Velvet Darkness They Fear

Artist: Theatre of Tragedy
Label: Century Media
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 727701788128
EAN: 0727701788128
ASIN: B000005HNW

Release Date: 1997-08-26

Related Categories:

Goth

| Goth & Industrial | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Death Metal

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

General

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Metal

Listmania:

If it's not from norway it's not worth listening to
The Libertines List - Gothic Sounds for Reprobate Minds
My Female-Fronted Metal Collection, Vol. 3
Black As Midnight...Black As Pitch...
Dark Symphony
Gothic / Symphonic Gothic Metal Albums
METAL CDs no collection should be without (in random order)
Gothzilla!
Beauty In Darkness
MESMERIZING METAL WORKS{NO ORDER}

Tracks:

Velvet Darkness They Fear
Fair and 'Guiling Copesmate Death
Bring Forth ye Shadow
Seraphic Deviltry
And When He Falleth
Der Tanz der Schatten
Black as the Devil Painteth
On Whom the Moon Doth Shine
The Masquerader and Phoenix

Similar Items:

Aegis
Theatre of Tragedy
Lovelorn
Vinland Saga
World of Glass

Customer Reviews:

Velvet Darkness They Fear.......2006-08-02

Never have I tired, of Theatre Of Tragedy! They made the unbelievable dreamscape arura that people feel the need to compare it, and should be praised for what they conveyed not only in the music but the lyrics as well!! The "Shakespearian language". Not a lot of people/bands can put this language into acount and make it work, this band did it in real grace. This was [when liv lead] a very smart, monolithic album that can't be re-produced by any other neo "goth" by-product hot-topic helps put out!! PERIOD. Theatre Of Tragedy came out long before nightwish, get your facts straight!

"And When He Falleth" ~ Gothic Opera For A Post-Christian Age.......2006-03-08

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.

unbelievable.......2005-12-30

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.

great contrast with the vocals.......2005-08-03

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!!!!

ALMOST as good as the debut, but not quite..........2005-08-01

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

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

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