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Rating: The Tristania, along with Theatre of Tragedy, have been the most important group in the “Beauty and the Beast” metal: that is, Gothic enriched by an angelic female voice (in Tristania Vibeke Stene) and an infernal male growl (Morten Veland).
Tristania, at least in their early works, manage to unite gothic, orchestrations, choirs, black, and death with excellent results. Beyond the veil is their second album and in my opinion the best of their discography, consisting of 10 tracks that each last on average more than 6 minutes.
The title track is incisive and direct, thanks to the use of beautiful violin inserts, “Aphelion” is a very dark and infernal piece, “A sequel of decady” is the sweetest and most melodic track, adorned with celestial choirs, “Opus relinque” is one of the best tracks on the album: various tempo and heaviness changes, with an excellent contrast between the two voices and string orchestrations, enriched by some parts of keyboard, “Lethean River”, another wonderful piece, opens with the harmonious voice of a child and continues with alternating heavy and light moments. The closure, handled by keyboards, is beautiful, “Of Ruins And a Red Nightfall” is a track that goes quite unnoticed (one of the flaws of the album), “Symbelmyne” is a very dark track where only the keyboard is played, “Angina” is another small masterpiece, among orchestrations, keyboards, gothic choirs, black heaviness, and double voices: stunning, “Heretique” is a heavy track with almost futuristic atmospheres, where only the male voice sings. The CD closes with “Dementia”, an almost Christmas-like piece.
In short, my judgment is extremely positive, especially thanks to the decadent and dark atmospheres that this CD knows how to deliver. Recommended to everyone.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Beyond the Veil (06:37)
Not fear, nor tears can reach me now
the light seems so clear
as the night fades away
Behold of thy flame, below of all shame
Come conquer me sweet dreams of paradise
Dusk drawn hither to my evening star
A glance in thy mirror
The trance of thy mirror
Venus...through the looking glass
Dance so frail and lost in the fields afar
Cast off thy mourning
Clasp life and glory
Venus...through the looking glass
The sense of angels in veils of dawn
Like she runs forever among thy halls
The pale horizons are closing down
The reasons for living are lost somehow
Cross my heart
with a glance upon the star of riddance
Drift afar
like teardrops on the Stygian River
I'm the nightfall and wizard
that summon thee
You're the blizzard that drape my eyes
I'm thy sorrow and vein of obscurity
You're the dagger that cuts
Shivers on the bleak horizon
Profound words...you're my frailty
See the light cease in thy life
Profound words...hurting me
02 Aphelion (07:49)
Yearning for days of yore
in elysian daydreams
Burn with a fatal gloss
a confounding mirror of souls
Dance with the winterwinds
in thy visions so sanguine
Glance upon Stygian streams
where lies hidden a pale secrecy
Hark...
lures of the siren
yearn for the days when blithe thou was
Sworn to a secrecy
an arcanum devotee
Mourning a life with thee
a descendance of watery argentine
Trance of thy frailty
endure the exsanguine
Glance beyond closed eyelids
the conundrum of all mysteries Crossing in life...my heart
with silver in times...I'm weak
too weak...
Wan circling skies
secretes...silvering sorrow
Precious to me Aphelion
Thou are the fields where we wither still
Exhaust in thy waning world
My Aphelion
on a broken mirror
where the veils of night and day seems as one
May thy lids gather again
on a vast and frail crusade
Invigoration of pain pervation this time
03 A Sequel of Decay (06:31)
In decadence I take thee by the hand
too frail...to gain the promised land
too frail...to take your pain away
too frail...a sequel of decay
May milleniums gather
on the mirage of desolated souls
far between departure and sorrow
I breed my afterthought
In thy hours of vast dejection's haunt...wane
An angel strays upon my door
so frail and lost within
To weep upon her days of yore
my decadent come in
Her stain and tears upon my floor
the sorrow that she brings
Devotion of a life outworn
in decadence come in
May thy lids desorb from emerald seas
a pending solitary
Though thy pain redeems, life it seems to be
a fragile sanctuary
05 Lethean River (05:55)
Rise my clandestines, thy secrecies invoked
Streams of argentine across eyelids are drawn
Rise upon the tide, my castaway's outworn
Fall from distant worlds and redeyed skies above
Gesture of an argentine moisture
like snow upon the riverine
Gesture of an argentine moisture
so sore upon congeal skin
Ardency of life forsakened
time will gather the source of thy secrecies
Ardency of life forsakened
in swarthy hours thou ponder still Invoke thy aeons in a dream
entrancing sleep
profound and prolix
Estranged to life's utility
Bequest thy endurance in the times of
lethargic
Lead me down in wailing hours
to the riverside
Reveal to me thy secrecies
hidden in the wan deep of thy infinite mourning
Lethean river carry me beneath thy riverine
06 ...of Ruins and a Red Nightfall (06:21)
Life gains intensified pain
to ascend within me once again
Woe strikes through radiant light
a quitus has conquered thy eyes
the sequel of life
Arising grievance rage through the eyes
of our existence a thousand times
The strife drawn hither as a daydream
ascendancy
In life we wither like laurel leaves in
winterwinds
Lurk far between
a pale destiny
drawn from the past
Enclasp my wrath in the prophecy of thine
Perchance to dream...Day of ire prithee
behold the haven of life
Perchance to dream...Day of ire prithee
may daylight draw thy veils aside Summon the winterwind in which I walk
Enter the morning glades
of a fallen deathwish
Summon the starlight gloss in which thou rage
Enter the mourning shades
Call out in vain
for thee again
Perchance to dream you're my dancing queen
behold the haven of life
Perchance to dream...Day of ire prithee
may daylight draw thy veils aside
A strike of angina
Enthralled by the night and the shades at thy side
A star of riddance rage through the sky
Grant me thy visions...bequeath me life
Through times of yearning...on a path of indignity
No longer burning...at last this life's circuit I leave
08 Angina (04:38)
Through scornful declarence and lumnious eyes
The shadows enveil with the glorious night
Trespassing the sunset like thou hast before
Entreating the daylight to rage nevermore, nevermore, nevermore
Angina striking Elysium
A frail remembrance glorificates
The nightside-ascendance
Veiled underneath thy funereal skies
Ut te postremo donare munere mortis
(Translation: to present you with the last guerdon (reward) of death)
The winds they may haunt me in bloodredest skies
The moon may bewed the strangest of light
The clasp of indifference the conquering tide
The sweeping of daylight...my vigour's decline
Angina striking Elysium
A frail remembrance glorificates
the nightside-ascendance
veiled underneath thy funereal skies
Ut te postremo donare munere mortis
(Translation: to present you with the last guerdon (reward) of death)
Thy Carrion Kind
Angina strikes Elysium...a frail remembrance
Thy Carrion Kind
Thy Carrion Kind
Angina strikes Elysium...a frail remembrance
Thy Carrion Kind
Carrion Kind...My Carrion Kind!
09 Heretique (04:49)
Let us be the ones
to put the thorn in thy eye
...let us be the ones
Squalid the weak stumbles
through all of life's obscurities
Lost in sacriliege
Revere the name
Accept the modesty
Falter through speres of the pain
Exhausted hours...Exhausted hours
Nothing from thy world will remain thine
except the very priviliege to die
Squalid the weak stumbles...
Orgasmic Mass Hysteria!
You're creeping for a charlatan god
Awake...
10 Dementia (02:18)
Resurrection of a horrid dream
Blend of hate and intense desire
Putrify
Vile...surreal
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Other reviews
By Ophitae
"Many, myself included, consider it to be one of the most representative albums of this genre."
"Vibeke Stene's soprano voice is highlighted by the alternation with Morten Veland's death growl, one of the few growls that can be defined as terrifying."
