Customer Reviews

Velvet Darkness They Fear

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Liv Kristine's angelic soprano voice counterbalanced by the gruff, demonic refrains of Raymond Rohonniy work together perfectly in the Theatre of Tragedy -9 track- CD, 'Velvet Darkness They Fear.' Unlike many other Goth bands that rely too heavily on their female vocalist to keep their audience involved, Raymond somehow manages to bring his discordant vocals into an adversarial, yet complimentary relationship with Liv's ethereal incantations. Truly light and shadow have become one.

Dark, Haunting, Unrelenting, Erotic and Beautiful. Everything you could ask for from a Goth/metal band.

Awesome. Incredibly UNIQUE. Stupendously magnificent. I am still mesmerized with its grandeur. NEVER have an album impressed me so much. The melodies, vocals, tempos, textures, EVERYTHING is so beautifully arranged! What most enchants me in VDTF is the simple fact that I still FEEL the music, even after a hundred listenings and knowing what Theatre Of Tragedy has become... VDTF is forever, no matter how "old" it may look. The lyrics are totally gothic and introspective, reflected by the duels between Raymond's and Liv's vocals or between the piano and the distorted guitars. Overall, VDTF's grandeur relies on CONTRASTS of all kinds.

Now talking about about some particular songs. "And When He Falleth" is definitely my all-time-favorite song ever ever by any artist or band. It is verything I said about the album, but inside one song. It gives me goosebumps every time, VERY beautiful, words cannot do it justice. "On Whom..." is also very powerful, but in a different way. It's more romantic, the same for "Masquerader...". "Black as the Devil Painteth" is about a painter and his inspiring canvas. But there are no bad songs here, far from that.

One piece of advice to enjoy VDTF even more. Buy ToT's self-titled album first and listen to it a hundred times. Then finally buy VDTF and delight yourself. The debut is awesome! But VDTF leaves it far behind... Everything there is here, but times 1000 better.

I had to pay homage to this album(and band) that inspires me so much. Everyone please do yourself a favor: embrace the velvet darkness. Do not fear! (Ah, I almost forgot, guys look at this cover!!!)

I never took much interest in Theatre of Tragedy, as I feel Tristania makes them look like a high-school band trying to keep their heads out of the water, but after finally getting up the courage to risk Aegis (and liking it, aside from the not-so-impressive vocals) and reading all the "too good to be true" reviews on here, I decided that I had enough cash to spare to risk this one. At first I didn't like it, because it was too slow, but after putting it through its cycles a few times, I'm warming up to it. Best songs are "Bring Forth Ye Shadow" and "Black as the Devil Painteth." What I don't get is, Raymond does awesome death vocals, but his 'clean' singing is pitiful, and he just talks half the time. Normally, one has a much easier time singing than doing extreme vocals. He must have the reverb maxed out on his microphone. Liv Kristine sounds awesome, much better than her toned-down voice on Aegis and immeasurably better than what they confined her to on the poopy-pop albums that they made after that. The guitarists don't play anything amazingly complex, but it's nice and heavy, just the way I like it. The keyboards are perfect; very dark and depressing. The drums aren't wonderful but they suffice.

There are some minor issues I have with this, but nothing really bad. I thought the intro could've had some more character, being just a piano piece. Also, I don't like parts where Liv and Raymond sing together. I will continue to reiterate that Raymond I. Rohonyi cannot sing for the life of him, so when not using the voice distortion, the man ought to just keep his mouth shut and let the talented (and pretty) one do all the work. But those are minor issues. Forget the new crap that the band is making; I understand bands change, but the new music is a blatant attempt to sell out and proves that the band ran out of ideas, plus Raymond lists twits like Eminem and Dr. Dre as his favorite artists and says he hates guitar-driven music, and you know that can't be good for a metal band. So get this, Aegis, and their self-titled album, but do not go anywhere near Musique or Assembly.

This is the first TOT album I ever bought! I heard the first three minutes of it and had to have it! I was not disappointed in the least! These guys (and girl!) turned me on to other great male/female vocal bands that are equally great, such as Lacuna Coil, Tristania, and Within Temptation (I recommend buying all you can by them, as well!) This CD is classic TOT: melodic and heavy guitars and keyboards fronted by harsh male vocals countered with an enchanting female soprano (Liv, you're a goddess!)! Songs that stick in my mind as being excellent are Fair and Guiling Copesmate Death, Bring Forth ye Shadow, Black as the Devil Painteth (with some clean male singing!), and the unbelievably awesome On whom the Moon doth Shine (my personal favorite!). This CD is full of emotion and talent that is to be expected from such a passionate group of musicians!

Theatre of Tragedy has definitely got to be one of the top 5 gothic bands of all time. The two singers, Raymond and Liv create absolute magic together. Speaking back and forth harmonizing the growl of Raymond with the pure and serene Liv, it is the most captivating album I have ever heard

Velvet Darkness They Fear is, of course, Theatre of Tragedy's second masterpiece, released in 1996. Many consider this to be their best work yet (even Liv Kristine deems it her favorite), but I would have to disagree. While the band sounds better, and the production too, the songwriting has a tendency to be a tad inconsistent in certain places. While there are some very entrancing melodies, I find that at many points the songs become repetitive and/or drawn out. Of course, as with any TOT record, you become adjusted to this after multiple listens, and some of the melodies are truly captivating, but be prepared to listen to this over and over again in order to understand it. It is probably TOT's most complex album, but also one of the most rewarding. As I said, everyone sounds great. Raymond and Liv are at their best on this album, and his "beast" complements her "beauty" magnificently. Tommy Lindal's guitars are once again, sludgy and heavy, very typical of TOT (unfortunately, due to nerve injuries, his time in TOT was cut short, VDTF being his last album). Hein Frode Hansen and Eirik T. Saltro round out the rhythm section, with newcomer Geil Flikkeid on guitars, and Lorentz Aspen on keyboards. Album highlights for me include "Fair and 'Guiling Copesmate Death", "Bring Forth Ye Shadow", "And When He Falleth", the mesmerizing "Der Tanz der Schatten" and the spine-tingling "Black as the Devil Painteth" (one of TOT's best songs). All the others are great too.

I wouldn't recommend Velvet Darkness They Fear as a first TOT purchase, let that be the debut or Aegis. But make sure you do pick this up somewhere down the road - you won't regret it!

9.4/10

Outstanding! This album sounds like a dark fairytale. My countrymen didn`t quite recapture the magic of V.D.T.F. on their newest piece Aegis, although that`s a brilliant album as well. T.O.T. is without a doubt one of the best goth-metal bands around and this album is the proof.

Hope you are well-versed in your old-English before you listen to this. Actually, I have to say this is probably the most Vampiric album I have ever listened to - straight out of Dracula! The music is Beauty and Beast symphonic metal with similarities to Tristania and Sirenia. Excellent composition -but a little milder. Perfect for dark gloomy evenings! One of my favorite albums!

This album is truly unique. There is nothing like it, and there will never be anything like it to come. Obviously with such singularity comes much weirdness that may be too much for many of you. Just keep an open mind.

When I first heard the CD, i just laughed. It's really not until the fourth or fifth listens that you really begin appreciating the method behind the apparent madness and start to think that the growling male vocals are actually necessary. This is a crazy parallel to draw, but it's almost like the dance group Aqua (also from Norway) who pair the soprano voice of their female singer with the tenor of a male so that neither voice dominates and you get tired of neither. Obviously the styles couldnt be more different, but the idea is still the same; Raymond is the dark side, Lynn is the light side, and the album is about their beautiful duet, both shadow and light, yin and yang.

now for some less abstract observations... this is one of my favorite gothic metal albums. in my mind, every song is good and i like a different one the best each time i listen. They do a good job of avoiding monotony, changing the speed of the songs from slow to fast, fast to slow quite often. They entertain you with spoken vocal parleys, which are cool but do get annoying after a while. But most importantly all the songs are well constructed, highly melodic and convey a distinct sense of emotion.

It is very difficult to review this CD but those are my thoughts on it. Bottom line: this is an underappreciated but very well constructed gothic metal dreamscape that i would encourage fans of Old Man's Child, Nightwish, and Within Temptation to try.

Lord chimp is as idiotic as his name, the angelic vocals of lev kristen sound great when combined with the harsh growls of death metal vocalists. Her voice sounds great mixed with these guys, great with leaves' eyes but my favorite was when she mixed her vocals with dani filths growls, so check out these other ones as well as buying this c.d. the contrast sounds great!!!!