Norway’s Tristania have been quite the durable and enduring entity, weathering the ebb and flow of musical trends and surviving numerous line-up changes and defections, including that of founder Morten Veland. From their humble doom/death beginnings, the ever changing line-up has increasingly evolved into a standard gothic metal act with less and less emphasis on the metal part of the equation and that process continues for better or worse here on album six, Rubicon. Long gone is the Tristania that delivered the genre classic Beyond the Veil and well regarded follow-up World of Glass. Instead, Rubicon finds them dealing in fairly average, somewhat nondescript, if professionally done gothic music that’s very light in the metal department.
