Review Summary: The Dark Times of Gothic/Symphonic Metal, Part 21
Let’s end the Dark Times of Gothic/Symphonic Metal series with the band that started it all. Although Theatre of Tragedy were not the first band to mix metal with a goth aesthetic, they were one of the first to use the Beauty and the Beast vocals, and so they created the gothic metal sound as we think of it today, and as it is defined in this series. Their 2006 album, Storm, is like many in this series: not exactly terrible, even pretty good in some parts, but with its share of problems.
Compare the two first songs I ever heard from this album, the title track and “Begin and End”. Now, “Begin and End” is a great song, not just my the best on this album but one of my favorites ever. It’s heavy and doomy, with a strange atmosphere you can’t really describe, with lyrics you can’t really explain either, and some deep, dark vocals from both singers. Nell Sigland’s “we talked in a language that we didn’t understand” whisper still haunts me. Contrast that with the title track, which is just one of these poppy gothic metal songs I don’t really like, with a simple piano and guitar melody, and melodramatic but not very moving lyrics about some kind of bad situation described with storm metaphors. The vocals aren’t any better, especially not Raymond István Rohonyi’s weirdly robotic gravelly speak.
He uses a similar tone on “Silence”, something that’s not really a growl and not really singing. It’s kind of sad if you compare this to his growls on previous Theatre of Tragedy albums. Another obvious way that Storm pales in comparisons to its predecessors is that it doesn’t have Liv Kristine. She has the kind of voice that can be recognized immediately, and she was an inspiration to many women in metal, so, obviously, her replacement has big shoes to fill. Nell is a lot like Annette Olzon with Nightwish: not a bad singer, but a very ordinary one. Her voice just doesn’t have that otherworldly quality that makes the music feel so special. At the same time, her voice is very soft and soothing, so it fits the mellow tone of the album. She can sound very sweet on the almost lullaby-like “Ashes and Dreams” and “Fade”.
This is another problem of the album: it’s too soft, and not always in a soothing and mellow way, but often in a very dull way. The middle, from “Silence” to “Begin and End”, is repetitive and slow, with songs that completely blend together.
It’s kind of tough to get through, but worth it. The heavier tracks tend to be more interesting, like “Senseless” with its big riffs and “I challenge the truth” hook. Or “Exile” and its dark atmosphere, sinister vocals from Raymond, and more powerful singing from Nell. “Disintegration” is similarly dark and heavy, maybe a little too similar. And finally, “Debris”, the heaviest and most desperate track, ends the album with this chorus about how “We’re nothing but debris, floating on a silver lake, there’s nothing left to take”, which also still haunts me.
So, this was Theatre of Tragedy’s first album with their new singer. How was it? One more style in their wildly diverse discography: from doom/gothic metal to heavenly voices with hints of metal to dance/pop and then, gothic metal, but it still fits them, still kind of works. This particular album is not as good as their old stuff, few things will ever be. It’s repetitive, often dull, with some not very good vocals, but it still has some good songs. The lyrics have an interesting theme of looking for the meaning of life even if it may not exist. They could have evolved into a pretty interesting prog/goth metal band who sings about the meaning of life and the mysteries of the universe, but the album is a little too uneven and dull to achieve that. However, it’s still enjoyable, and I’d still recommend it. And this is how this series ends: with the creators of gothic metal making a flawed but still interesting album like many others in this series.
What did we learn from the dark times of gothic/symphonic metal series? Well, I hope I’ve proven my point about 2006 to 2016 being the worst 10 years for those subgenres, with 2006 and 2011 having the biggest amount of bad albums being released (and probably the worst albums too). But more seriously, I liked seeing how these albums were different levels of bad, and for different reasons. Some were as bad as I feared, some were more average than truly bad, and some were better than I thought. I’ve developed a certain affection for some of them, while admitting their flaws. Those flaws usually involved the band suffering from personal drama, losing their personality for a more commercial sound and not even being good at that new sound, getting a new singer who doesn’t really fit them, or just not giving us their best songwriting efforts.
I didn’t start this series just to complain about albums I hate, but to look back at albums known for their very mixed reception, and to see why they were criticized and if the criticism was deserved. I was pleasantly surprised to see that while no album in the series was great and nearly flawless, many were better than I thought, and others were bad in a way that was very interesting to explain. This was a fun warts-and-all look into 10 very messy years for two subgenres I love so much and could talk about for hours. So much that I might have a little spin-off planned for the series, but we’ll see that later.
