Middle English lyrics

Well, what can I say. For a long time I avoided TOT because I thought they were a bit weird. A strange comment within this genre I know, but I did. Anyway, by mistake I got hold of the video for Cassandra and the first thing that got me was Liv Kristine's voice. Now, I'm a sucker for female vocalists as it is, but there is something altogether different about the way she sings. Her voice has that special texture that goes through you on this album. It's just beautiful.

The songs themselves are great - Cassandra, Venus, and Angelique are all faultless, but my favorite has got to be Siren. The lyrics on the album, though very different from anything else I've heard [maybe they're Middle English, I dunno] actually fit in with the music, and as a result don't come across as being that pretentious [I can't really say the same about After Forever]. The music is not too heavy, and not so quiet at times as to be uninteresting...sure, it's metal, but it's just on the cusp at times, still, that's no bad thing, because TOT carry any sound perfectly on this album. And it has that wonderful quality of an atmosphere that you're happy to get lost in.

I cannot let this recording go without one very important [and hopefully not dull] technical point. This album is so well-produced: so often I have bought albums and thought how good some of the songs are, but the tracks seem to have been thrown carelessly together into some musical blender. Or is that just called poor mixing. Fight it out among yourselves.

Theatre Of Tragedy have given Aegis everything, as far as I'm concerned: it's different, beautiful and unpredictable - and these are important qualities for any form of music. I never thought I'd hear myself raving about them, but I'm pleasantly surprised.