Assembly

Theatre of Tragedy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 16, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nuclear Blast Americ
• ASIN: B000063NB5
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,347 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Abandoning the past - again!, April 17, 2002

By 

David Parker (burlington, vermont United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Assembly (Audio CD)

I guess Theatre of Tragedy decided that they had nothing more to say in the world of gothic hard rock after "Aegis" and did a complete 180 with the last album "Musique", much to the dismay of most of their hard-core fans. Gone were the dark, gothic epics mixing elements of Type O Negative with operatic female vocals, replaced with a sort of Euro-electro-industro sound, completely abandoning the deep, growly male vocals of the earlier albums, and relying more on Liv Kristine's singing (a wise choice there!) - all over a more programmed, keyboard-heavy sound. That continues pretty much unabated on this latest offering, although adding a few Garbage-like textures throughout this time. Unfortunately, what TOT seems to forget is that changing sounds means nothing if the songs are forgettable, and while much of this album and "Musique" is enjoyable, it's also quickly forgotten. Bands like Flowing Tears, Paradise Lost and Tiamat are proving that you can experiment within the "gothic" genre and still remain pretty much true to form. Those bands are constantly shifting their sound, but keep putting out great albums. It's too bad that a leader like TOT couldn't see fit to do the same.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get over it!, February 6, 2005

By 

Michael "Long Time Fan" (Spring Valley, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Assembly (Audio CD)

There is nothing worse than a band that keeps playing the same old style of music without every changing or trying something new. Worse than that are the fans who complain because they can't handle the change. As a musician let me tell that never trying something different is soooo boring. Kudos to TOT for this album and Musique before it. The music still rocks just in a different style (ala Curve, Garbage) Sorry miopic metal fans. As much as I love earlier TOT, and I do, these albums are still superior to most music out there.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It actually deserves 3.5 stars,, August 8, 2005

By 

8er Martin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Assembly (Audio CD)

I must confess that I loved first 3 TOT albums and hated with my whole black heart Musique, actually I thought it was the most horrible thing I'd ever heard and when I heard the single "Let You Down" I thought this would be another Musique. I've been listening to this CD all day long, and it's begun to grow on me. Of course it has nothing to do with Aegis, Velvet Darkness or TOT's debut album, those were 3 masterpieces, but Assembly is not as bad as it was Musique, this one sounded better produced, music was far more creative than Musique's, and even though lyrics here are still a bit silly, some of them deserve to be read. There some good moments on this album (Superdrive, which sounds very much like Garbage's Run Baby Run, Starlit and Envision, for example). Automatic Lover has a very good melody, the only thing I found disgusting were the lyrics, too repetitive, and too focused on creating a catchy song that you can sing along with your friends as you drive your car and drink vodka. Let You Down is also good after all, it has something that i can't describe and that simply made me fall in love with the song, despiting the bad impression I had when I first heard it.
Another nice song is Flickerlight, again too Garbage-ish, but still good.
Basically this is not an excellent album, but it still has some good things on it and certainly was very much better than Musique. I'd recommend that you get a few songs (or even the whole album) from internet, and if you like the songs enough, then go to buy it (that's what I did, but I'm not so sure yet about buying it or not).
And, in case you find this really disgusting, you might want to check out Liv Kristine's new band "Leaves' Eyes", whose albums Lovelorn and Vinland Saga are very good (specially Lovelorn, which is already my favorite).