Theatre of Tragedy

Angry Metal Guy’s Classics #4: Theatre of Tragedy – Velvet Darkness They Fear

By Angry Metal Guy on August 6, 2010 in 5.0, Blog Posts, Century Media, 6 comments

It’s been a while since I’ve updated a “classic record”, hasn’t it? But I think I’ve hit another one that is a must have for anyone who likes good metal. I mean, any kind of good metal at all. When I was just an Angry Metal Teenager I first was introduced to a bunch of stuff that I just couldn’t get into because it was too much for me. But there was one band that really pumped out a kind of music that I latched onto that was both heavy and melodic, but also extreme and cool. That band was Norway’s Theatre of Tragedy and that record which really turned me onto the band and later the “beauty and the beast style” (often imitated, but never improved upon) was the record Velvet Darkness They Fear.

Nox Aurea – Ascending in Triumph Review

By Angry Metal Guy on July 2, 2010 in 2010, 3.5, Doom Metal, Napalm Records, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Doom Metal, 2 comments

Doom is something that I have really gotten a taste for in the last couple years. A lot earlier, when I was actually playing in a band with a lot of doomy tendencies, I was actually terribly bored by most of it. But with the release of some really fantastic doom records that I’ve gotten into, it’s been harder and harder to avoid it, I like doom a lot when it’s done well. In spite of that earlier distaste for the genre, the one area that I’ve always had a soft spot for, however, has been well done gothic doom. Particularly the stuff with the “beauty and the beast” style of vocal interplay between well done female vocalist and growls. While this sound is hardly novel in 2010, Nox Aurea has attacked it anew with their second release (and Napalm Records debut) Ascending in Triumph.

Diabulus in Musica – Secrets Review

By Angry Metal Guy on June 4, 2010 in 2.0, 2010, Metal Blade, Power Metal, Reviews, Death Metal, Gothic Metal, 1 comment

Diabulus in Musica is a band that you’ve heard before dozens of times in different forms. There was a while when like every single band on Napalm Records sounded like them, but it is not a sound that is terribly popular in the year 2010. So while the band could be commended for releasing an album that sounds like Theatre of Tragedy or Epica in 2010 because they’re bucking the trend and doing their own thing, they could also be heavily criticized for sounding exactly like Theatre of Tragedy or Epica (more the latter than the former). I’m sure that the members of Diabulus in Musica are sick of being compared to Theatre of Tragedy and Epica, if they’re sick of that they should probably not read this review, because I am about to launch into a 500 word diatribe about how there has to be something new that can be done with the chick in a metal band thing, but that no one seems to be doing it.

Epica – Design Your Universe Review

By Angry Metal Guy on October 12, 2009 in 2009, 3.5, Nuclear Blast, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Power Metal, Symphonic Metal, 12 comments

Epica is a symphonic power metal/gothic metal band from the Netherlands that has really taken the scene and the world by storm since their founding in 2002 due to the amazing voice of their mezzo-soprano vocalist (who also happens to be a hotty, there are no coincidences in metal) Simone Simons and the epic *cough* nature of their music. Design Your Universe is the band’s fifth album, and honestly, the first one I’ve ever sat through assuming the band would be like a mix of old Theatre of Tragedy and Nightwish.

Leaves’ Eyes – Njord Review

By Angry Metal Guy on September 2, 2009 in 2.5, 2009, Finnish Metal, Napalm Records, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, 7 comments

Fame has its benefits. Getting signed immediately after you leave/get fired from your other band is one of those things. Of course, the inevitable problem with fame is that no matter how far away from what you got famous for, you will always be compared to it. And for me, Liv’s voice will live on forever in Theatre of Tragedy’s classic album Velvet Darkness They Fear. Leaves’ Eyes is not Theatre of Tragedy and Njord is definitely not Velvet Darkness They Fear, and while it doesn’t need to be that album all over again for me to like something she’s done, I know it can be better than this.