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Theatre Of Tragedy - Assembly
Norway's pride Theatre of Tragedy are back with their
6th fullength release(11th if you count all minicd's and singles), and
by now they doesn't sound anything like they did back in the mid 90's
when they had their breakthrough with their melancholic, soft and crisp
gothic metal with female vocals that counteracted with Raymond's growling. Nowadays they mix all kinds of styles, and it almost becomes
too much from time to time, when we are being thrown between nearly
punk-esque tunes one minute and ambient gothsongs the next, to be caugth
in an almost U2-like song later on. The opener Automatic Lover spins off with a heavy pounding
rif, and the more aggresssive side of Liv Kristine's singing without
much of a chorus, but instead an ongoing groove. Furthermore, songs like Superdrive, Let You Down and Envision
are really killers that hit you like a smack in the face, and has a
great groove and a great soundpicture with really fat guitars. The overall guitarsound is heavy and compact, and are
contributing a great deal to the fact that this sounds like music with
pondus and power. The electronic elements are overwhelming nowadays, with
a lot of loops, samples and spacy sounds that bring your thoughts outside
the realms of metal when listening to this, and if Kraftwerk would have
put heavy guitars on some of their tunes back in the days - than it
might have sounded something like this. If you appreciate their two latest albums, than this should
definitly be something for you, but if you instead wants metal to the
bone - then I suggest you look elsewhere. This is damn good, and they make me feel very good listening to this, at the same time as the headbanging nerve make itself constantly reminded and wants to get busy. I am already looking forward to their next album - and that is a good sign.
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