Line #134 Music/TheatreOfTragedy


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/40691_150039358344589_6895626_n.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The final line up in 2006, during the ''Storm'' era.]]
3	[[quoteright:350:[[labelnote: Click to see the 1997 line up.]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_theatre_of_tragedy_1818.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
4
5	Theatre of Tragedy was a Norwegian metal band originally assembled in 1993, whose earlier albums are among the seminal works of the GothicMetal genre. They helped pioneer the technique of SopranoAndGravel: while not the first to use it (Music/CelticFrost, Music/ParadiseLost, and Music/TheGathering did it before them), they were the ones to [[TropeCodifier popularise it]], as well as the first to give equal prominence to the male and female vocalist, resulting in the technique being a staple of the genre, possibly to the point of overuse.
6
7	Their first three albums featured growled vocals and lyrics written predominantly in Early Modern English. From ''Musique'' onwards, the band abandoned Early Modern English lyrics and death grunts, also switching to industrial rock for two albums. They returned to GothicMetal on ''Storm'', though it was more modern-sounding than their first three albums and still had modern English lyrics. Their final album, ''Forever Is the World'' pays tribute to all the styles they had played, while still giving them a more contemporary Gothic Metal sound.
8
9	The band split on October 2nd, 2010, 17 years to the day after forming, with a concert in their hometown of Stavanger, Norway, which was recorded and released as a farewell CD/DVD.
10
11	[[folder:Members]]
12	!!Final lineup:
13	* Raymond István Rohonyi - Vocals, Programming, lyrics (1993-2010)
14	* Nell Sigland - Vocals, lyrics (2004-2010)
15	* Frank Claussen - Guitar (1997-2010)
16	* Vegard K. Thorsen - Guitar (1999-2010)
17	* Lorentz Aspen - Keyboards (1993-2010)
18	* Hein Frode Hansen - Drums (1993-2010)
19
20	!!Former members:
21	* Liv Kristine - Vocals (1993-2003)
22	* Pål Bjåstad - Guitar (1993-1995)
23	* Tommy Lindal - Guitar (1993-1997)
24	* Eirik T. Saltrø - Bass (1993-2000)
25	* Geir Flikkeid - Guitar (1995-1997)
26	* Tommy Olsson - Guitar (1997-1999)
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Discography]]
30	!!Studio albums:
31	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Theatre of Tragedy]]'', 1995
32	* ''Velvet Darkness They Fear'', 1996
33	* ''[[NewSoundAlbum Aégis]]'', 1998
34	* ''[[GenreShift Musique]]'', 2000
35	* ''Assembly'', 2002 (Liv Kristine's last album with the band)
36	* ''[[RevisitingTheRoots Storm]]'', 2006 (Nell Sigland's first album with the band)
37	* ''Forever Is the World'', 2009
38
39	!!Major studio [=EPs=]:
40	* ''A Rose for the Dead'', 1997
41	* ''Inperspective'', 2000
42	* ''Addenda'', 2010
43
44	!!Live albums:
45	* ''Closure:Live'', 2001 (with Liv Kristine)
46	* ''[[GrandFinale Last Curtain Call]]'', 2011 (with Nell Sigland)
47
48	!!Singles:
49	* ''Der Tanz Der Schatten'', 1996
50	* ''Cassandra'', 1998
51	* ''Image'', 2000
52	* ''Machine'', 2000 (also got [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq1RLxPT_Ks a videoclip]])
53	* ''Envision'', 2002
54	* ''Let You Down'', 2002 (also got [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7lWv4ySvtU a videoclip]])
55	* ''Superdrive'', 2002 (promotional only)
56	* ''Storm'', 2006 (also got [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S2a-ZyPU-0 a videoclip]])
57	* ''Deadland'', 2009
58
59	!!Misc:
60	* ''Demo 1994'' (cassette)
61	* ''Theatre of Tragedy Massacre's Classix Shape Edition'', 1999 (shaped CD compiling several b-sides)
62	* ''Remixed'', 2019 (compilation or old and new remixes)
63	* Various boxsets, slipcases, combined albums or [=EPs=].
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	----
67	!!Tropes about the band:
68
69	* TheBandMinusTheFace: According to Liv Kristine's fans after her firing; Nell's fans [[BrokenBase beg to differ]].
70	* BarbarianLonghair: As befitting a Norwegian metal band, especially in the early days. ''All'' the boys have had hair past their shoulders at some point, with Raymond and Hein sporting it for the longest time.
71	* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: A variation between the frontwomen. Liv is platinum blonde, Nell has been both a brunette (during the ''Storm'' era) and a redhead (during the ''Forever Is The World'' one).
72	* HairstyleInertia: Raymond's got a nearly perfect score, being the only male member that kept his hair long and dark, metalhead style, for almost his entire tenue in the band, only [[ImportantHaircut cutting it short]] after shooting the ''Forever Is The World'' promo photos, by which point he couldn't wait for the tour (and the band) to be over. He even kept it long during the ''Musique'' and ''Assembly'' eras, when even Hein first bleached his own platinum and then cut it to a [[NinetiesHair Nineties curtain style]]).
73	** Downplayed with both Liv and Nell. The former changed many styles and lengths, but always kept her trademark platinum blonde colour. The latter has changed colours and worn it down in a few photos, but has most often sported her trademark half updo with a side part and a loose, teased out bun atop her head (the ''Last Curtain Call'' DVD being a notable exception).
74	* HellBentForLeather: Many looks of Liv Kristine. Her [[LadyInRed red leather ensemble]] from the "Machine" videoclip and ''Musique'' promo pics is particularly iconic.
75	* LadyInRed: Liv had her iconic [[HellBentForLeather red leather jacket and trousers]] during the ''Musique'' era, Nell her trademark [[OfCorsetsSexy red corset]] during the Forever Is The [=WorldTour=].
76	* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Vegard when he wore his hair long.
77	* OfCorsetsSexy: Both Liv and Nell, as befitting the frontwomen of one of the pioneering bands of GothicMetal. Nell wears [[LadyInRed a red one]] on ''[[GrandFinale Last Curtain Call]]''.
78	* YoungerThanTheyLook: Sorry, Liv.
79
80	!!Tropes of Tragedy:
81
82	* AndroidsArePeopleToo: In the "Machine" videoclip. The panning shot of a bereft cyborg!Raymond when Liv leaves him stranded in the wilderness evokes this. The lyrics do too, depending on how literally one interprets them.
83	* TheAntiNihilist: The undrlying theme on ''Forever Is The World'' which, while very melancholic in general, often has a hopeful undertone. [[WordOfGod Nell said]] she wanted to bid the fans goodbye on a positive note.
84	--->''"Only man ends but [[TitleDrop forever's the world]],\
85	Just don't fall asleep.\
86	So here we say at the edge of the world,\
87	Holding hands.\
88	Cluthing at straws, keep each other awake,\
89	The world will not end on this shift.\
90	I never knew anything felt like this,\
91	It has just begun."''
92	---->-- '''"Forever Is The World"'''
93	* ArcSymbol: The [[TheTragicRose two roses]], one fresh and one withered, were a recurring visual motif in the artworks of the first three albums and first EP. They made a come back on ''Forever Is The World'' too.
94	* BreakUpSong: Surprisingly few, considered the genre: just "...A Distance There Is...", "Let You Down" (which is very snarky), and "Debris".
95	* ChangedForTheVideo: "Machine". "Der Tanz Der Schatten", "Aœde" and "Cassandra" also got radio / single edits, the latter (called the "Cheap Wine Edit") being the version the band has always performed live, including on ''Closure:Live'' and ''Last Curtain Call''. "...A Distance There Is..." also got a drastically shortened version when played live (such as in ''Closure:Live'').
96	* ContinuityNod: As their final studio album, the cover artwork of ''Forever Is The World'' features visual elements from all the previous ones: the [[TheTragicRose crossed roses]] from the self-titled; velvet from ''Velvet Darkness They Fear''; fire from ''Aégis''; a gas mask from ''Musique''; nautilus shells from ''Assembly''; the stylised "[=ToT=]" logo from ''Storm''.
97	* CoverVersion: One of Music/JoyDivision's "Decades" on ''A Rose For The Dead'', and one of Music/KimWilde's "You Keep Me Hangin' On" during the ''Assembly'' era.
98	* CurbstompBattle: "Crash/Concrete" details one from the receiving end.
99	* {{Cyborg}} / RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Raymond plays one of these in the "Machine" videoclip.
100	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Forever Is The World'' marked the return of grunts for the first time after nine years.
101	** In live performances Raymond tends to grunt even on the spoken parts from ''Aégis'', ''Musique'' and ''Storm'', as heard on ''Last Curtain Call''.
102	* {{Dominatrix}}: "Virago".
103	* DoomMetal / DeathMetal: Their first two albums, at least, are part of the "death/doom" genre (death metal + doom metal). In fact, when Theatre of Tragedy first started (before Liv Kristine was a permanent member), they almost exclusively used death growls.
104	* EpicRocking: A fair amount of the songs from their first three albums. From ''Musique'' onward, the longer songs would only reach five or occasionally six minutes.
105	* FemmeFatale: "Poppæa" from ''Aégis''.
106	* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: The first three albums only. Occasionally this led to YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe with some verb conjugations or mixing up "thy" and "thine," but it set the tone very well. Abandoned from ''Musique'' onward.
107	--->''"There hath past away a glore fro the Earth;\
108	A glore that in the hearts and minds of men,\
109	Men dementéd - blindfoldéd by light,\
110	Nourisheth as weed in their well-groom'd garths."''
111	---->-- '''"And When He Falleth"''', from ''Velvet Darkness They Fear''
112	* ForeignLanguageTitle: ''Musique'' has no good reason for having a French title; not even the lyrics of the title track contain any!
113	* GenreShift: From GothicMetal to IndustrialMetal, then back again.
114	* GothicMetal: One of the most influential bands of the genre, though they moved away from it on ''Musique'' and ''Assembly''.
115	* GrandFinale: Their final show, in their hometown Stavanger, was recorded and released as the live album ''Last Curtain Call''.
116	* GratuitousFrench: [[InvokedTrope Deliverbately invoked]] in "Superdrive" with the protagonist's poor attempts at flirting with the [[EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench French girl]]. Also, "Image" got a ''version française'' for... reasons. And the [[ForeignLanguageTitle title]] of ''Musique'' itself.
117	* GratuitousGerman: "Der Tanz Der Schatten" and "Der Spiegel", to cater to the GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff phenomenon. Also some bits on "Space Age".
118	* GratuitousLatin: "Venus" adapts three ''Carmina Burana'' into the verses and post-chorus: "Circa Mea Pectora", "Amor Volat Undique" and "Tempus Est Iocundum".
119	* HotterAndSexier: The artistic nude on the cover artwork of ''Velvet Darkness They Fear'' looks tame compared to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haSkc59m0Is music video]] for "Image".
120	* {{Instrumentals}}: "Monotonë" from the SelfTitledAlbum.
121	* JustAMachine: Liv's character in the "Machine" videoclip seems to think so of cyborg!Raymond.
122	* KissOfTheVampire: A recurring theme on ''Velvet Darkness They Fear'' and ''A Rose For The Dead''.
123	* LighterAndSofter:
124	** ''Aégis'' compared to the first two albums: it was the first to do away with growls in favour of soft-spoken male vocals.
125	** ''Storm'' too, when the band [[RevisitingTheRoots Revisited The Roots]].
126	* LoudnessWar: ''Forever Is the World'' [[http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Theatre+of+Tragedy&album= was their biggest offender]].
127	* TheMuse: "Aœde".
128	* NeonCity: "City Of Lights" has all the hallmarks, from the shiny exterior to the less savoury interior.
129	* NewSoundAlbum: The GenreShift from ''Aégis'' to ''Musique'' was controversial, but ''Aégis'' itself was also a tad LighterAndSofter than the two albums before it.
130	* NonAppearingTitle: ''Theatre of Tragedy'', ''Aégis'' and ''Assembly'' all have neither a TitleTrack nor a TitleDrop. As for individual songs:
131	** The demo "Soliloquy".
132	** "Sweet Art Thou" from the self-titled; "Monotonë" too, but it's an instrumental, so that's a given.
133	** "On Whom The Moon Doth Shine", "The Masquerader And Phœnix" (thou "the masquerader" does), and the title track from ''Velvet Darkness They Fear''. "Der Tanz Der Schatten" and its English counterpart, "As The Shadow Dance", both mention the respective words, but only mixed up in a full sentence.
134	** "Decades" from ''A Rose for the Dead''.
135	** "Angélique", "Siren", "Samantha" and "Virago" from ''Aégis''.
136	** "Retrospect" from ''Musique''. The title of "Image" is not mentioned either in the English or the French version, nor is its demo name, "Quirk".
137	** ''Assembly'' takes the cake: "Superdrive", "Envision", "Liquid Man", and "Motion". "Episode" neither, though it gets a mention on "Superdrive".
138	** "Disintegration" on ''Storm''.
139	** "Transition", "Empty", and "Illusions" on ''Forever Is The World''. In "The Breaking", "break" appears, but as a verb.
140	* OneWomanSong: Every song title in ''Aégis'', referring to women in mythology and ancient history.
141	* OneWomanWail: Raymond only appears in half the songs on ''Forever Is the World'', but the title track deserves special mention for how Nell's vocals are used.
142	* OneWordTitle: ''Aégis'' did this for every song, but every album after generally stuck to this rule as well ("Machine," "Image," "Hollow," "Storm," "Frozen," etc.) with only a couple exceptions. Their first two albums mostly used phrases for song titles.
143	* OurSirensAreDifferent: "Lorelei" and "Siren" on ''Aégis''.
144	* PerformanceVideo: In "Storm" the band performs the song in an industrial complex while rain, wind and lightning rage all around them.
145	* PowerBallad: "Fade" from ''Storm'' and "[[TitleTrack Forever Is The World]]" from the album of the same name.
146	* ReligionRantSong: "And When He Falleth".
147	* {{Sampling}}: "And When He Falleth" has a lengthy instrumental interlude featuring almost an entire dialogue from ''Film/TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath''.
148	** Unsurprisingly, the demo "Soliloquy" samples the famous one from ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
149	* {{Seers}} / TheCassandra: "Cassandra", obviously.
150	* SelfBackingVocalist: Liv had her moments, Nell ''loved'' having fun with that when writing her own vocal lines.
151	* SelfTitledAlbum: Their debut, as seen above.
152	* ShirtlessScene: In true drummer fashion, Hein has one in the "Image" videoclip.
153	* ShownTheirWork: When writing a song about a muse on ''Aégis'', Raymond didn't just stop at the nine, better-known Olympian Muses, but went back to Aoede, one of the three lesser-known original Beotian muses.
154	* SopranoAndGravel: The TropeCodifier, with their first two albums popularising this technique. Their later works keep the style, but do it slightly differently: ''Aégis'' alternates it with softly spoken or whispered parts; ''Musique'', ''Assembly'' and ''Storm'' have male vocals which are mostly spoken or sung clean in a monotone; ''Forever Is the World'' brings back some growl alongside the spoken parts.
155	* StepfordSmiler: The "Automatic Lover" doesn't really enjoy your [[UnusualEuphemism company]], [[InsistentTerminology honey]].
156	* TakeThat: Considering the [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks average fan response]] whenever there was any change in the band or its sound, especially after Liv Kristine got fired, "Highlights" sounds a bit like that:
157	--->''"No reversal of our course,\
158	We have put up with a lot:\
159	Never again will we say sorry!"''
160	* TheTragicRose: A recurring lyrical metaphor in their early releases, most motably "A Rose For The Dead". Also [[ArcSymbol a recurring visual motif]] on the accompanying artworks.
161	* TitleDrop:
162	** ''Velvet Darkness They Fear'' has a partial one in "A Rose for the Dead" which, interestingly, is on the next EP:
163	--->''"Velvet darkness, velvet darkness,\
164	Thee we ourselves bestow!"''
165	** The ''A Rose for the Dead'' EP has one in its title track:
166	--->''"Give praise for the blood it bled,\
167	Grant a rose for the dead!"''
168	** ''Musique'' as a short, spoken one in its title track.
169	** ''Storm'':
170	--->''"Can you see the storm getting closer now?"''
171	** ''Forever Is The World'':
172	--->''"Only man ends, but forever's the world."''
173	* TitleTrack: ''Musique'', ''Storm'' and ''Forever Is The World'' all have one. "A Rose for the Dead" from the EP counts too. ''Velvet Darkness They Fear'' has one too, though it's really an intro to "Fair And 'Guiling Copesmate Death".
174	* TragicRobot: Raymond's character in the videoclip for "Machine". Liv controls him remotely and has him drive a jeep to her location. She then procedes to deactivate him and steal his car, leaving him stranded in the wilderness.
175	* UncommonTime: "Senseless" is written in septuple metre. To complete the RuleOfSeven, it's the seventh track on ''Storm'' (on the regular edition, at least) and was originally titled "Seven" while in demo phase.
176	* UnproblematicProstitution: A rare male version on "Automatic Lover".
177	* UnusualEuphemism: "Sweet Art Thou" is made of this trope:
178	--->'''Liv:''' ''"Make me sense the wine\
179	Which is drunk by queens,\
180	And let it flow white and full\
181	In tast o’er my lips."''\
182	'''Raymond:''' ''"Make me sense the wine\
183	Which is drunk by kings,\
184	And let it flow red and full\
185	In taste o’er my lips."''
186	** "Let's make a [[TitleDrop universal race]]".
187	** [[WordOfSaintPaul According to old-time fans close to the band]] most of ''Velvet Darkness They Fear'' is actually this.
188	* VampireDance: "Der Tanz Der Schatten" and its English counterpart, "As The Shadows Dance".
189	* VampiresAreSexGods: Again, on ''Velvet Darkness They Fear''.
190	* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Surprisingly averted... for the most part at least. Raymond and Liv's background in language studies helped them do a much better job than most of their colleagues in this department. At least they didn't just sprinkle some gratuitous "thou", "thy" and "-eth" on otherwise perfectly contemporary English.
191

Context Music / TheatreOfTragedy