for the previous work), therefore, which led many to judge this album roughly, without giving it the opportunity to truly say something, emphasizing the fact that it loses the challenge with "Window's Weeds". But one cannot judge a band based on a past time – which is completely over, and certainly not revived in a thousand clone bands – and on an absolute masterpiece such as that album.
Yet this is still the dear Gothic metal, so rare, precious, and refined that only Tristania knows how to play. And the strength of this band lies entirely here: in continuing to bring a genre to life, making it dignified in front of all the rubbish that circulates nowadays, which has rendered it the most trivial fringe of metal.
It is true, undeniable, that this "Ashes" does not reach the levels of "Window's Weeds" and "Beyond The Veil" and that it is even different from the much-maligned "World Of Glass"… but all these pearls are set in a single jewel: the music of this great band, which once again has sealed its singular greatness, proving that class is a rare commodity today. A special applause goes to Vibeke, who in this album shows us that you don't need to use very high registers to prove your skill; interpreting songs like "Cure" in a manner like hers is not for everyone. Sometimes even with a thin voice, you can give great emotions, and this confirms Vibeke as the best female voice in Gothic Metal (still considering the less metal turn of Anneke Van Giersbergen and her The Gathering and the pop path taken by Kari Rueslatten, impeccable and certainly a step above).
Names like theirs are destined to go down in history, and I believe their story may last a long time.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Libre (04:30)
Encapsulate the night!
wrap up the truth in candy-striped paper
and throw us a blood-sodden
torn and holey
rotten through the core
party
I stand with you now, my friend
My razor tongue is licking your rosy cheeks and battered ears
I whisper sordid secrets that are neither true nor false
I hold your hand in defiance
Amplify your feeble voice against evil
I hold your spine and shake most violently
The silver light is overthrown
Rejoice with me
for we have denominated the devil
(And I shall get to fulfil my own)
When I die, I slay a hundred
When I die, I raise a thousand
Rejoice with me
for we have denominated the devil
(And I shall get to fulfil my own)
Every bullet hole in our holy town
is an orifice for me to rape
every woman slain is my whore
and every precious child crying
a golden orb of fire
I stand with you now, my friend
I nibble at your earlobes
till they bleed the truth divine
Smear my name in their fearful faces
I hold your hand in vengeance
Your muffled words are a horrid
choir across the sea
This licking pyre cannot be douted by
their tears
02 Equilibrium (05:49)
This is the slowest dance
The dance of a thousand years
The dance of the frozen statues
Clinging together in tears
This is the darkest fight
The fight of a thousand years
The pounding of blood
Through our veins
In our veins
In our eyes
The circles of fear
I cling to you
So cold, so bright
Cling to me through the night
Motionless faces
Park of the wasted
In the pale gloom
I hang on to you
In the pale gloom
I am safe and cool
I swim in you
In your dark rivers
Dive in your mind
Search for your monsters
Search for resistance
Sink into the mud
Dance in the halls of insanity
Yet madness is
Your highest deed
Your vanity
Mistress - you made me
Mistress - you saved me
In your cold hands
I am just a tool
Mistress ? you made me
Mistress - you saved me
In your cold hands
I am safe and cool
03 The Wretched (07:00)
Welcome, my friend
(Now) It's you and I
Do you sense the eye that watches you?
Can you feel her muted scream?
This is our very own horrid dream
Can you hear her hollow cry?
From the other side
You can't see her - you can't reach her
But you feel her watching you
Now she sings her lullaby
The sun has died
This is the voyage that never ends
A black light
The lost souls are craving
Clinging to their last glimpse of hope
The restless won’t leave you alone
You cannot set them free
The blood flows
Your fear grows
Awaiting an accident
Veiled eyes
See right through your darkened mind
You cannot set them free
The song of demons plays on the wind
Can you hear the wretched’s call?
Their shuffling feet
Your pounding heart
Now you know you're falling
Chanting words you do not catch
Their cries for help you never sensed
An organic mass of despair
This nightly mare
They cry your name, which is silence
They play their game, which is violence
Unsound.
04 Cure (05:59)
In your web
The threads entangle
Your prey is dead -
Dyed in silence
I'll forever stay with you
At your feet I will kneel
At your will
Dead silent
When I move - I am moved by you
When you rule - All is ruled by you
In your world - There is only you
In my world - There is only you
In your web
The threads entangle
At your will
Dead silent
Your words are shivers down my spine
I'm numb and shapeless - in your web - in your web
My blood runs slow and red like wine
The past is shattered - forever
I serve your will - for I have been bruised and battered
and covered
I serve your will - for I have been ordinated your lover
05 Circus (05:09)
Tied up and gagged
Hooded and tagged
They're all yours to command
I am corpse, I am carrion prey
I have a crow at each brow
plucking eyes in my mask of death
The darkness is complete
Who's the hooded one, mother mine?
Who is gagged when all are silent?
and bitten when we move
Inflamed! My mask is burning
The night is dead; dark, putrid flesh turning
'pon a chair in the dying corner
I am your bagful of fear
I'll commit, I'll admit
I'll be the dagger, drive me in
I'll be all motionless and still
My river runs within - still and deep
I am beast, I am carrion prey to the Cyclops tribe
String me up to a cherry tree
come one, come all - and hang with me
I'm already hogtied - entangled in your marionette strings
I am dancing
the embodiment of fear
a shake for every fearful tear
a ruckus for the righteous
In the end
They no longer know
cast stones into mirrors - onto themselves
Mother mine!
Stab yourself, mother mine
bleed your own river, dark and wide
Mine runs within, still and deep
Don't shake me so, it will overflow
07 Endogenisis (07:35)
There is only one way out
One word left to shout
The last little slope to climb
Then my feet slip again
Your threatening voice
Gets me back up on my feet again
I will find the truth within your skin
You keep feeding me distractions
Feeding me lies
But I know the truth is there
In fragments
in bits
and pieces
Tall and slender
But your eyes are lustreless
Your facade may glimmer
Your surface may be smooth silk
You've been convinced of your own illusions
But your weary eyes unveil a sinner
Running...
Steadily you hunt me down
Until my feet collapse
Gasping...
You never rest
Struggling to breathe
You try to sink me in the mud
My dearest enslaved
Shackled
Locked up in my cage
My dearest enslaved
Fragile beauty depraved
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