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Theatre of Tragedy was a Norwegian band from Stavanger, originally assembled in 1993 and best known for their earlier albums, whichprovided a great deal of influence to the gothic metal genre. The band made use of contrasting vocals -- male bass vocals (making some useof death grunts) and female soprano singing (commonly referred to as "Beauty and the Beast" vocals) -- and on their first three albums,presented lyrics written predominantly in Early Modern English. Starting from the album Musique, however, Theatre of Tragedy madedrastic changes to its style, which became significantly ins ...read more
Theatre of Tragedy was a Norwegian band from Stavanger, originally assembled in 1993 and best known for their earlier albums, whichprovided a great deal of influence to the gothic metal genre. The band made use of contrasting vocals -- male bass vocals (making some useof death grunts) and female soprano singing (commonly referred to as "Beauty and the Beast" vocals) -- and on their first three albums,presented lyrics written predominantly in Early Modern English. Starting from the album Musique, however, Theatre of Tragedy madedrastic changes to its style, which became significantly inspired by the industrial rock genre, abandoning Early Modern English writing anddeath grunts in the process.Theatre of Tragedy was founded on 2 October 1993. Drummer Hein Frode Hansen had recently quit his former band Phobia and startedlooking for a new musical project to play in. A friend of his told Hein that a band called Suffering Grief was looking for a new drummer, andafter contacting them, he joined the band. At the time, Suffering Grief was composed of vocalist Raymond István Rohonyi and guitarists PålBjåstad and Tommy Lindal. No bassist had joined the band yet, but Eirik T. Saltrø had agreed to play with them in live concerts.After finding a rehearsal place, the band decided to work upon a couple of piano arrangements composed by Lorentz Aspen. The vocals, atthe time, were mostly entirely composed by raw death grunts.After composing their first song, "Lament of the Perishing Roses", the band changed its name to La Reine Noir and then to Theatre of Tragedy.They subsequently invited singer Liv Kristine Espenæs to do female vocals for one song, but quickly invited her to join the band permanently.In 1994, their first studio demo was recorded, and in 1995, the debut album Theatre of Tragedy was released, followed by VelvetDarkness They Fear in 1996 and the A Rose for the Dead EP in 1997, which contained unreleased material from Velvet DarknessThey Fear. Arguably, the band reached the apogee of its career in 1998, with the release of the critically acclaimed Aegis album.Released in 2000, Musique was a massive departure from the gothic metal sound that Theatre of Tragedy had developed over theprevious three albums. The heavy guitars and Early Modern English lyrics were replaced by electropop and industrial-influenced metal. It wasmet with a very mixed reception, and while some older fans were understandably shocked by the new direction of the band, it did gain thema number of new fans.With 2002's Assembly, the band continued along the same musical path as on their previous album. It was seen as a more refined andconfident electropop record than its predecessor. It was also the first album to feature their long-time session guitarist, Vegard K. Thorsen, asa full member of the band.In August 2003, the band declared in an official statement on their website, that Liv Kristine was removed from the band's line-up due to"musical differences which could not be bridged".Female singer Nell Sigland (from The Crest) joined Theatre of Tragedy in the following year. In winter 2004/2005 a short concert tour(together with Pain, Sirenia and Tiamat) with Sigland singing was undertaken.The band released their sixth studio album Storm on March 24, 2006 and a European tour followed, with Gothminister as the supportingact. The album's title song was released as a single on February 24, 2006. While still continuing the industrial and electronic roots of the lasttwo albums, the album showed a return to some of the sounds developed in their first albums.On 2 October 2008, Theatre of Tragedy celebrated their 15th anniversary. In December 2008 the band posted a snippet of new track "Frozen,"which was expected to be on the new album, on their MySpace music page:"Time for some updates. Things are slowly moving forward with the next album. As usual with the Theatre machinery there is many things totake into consideration when doing stuff and recently we were forced to change collaborators for the production of the album, and postponethe recordings. But fear not the heavy responsibility has been entrusted to Alexander Møklebust (Zeromancer, Seigmen, Gåte, Monomen,Delaware etc) and the ToT crew will enter Room 13 in May and June for recordings and general mayhem! Estimated release from AFM is endof September. Rumor has it that there will be a vinyl version for the diehard fans. We will keep you posted."June 2009 saw the band reveal Forever Is The World as the title of the new album. Their 7th album, it was released in Europe on 21September 2009, with the band taking another step back in the direction of their earlier sound on Aégis. A special Tour Edition ofForever Is The World was issued on March 12, 2010. The Tour Edition contained a bonus CD known as the Addenda EP whichcontained song reworkings and unreleased tracks.Metal Mind Productions issued a press release in July stating that they were, with the co-operation of the band, re-releasing Musiqueand Assembly. Both albums had been remastered and would be backed with bonus tracks. New liner notes and artwork were said to bea part of the package. Each album would be limited to 2000 numbered copies.On 1 March 2010, Theatre of Tragedy issued a statement informing fans of their decision to split on 2 October 2010. The statement citedpersonal desires to spend more time with family and an inability to juggle their everyday working lives with a "rock and roll" lifestyle. On 12March, Theatre of Tragedy kicked off their farewell tour, the Forever Is the World Tour. The Norwegian symphonic goth metal bandWhere Angels Fall played support on the European part of the tour. In September, fans helped the band to secure funds to finish their first andlast DVD by making donations when the label pulled out most of the funding for the production. « hide |
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