乐队列表 Gothic Metal Theatre Of Tragedy Storm

Now this is what the band's original fans were waiting for: Theatre of Tragedy gets back to Gothic sound! That is good indeed, but there are changes (original fans beware): no grunts, no doom at all, the atmosphere is not so melancholic as on the first albums AND Liv Kristine left the band! Specially this last difference could spoil the band's sound but... keep reading...

The first song (Storm) immediately displays a Gothic orientation with some pianos although there are still some distorted male vocals which are the worst part of it, but that's more than OK, music should evolve, change, and Theatre of Tragedy have changed after their electronic experience. The second track still has some electronic sounds but hey, it has a very good rhythm and yes, everyone's glad that the new vocalist Nell Sigland doesn't ruin the band's aura. After Silence, we feel embraced by a great track called Ashes and Dreams - what a warmthful song! It has some kind of lullaby feel to it, and you can't avoid loving it. Great song! Voices is not so good, with no special marks to it. The song flows but it has not a high moment on it although is not a bad song at all. And from then on I can bring to highlight the great ambiance of Fade, the muscular metal-rock power of Begin and End, the good rhythm of the bonus track Highlights... and even Senseless, starts with Raymond's vocals and they fit well. Exile not being a bad track but this time Raymond's vocals get into my nerves, so I prefer to skip this one, Disintegration has a very good start but again those male vocals get a bit in the way of a otherwise great track and the finale is called Debris, which is a good way to end the album, although applying the same formula of male vocals on the middle sections of the song and a female voice on the chorus and although the electronic mood they raise again so we won't forget their recent past.

If you asked me where would I fit this album on the band's career I would hesitate a bit: it's like you're listening to the 4th album and after this they would be releasing "Musique" because it is lighter than Aegis and it has slight electronic influences here and there. Fortunately this came after the two electro-pop albums!! So "Storm" is after all a relief to people who like Theatre of Tragedy. IF you're a new listener probably this will be your favorite album in their discography, since it's melodic, sounds really good and it's very well built, but if you're a hardcore fan since the beginning (like i am), you will like it a lot, but you will still miss the band's power, mysticism and lyrics from their first 3 albums.