Tristania
I've only made it as far as a very good dosage of Tristania's 'Widow's Weeds' & 'Beyond The Veil' and not beyond as these two are really so damned good I've been slowly savouring them as if they were juicy steaks. I've not made it to 'World Of Glass' yet.
Previously, when BRIEFLY hearing songs that contained operatic female vocals and other delicate things in metal, I thought it sounded pretentious and contrived, unnatural. Mere ornament and novelty. Something that seems like a cool concept on paper but didn't work well in practice. But knowing Tristania were of this style I reserved judgement until I could get a good long listen. I feel a little dopey describing what others are well aware of but Tristania pull it off really well. Those softer elements are integrated seamlessly. Not overdone or out of place and contributing perfectly to the whole song.
They're both quality recordings with WW a little darker in tone than BTV. #3-'Pale Enchantress' is so seductive in it's waltz-like movement. The anomaly on WW is #6-'Angellore' , when it started my first thought when hearing the keyboards was this sounds like mid-80s Iggy Pop. And the clean deep vocal had me zero in on 1986s 'Cry For Love' by Iggy and as the instrumentals just begin to irritate the chorus kicks in and all is forgiven. Iggy would die to have this chorus in any song, fantastic!
'Beyond The Veil' is even better in every way, IMHO. Every song is worthy. The first two that stood out for me were #5-'Lethean River' and #6-'...Of Ruins and a Red Nightfall'. Both songs have a spectacular, natural rhythm and flow that seems pure musical intuition. The shifting rhythms of the guitars in 'Lethean River' would be the envy of any guitar oriented rock band. It suprised me how conventional and catchy much of the guitar on the album was, really good and easily the equal of any band metal or non-metal. (It might be too conventional and catchy for some metal fundamentalists?) The first and last thirds of '...Of Ruins And Red Nightfall' are divine. Fantastic vocals and the use of hammer on bell (?) in the percussive rhythmic mix at the end of the song is genius. So good it's goose-bump inducing.
Thats two wonderful discoveries for 2004 for me: My Dying Bride and Tristania. Tristania gets me in the head & heart, while My Dying Bride gets me in the gut. If I could make a third discovery (suggestions?
) I'd like something a little more fast 'n furious that'll get me in the jugular.
As for
Dark Suns' 'Swanlike' I never got back to hearing it. I was disappointed by it. Lots of musical competence and varied interesting compositions but over polished. No emotion. It's like the art project of someone who spent 10 years in art school but doesn't have natural talent.
The delivery of
Katatonia's 'Brave Yester Days' arrived an hour ago and is playing now. I'm only on song 7 of 13 of disc1. I'm most interested in disc2 where the 'Brave Murder Day' material is. Great mastering BTW!
