Reviewed by Wynand
Finally! A decent goth-metal album! I got sick of listning to music that hurts my brain, so i decided to try something more relaxed. i downloaded one song of this album and the next day i rang the music shop to get it imported.
What ToT does, is mix simplistic but effective guitar riffing with good keyboards. No arm-breking drumming or finger severing guitar solo's - just good, honest melodies. at the core of the ToT sound is the female singer - and can she sing! her opera-style singing might not be the liking of most - but mix it with latin and other foreign language lyrics and you end up with some pretty good goth-rock (most is still in english, so dont get put off by it).
Standout tracks:
a.) VENUS - this song is breath-taking. look at the lyrics:
"Venus! - I throw'd thou wast my friend -
Proffesed to heaven thou wouldst send.
As a disciple of a villain
Didst thou act the thragedienne."
yes, very shakespearian. i guess what make ToT so great is that they are exactly what their name says they are - a theatre of tragedy! the fisrt song - 'Cassandra', and 'Sirens' relate back to the tales of the Homeric tragedy. anyway, Venus is a great song - highly recommended.
b.) Bacchante
The ending is like a maelstrom of voices and instruments that still function in perfect coherency. the rest of the song is great too. this song is an ideal ending to a great album.
every song on the album is good IMHO, it all functions as a theatre for tales of tragedy. if you need a break from death-metal, this is the perfect album to do it with.