Forever Is the World is the seventh and final studio album by the Norwegian gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy. It was released on September 18, 2009 on AFM Records. The album was produced by Zeromancer singer Alexander Møklebust and mastered by Bjørn Engelmann. The cover art was designed by Thomas Ewerhard, who made the covers for the previous two albums by the band, Storm and Assembly. Since the release of the record there has been complaints about the mixing and mastering of the album with claims of fuzzing and clipping. http The album has been linked by fans to the Loudness War.http

Credits

Band members

*Raymond István Rohonyi – Vocals, lyrics, electronic

*Nell Sigland – Vocals

*Frank Claussen – Guitar

*Vegard K. Thorsen – Guitar

*Lorentz Aspen – Keyboards

*Hein Frode Hansen – Drums

Production

*Alexander Møklebust – Production

*Bjørn Engelmann – Mastering

*Thomas Ewerhard – Cover art

*Pzy-clone - Drum editing & additional string arrangements

Cover Art

When the cover art was revealed on the band's , they reported that the cover art had been designed to incorporate elements from the covers of all their previous studio albums as a challenge to their most diehard fans.

References

Category:2009 albums

Category:Theatre of Tragedy albums

Category:AFM Records albums

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Artist/Band Information

Theatre of Tragedy are a Norwegian band from Stavanger, originally assembled in 1993 and best known for their earlier albums, which provided a great deal of influence to the gothic metal genre. The band made use of contrasting vocals - male bass vocals (making some use of death grunts) and female soprano singing (commonly referred to as "Beauty and the Beast" vocals) - and on their first three albums, presented lyrics written predominantly in Early Modern English. Starting from the album Musique, however, Theatre of Tragedy made drastic changes to its style, which became significantly inspired by the industrial rock genre, abandoning Early Modern English writing and death grunts in the process.

Biography

Theatre of Tragedy was founded on 2 October 1993. Drummer Hein Frode Hansen had recently quit his former band Phobia and started looking for a new musical project to play in. A friend of his told Hein that a band called Suffering Grief was looking for a new drummer, and after contacting them, he joined the band. At the time, Suffering Grief was composed of vocalist Raymond István Rohonyi and guitarists Pål Bjåstad and Tommy Lindal. No bassist had joined the band yet, but Eirik T. Saltrø had agreed to play with them in live concerts.

After finding a rehearsal place, the band decided to work upon a couple of piano arrangements composed by Lorentz Aspen. The vocals, at the time, were mostly entirely composed by raw death grunts.

After composing their first song, "Lament of the Perishing Roses", the band changed its name to La Reine Noir and then to Theatre of Tragedy. They subsequently invited singer Liv Kristine Espenæs to do female vocals for one song, but quickly invited her to join the band permanently.

In 1994, their first studio demo was recorded, and in 1995, the debut album Theatre of Tragedy was released, followed by Velvet Darkness They Fear in 1996 and the A Rose for the Dead EP in 1997, which contained unreleased material from Velvet Darkness They Fear. Arguably, the band reached the apogee of its career in 1998, with the release of the critically acclaimed album Aégis.

Released in 2000, Musique was a massive departure from the gothic metal sound that Theatre of Tragedy had developed over the previous three albums. The heavy guitars and Early Modern English lyrics were replaced by electropop and industrial-influenced metal. It was met with a very mixed reception, and while some older fans were understandably shocked by the new direction of the band, it did gain them a number of new fans.

With 2002's Assembly, the band continued along the same musical path as on their previous album. It was seen as a more refined and confident electropop record than its predecessor. It was also the first album to feature their long-time session guitarist, Vegard K. Thorsen, as a full member of the band.

In August 2003, the band declared in an official statement on their website, that Liv Kristine was removed from the band's line-up due to "musical differences which could not be bridged".

Female singer Nell Sigland (from The Crest) joined Theatre of Tragedy on the following year. In winter 2004/2005 a short concert tour (together with Pain, Sirenia and Tiamat) with Sigland singing was performed.

The band released their sixth studio album Storm on March 24, 2006 and a European tour followed, with Gothminister as supporting act. The album's title song was released as a single on February 24, 2006. While still keeping on the industrial and electronic roots of the last two albums, the album showed a return to some of the sounds developed in their first albums.

On 2 October 2008, Theatre of Tragedy celebrated their 15th anniversary. In December 2008 the band posted a snippet of new track "Frozen," which is expected to be on the new album, on their MySpace music page.

The band recently posted an update on their MySpace page giving details about the new album:

"Time for some updates. Things are slowly moving forward with the next album. As usual with the Theatre machinery there is many things to take into consideration when doing stuff and recently we were forced to change collaborators for the production of the album, and postpone the recordings. But fear not the heavy responsibility has been entrusted to Alexander Møklebust (Zeromancer, Seigmen, Gåte, Monomen, Delaware etc) and the ToT crew will enter Room 13 in May and June for recordings and general mayhem! Estimated release from AFM is end of September. Rumor has it that there will be a vinylversion for the diehard fans. We will keep you posted."

In June 2009 saw the band reveal "Forever Is The World" as the title of the new album. Being their 7th album, it was released in Europe on 21 September 2009, with the band making a step towards their former sound of Aégis. A special Tour Edition of "Forever Is The World" was issued on March 12th, 2010. The Tour Edition contained a bonus CD known as the "Addenda EP" which contains song reworkings and unreleased tracks.

Metal Mind Productions issued a press release in July stating that they were, with the co-operation of the band, re-releasing Musique and Assembly. Both albums have been remastered and will be backed with bonus tracks. New liner notes and artwork are said to be a part of the package. Each album is limited to 2000 numbered copies.http

On 1 March 2010, Theatre of Tragedy issued a statement informing fans of their decision to split on 2 October 2010. The statement cited personal desires to spend more time with family and an inability to juggle their everyday working lives with a "rock and roll" lifestyle.http

Members

Final lineup

* Raymond István Rohonyi – Vocals (1993–2010)

* Nell Sigland – Vocals (2004–2010)

* Frank Claussen – Guitars (1997–2010)

* Vegard K. Thorsen – Guitars (1999–2010)

* Lorentz Aspen – Keyboards (1993–2010)

* Hein Frode Hansen – Drums (1993–2010)

Former members

* Liv Kristine Espenæs Krull – Vocals (1993–2003)

* Tommy Lindal – Guitars (1993–1997)

* Tommy Olsson – Guitars (1997–1999)

* Geir Flikkeid – Guitars (1995–1997)

* Pål Bjåstad – Guitars (1993–1995)

* Eirik T. Saltrø – Bass (1993–2000)

Touring members

* Erik Torp – Bass (2010)

Discography

Albums

* Theatre of Tragedy (1995)

* Velvet Darkness They Fear (1996)

* Aégis (1998)

* Musique (2000)

* Closure: Live (2001)

* Assembly (2002)

* Storm (2006)

* Forever Is the World (2009)

EPs

* Theatre of Tragedy (demo, 1994)

* A Rose for the Dead (1997)

* Virago (1999)

* Inperspective (2000)

* Addenda (2010)

Singles

* "Der Tanz Der Schatten" (1996)

* "Cassandra" (1998)

* "(single)Image" (2000)

* "Machine" (2001)

* "Envision" (2002)

* "Let You Down" (2002)

* "Storm" (2006)

* "Deadland" (2009)

References