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Rating: What factors determine the skill of a band? Technical prowess and good songs are certainly not enough… and Tristania seem to have understood this; in fact, they are one of the greatest bands of the genre, if not the most important one, because they have never missed a beat, nor have they ever stooped to cheap commercial operations, making originality and the desire to experiment their creed, while not distorting the trademark they have created over the years.
Starting in 1997 with the self-titled EP, they released "Widow's Weeds" in 1998, a true Gothic-romantic novel set to music that speaks of love and death, conveying all the pain and melancholy that emanate from the broken heart of a lover faced with the death of his beloved. The sensations that such an album can convey are impossible to describe in words... Morten Veland's profound lyrics are of the same mold as those of Theatre Of Tragedy (written in old English) but much deeper, sadder, and more melancholic, elevating Tristania's lyrics to a poetic dimension (despite all the refinement and sophistication of their words, Theatre Of Tragedy's lyrics never reached such levels of emotion—maintaining rather theatrical tones, sometimes difficult to understand—except in the beautiful lyrics of "Hollow-Hearted, Heart-Departed" and a few other songs). His growl then interprets them, reaching the height of expressiveness.
"Widow's Weeds" was also the consecration of the most beautiful soprano voice ever heard in a metal band. It belongs to Vibeke Stene. Far removed from the singsong and sugary tones of Liv Kristine (to whom the compatriot and equally talented Anita Auglend of The Sins Of Thy Beloved, the band completing this fantastic triad, is much closer), she disturbs the listener's soul from the very first notes of the intro. Her voice appears infrequently, but it does so in the best ways possible, and together with the keyboards, it can captivate the listener, leading them to the loneliest places of a forlorn, distant ancient medieval city, to the inside of a Gothic cathedral where one is surrounded by Gregorian chants, to the riverbank, to a cemetery, to the walls of a castle during a magnificent sunset, to sinister places haunted by spirits. The orchestrations are never overwhelming or intrusive (very often we find violin inserts—by Pete Johansen—that only embellish everything, giving it a more romantic touch), but they emphasize the melancholy created by the guitars (still influenced by doom, but at times they take on death connotations). Despite not benefiting from good production (but this detail—thanks to the elements above—is more than irrelevant), that album is and will forever be the Bible of Gothic Metal (Theatre Of Tragedy will have nothing more to offer after, thanks to their lessons, Tristania surpassed them at once).
In any case, this comparison between the two bands is not meant to be a criticism at all (impossible to make…) of Theatre Of Tragedy, who, with their first two albums, wrote part of the history of this genre, making it glorious and paving the way for "daughter" bands, but rather a comparison on the level of emotional feedback.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Evenfall (06:55)
Call thy name at nightfall
Reach out for thee life's rose
Cast thy veils at sunset
Trespass the waning in my halls
Prosperous beauty
Embraced by eden's heart
Call thy name out tearful
Reveal to me thy deepest loss
Cast... make haste my savage wall
for an end
Thy savage... bleak night
In life thy tears grow scarlet
Come desired nightfall
enchant my grievous loss
Life bewailed at sunset
Trespass the shadows in my heart
Arise before me
bequeath thy grievous loss
Dark at heart I mourn thee
Replace the vigour she once lost
03 Pale Enchantress (06:33)
Dark thou embrace my bleeding heart
my dreams uniting our tearful eyes enchanting
At night I kiss the serpent in thy tears
For years thy sorrow I've mourned
Harken my moonchilds cry
Yearning for another night
Mourning my once beloved
Mezmerized and ravendark
My pale enchantress of the night
At last my candle's burning down
The wintermoon is shining bleak
for thee my enchantress
Enchanting all my dreams
a beauty and her flood of tears
Nightfall embrace my heart
Mesmerized and ravendark
My pale enchantress of the night
I desire thee
Tearful I walk with thee through dusk
through winds of loss.
Her beauty and her flood
embrace my bleeding heart
Tearful I fall with thee, at last
lead me there to where thy shadows cast
They dance in velvet darkness lost
Rise bleak winterfullmoon
Rise
In life I kissed the serpent in thy tears
For years thy sorrow I mourned
04 December Elegy (07:33)
May thou carry me to the sea
Like autumn leaves... heaven wither
Savage is the winter prevailing within
I fall for thee... Sorrow entreating me
Makes me leave heaven
I find thy lilies there of snow
where once I died... weeping for thee
Everlasting seems the strife ascending within
Falling for thee...
Darkness confounding me
Makes me leave life Breed my woe
Descend with broken wings
Midwinternight inside
Merged by life... like thousand
frozen tears
Come melt the ice... maytime...
05 Midwintertears (08:34)
Shadowcast upon my heart
endark... thy bleak midwintertears
condemned to mourn in silence
The pale moonrise in her eyes
Serene... like a frozen stream
the flowing beauty in thy tears
I crave for thee my once beloved
Beyond the veils of darkness lost
where now thy roses wrapped in dusk
Dark enchantress
I suffer thy fullmoonnights
Trespass my undesired darkness
Tears flowing through thy dreams
Dark enchantress
the seventh fullmoon rise
I drown in dusk and dark rivers
Summon all my dreams
like roses on your epigraph
written in my tears
thy sorrow and my bleeding heart
She comes so serene
my fallen beauty crowned with leaves
Take me to thy dream
Thy candle will forever burn in me...
06 Angellore (07:18)
When summer's gone flee my angel
Winterwinds they might lead you far away
Beyond the pale horizon, a greaven silence
Over dreams to my heart yet not remain
Oh please believe
It's in her eyes
It is inside
It's in my heart, the same relation from which
I once led astray
Oh please believe
It's in her eyes
It is inside
It's in my heart, the same delightful place
I once felt in you
Angellore revered at dusk
For thee I rose, now descend all alone
Rise for me, soothe my heart
So wide a sea, may I overcome
[Spoken] Into the night strays an angel
So lost and tearful all astray
Into the night strays an angel
So lost an d tearful all astray
Lo where's the pale horizon
Oh where is dyingness
You reach for me beyond so wide a sea
Oh please believe
It's in her eyes
It is inside
It's in my heart, the same desire
I feel burning in me
Oh please believe
It's in her eyes
It is inside
It's in my heart, the same desire from
The empty pain within
Rise for me, soothe my heart
So wide a sea, may I overcome
Deep as the sea, wailing secrecies are burning in me
For a dream I once desired
I bequeth my sorrow and I regret to thee
Cannot cross that wide a sea
Angellore revered at dusk
For thee I rose, now descend all alone
Rise for me, soothe my heart
So wide a sea, may I overcome
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