Customer Reviews

Storm

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm pretty sure no one will miss Liv Kristine after hearing Nell Sigland. Not only do they sound similar, but they can both sing, no doubt.

The guy who can't sing is Raymond, and his distorted whispering style of singing is the one thing that keeps me from giving this album the 4 stars that the soaring choruses and lovely female vocals deserve. On some songs, when he's actually singing to a tune (Ashes and Dreams) it almost works. However, his apparent lack of vocal range seems to influence the songwriting, as evidenced in the stark similarity in melody in the verses of consecutive songs The Storm and Silence.

TOT can really do with a decent male vocalist - see how well a decent male vocalist like Marko Hietala blended with Tarja Turunen in Nightwish - a massive improvement on the death growling male vocals on their Oceanborn album. TOT can do with a singer like that - it would probably mean stronger verses to back up the fantastic choruses.

Failing that, I'd be happy enough to hear Nell sing everything.

Talking about the choruses, there are some rippers here. The Storm, Silence, Ashes and Dreams, Voices, Begin and End, Exile, Debris and Disintegration all feature magnificent choruses in varying degrees of excellence. It's hard to say a whole lot more about the songs because #1 they are disappointingly short, and #2 there's not a whole lot to say about the forgettable parts that Raymond performs.

In the end it's good to see TOT abandoning their overly industrial sound and getting back to something resembling Aegis, even though The Storm is quite different to that. Only two things were needed to make this a 5 star album:

1. A decent male vocalist
2. Longer songs

The length of the songs leaves me with almost a bigger complaint than Raymond's uninspiring vocals. Just as you start getting into a song (mostly verse-chorus-verse-chorus-done) it's over. Silence barely reaches the 3 minute mark, Voices falls well short at 2:47. I thought we left songs this short behind in the sixties. As a matter of fact it's only the mediocre Fade and the closing track Debris that breaches the 4 minute barrier.

In the end though, Nell's inspired singing and some wonderful choruses make this album worth your time. Once you get used to the poor male vocals you actually manage to weather them without too much discomfort, knowing that at the end of that short dark tunnel Nell is waiting to mesmerize and enchant you.

Theatre of Tragedy is arguably the first and most important band that pioneered the beauty and beast type of bands, utilising brutal death growls and angelic female vocals. With albums like Theatre of Tragedy and Velvet Darkness They Fear, they set an example to a million bands who followed their footsteps, with only few of them trying to bring anything new to the table. Rather, they just expanded on Theatre of Tragedy's songwriting, adding in the occasional non-metal instruments. However, after Aegis, the band delved into a very industrial sound, dropping their characteristic sound and opting for electronic music with lots of dancey beats.

As the band lost touch with most of their older fanbase, they continued to experiment with industrial soundscapes, mostly evident on Musique. The following album, Assembly, marked their downfall and led to the departure of female vocalist Liv Kristine (now in Leaves' Eyes). Now, after so many years, Theatre of Tragedy returns with a new singer, a new album, and a new direction, according to second vocalist Raymond Rohonyi. Nell Sigland from The Crest is behind the mic now and she has a very soft, quite poppy voice that gives some of the songs a distinct 80's pop flavour. Almost all songs are centred around the piano and synth work of Lorentz Aspen; he plays both solo piano pieces and electronic synth textures. Although Storm is no where near as industrial-sounding as Musique and experimental as Assembly, it doesn't really stray too far away from these albums. I guess it would be logical to say this album is a mixture of their previous two; mixing atmospheric synth work with subtle guitar harmonies and static drumming. On the title track, Nell sounds passionate, and thanks to the clever mix of Greg Reely (Paradise Lost, Fear Factory) her doubled vocals are really amazing. It's like she harmonises with her identical twin before crunchy waves of guitars begin to soar above the delicate piano melody. "Silence" is relatively heavier, with great whispered vocals and accompaniment by Rohonyi. Unfortunately, how much his vocals add to the overall success of the album is highly questionable. I still find his singing (and spoken parts) rather dull and uninteresting. There are moments when the contrast between their voices works though, such as "Ashes and Dreams", a song that alternates between dark male vocals and fragile yet bright female harmonies. However, songs like "Fade", an entirely piano-driven ballad with only sprinkles of guitar riffs heard; or the rocking yet creepy "Begin & End" are a lot better, mostly because they're sung almost entirely by Nell. "Exile" and "Disintegration" return to Theatre of Tragedy's industrial, dance-style music, with lots of sampled beats and processed vocals. The album is wrapped by another midtempo track which is mostly sung by Nell, save for the middle part where Rohonyi narrates something in a nasal tone.

Some fans will still enjoy this disc, but I feel it's still inferior to their earlier work. Then again, I should know better as they'll never go back to playing that type of music again.

For fans of Theatre of Tragedy's early work this album is a pleasent return to the music that first transfixed you. Well, for the most part. Their sound has evolved over the years, as one would expect. But, for those who hated the weird, whinny, vaguely European spoken word bits on the Assembly album, this might be a disappointment. I liked it though. For some reason it's less annoying paired with old-school metal than with the techo-pop on their last two cds. The female vocals are beautiful. Though Storm isn't as good as Theatre of Tragedy's first three albums it's a heck of alot better than most other "goth metal" out there nowadays and worth a 5 star rating.

First of all I would like to mention that I am not a TOT fan from their humble beginnings but I started off with Aegis album and fell in love with it due to the contrast between a male harsh vocals and a female angelic voice like Liv when she was singing for the band. Ever since then I took an interest in the band with each new album releases. I noticed TOT was beginning to change their musical styles with each new release. I was not really happy with the move but I understand that as a musical entity, it needs to evolve. I still love songs from Musique and Assembly album respectively. It has its moments in time. They reflect the different time period of the band's lives what they went thru and their musical influences at that time. With the departure of Liv Kristine and the old chapter closed for good comes the new chapter with Nell taking the vocal chores. With the line up changes there surely will have new and different influences in the music going forth. With this being said, their new album Storm reflects just that. When I first listen to Storm from start to finish, I was already hooked on the melodies and the songs arrangements. Eventhough it is a much simpler straight ahead song arrangements nevertheless after couple of spins.. I was totally hooked on it. Singing and headbanging and playing drums on songs from the album. As always once I completely surrender my whole self spiritually I was in a place where only music is the only medium that was able to transport me to a higher place, a place only your imagination and mind can create. Most of the songs that were able to strike a cord with my inner feelings left me with tears flowing down my cheeks. At this time in my life I was going thru an emotional roller coaster and as you can see why I rated full stars was because the songs from Storm album with their emotional musical energy was able to helped me make a positive transition to where I am today. I was feeling anger, hate, love, depressed, sadness, disappointment, longing, frustration and etc.. I was very fortunate to have found TOT with Storm album.. The vocal melodies and the entire popish metal music concept just rhymes with my heart and inner feelings and emotion. I was able to connect my spiritual self with Storm and that is just an incredible feeling of reaching the light in times of emotional turmoil. With each and every listen to Storm, I am lifted to a higher place where only I can feel it. I was and still caught in the STORM. It is one of many albums that has made a positive impact in my life. I cannot thank TOT enough for a brilliant album!

The only other album I own is the self titled album. I remember the growls and beautiful voice of Liv. I never even bothered with the albums where they decided to go techno-industrial or what ever that crap was. I am always looking for the operatic sounds when I am looking for new music. It's getting harder to find bands like that anymore. Seems like everytime you find one they only put out one album or one ep and then it's over. Case in point..Eyes Without Face..great!! But they only put out an ep and thats it. This album is okay, but, after hearing the whole thing I was bored. The new female singer is way too poppy, her voice never changes on any of the songs. I felt at times I was listening to Collide. I guess she can't sing operatic style. The rest of the vocals are just boring and not uplifting at all. Almost seems that they are trying to get into that Nu-Metal market and appeal to the younger crowd. So..okay, but, nothing special.

One day I got on a kick to find something brand new to listen too. After tons of browsing and sample searching I came upon an older more experienced band I had never heard, Theatre of Tragedy.

What a great band this is. The music has classical touches mixed in with Industrial/Hard Rock riffs, but the clash of vocalizations is what set this band apart from anything I have heard. The vocals are a mix of lively polished female vocals with a rougher and darker male drone.

I was surprised to find out that ToT was a Norwegian band. Thankfully there is none of the screaming, rasping, and growling you find in their music.

Over here in North America Evanessence comes the closest to ToT but I have to point out that I said... closest. ToT is by far and away more solid than Evanessence, especially when it comes to the vocals. Though Evanessence does have an edge in their more interesting songwriting.

If you are looking for a rock CD that does not follow any formulas, has some melodies, and you like to hear a talented singer in front of a distorted guitar, give this CD a chance. I think you will be as surprised and happy as I was.

Being a fan of early Theatre, Velvet darkness and Aegis, I took a risk on buying this album especially after the bad reviews for the last two before this, but this album didn't disappoint. It is certainly not like the early albums but continues with Theatre's catchy sounds and Raymonds spoken word type vocals, with a lighter sort of rock style female vocals.The lyrics are excellent, more contemporary poetry rather than classic as on previous albums , I like every track and can listen to the whole album through which is rare, it has a similar strangely melancholic yet catchy sound that Aegis had, but is more of a hard rock kind of style, yet more meaningful and deep than most hard rock albums. Not for everyone as its not mainstream, nor is it exactly what Theatre made a name for themselves with, but worth a listen if you are willing to try something a bit different from the band.

This album represents a kind of reboot for Theatre of Tragedy, finding a new identity after the departure of Liv Kristine. Like earlier TOT work, it suffers from a narrow range of musical ideas, showing up as a lack of variety in the songs. This album makes up for it lyrically, exploring a group of related themes: memories (of landscapes and seasons), the contradictions of the present, and dark or inchoate dreams of the future. The tension is often reflected in images of metal, chrome, machines and industrial society, as opposed to natural imagery of the past. It doesn't take much imagination to trace these concerns to the history of their home town of Stavanger.

The album very much reflects Norway's death metal tradition but the music is considerably softened. It includes a female lead (Nell Sigland in her first appearance), and substitutes male chanting (by Raymond) for death grunts and growls. Those chanted words provide the vocal equivalent of a bass guitar to Nell's lead guitar, and almost every song here relies on the counterpoint between these voices. Lyrically, the chants often focus on "industrial" or machine-like fragments of ideas, while Nell's lyrics often evoke memories, dreams and romances.

Raymond's vocals lack variety in conventional terms, but if my reading of their lyrical goals is right, and if you see the Nell-Raymond duets by analogy to lead and bass guitars, I think you can justify this not as a weakness but as an artistic choice. Clearly some will not like this choice, but I thought it worked well.

I have to agree with other reviewers who dislike the male vocals... I'd really like this, probably 5 stars, if they had a good male singer. The female vocals are excellent and the music content is excellent. My very favorite kind of music is actually male/female duet where each sings their part, and occasionally sing together. On this album, in my opinion, the male singer just ruins it. It would be much better with just her since his singing is like background noise.

So, sadly, 3 stars instead of 5...

It's true. The lyrics are poetic and intelligent, especially articulate for an often cliche genre. You may find words you never knew existed between the hushed chanting of the male vocals and the smooth female singing. The themes are appropriately negative and dreary at times, but not melodramatic. The music itself is yet another tangent for the band, with a new vocalist [also of Norway's band The Crest] and a more modern dark rock sound, but they maintain the piano/keys and ambient orchestral blend that makes thier music unique without sounding completely commercial. It's a hypnotic album, yet refreshing for those who favor darker rock.