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Theatre Of Tragedy
Last Curtain Call
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CD 1 - Tracklist:
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01. Hide And Seek
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5:31
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02. Bring Forth Ye Shadow
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5:45
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03. Frozen
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5:21
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04. Ashes And Dreams
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4:10
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05. A Rose For The Dead
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5:15
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06. Fragment
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3:52
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07. And When He Falleth
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6:41
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08. Venus
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4:52
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CD 2 - Tracklist:
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Release: 20.05.2011
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01. Hollow
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6:26
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Label: AFM Records
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02. Storm
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3:49
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03. Image
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3:17
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Formate:
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04. A Hamlet For A Slothful
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4:21
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Doppel-CD
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Vassal
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DVD+CD
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05. Fade
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6:09
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06. Machine
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4:58
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07. Der Tanz der Schatten
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5:41
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08. Forever Is The World
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5:32
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It's always sad when a band calls it quits. In 2010, after almost 17 years, Theatre Of Tragedy came to an end and recorded/filmed their last show as a farewell present for the fans. There are two versions of Last Curtain Call: DVD + CD and a double CD, both published through AFM Records on May 20th, 2011. We got the double CD for our review, so the following text refers to this release.
For Theatre Of Tragedy, the last curtain fell in Stavanger/Norway on 2 October 2010. The live recording provides 18 songs on DVD and 16 on double CD - both display a broad cross section of their musical career. Once again they celebrate their style of Gothic Metal that has become trend setting for quite a few other bands. The tracklist offers so many of my old faves and I was really looking forward to listen to the live versions of e.g. A Rose For The Dead, Machine, Storm and A Hamlet For A Slothful Vassal.
Singer Nell Sigland is in top form, Raymond Istvàn Rohonyi grunts with a dusky, raspy voice. The guitarists Frank Claussen and Vegard K. Thorsen, keyboarder Lorentz Aspen and drummer Hein Frode Hansen are doing a superb job. Nevertheless, I'm disappointed with this album. Why?
Because it's called "Live CD" and I'm unable to hear that special "live-feeling". You can hear the audience clap and cheer at the beginning and the end of each song, but where are they during the songs? Frozen to death? Ok, you can hear them but only once in a blue moon. Some of you might shake your heads now and assume that I don't appreciate the modern techniques and recording quality... and you're right: I cannot and I will not appreciate. I really have a lot of live CDs in my shelves, all with an audience that's continuously hearable, including all common noises you usually hear during a gig, sometimes with acoustic feedbacks and/or wrong notes - but that's live and that's how live music has to sound like!!! What I hear during a concert should be recorded as it is, without much editing. No, I don't like it that "polished" and clean as you can hear it on Last Curtain Call. I want that very special mood during concerts, I'd like to hear and feel the atmosphere in the clubs.
Perhaps it's a completely different feeling when you're watching the DVD and see the band on stage, playing their music. But that's impossible while listening to a CD. If someone played one of these songs to me, played it from the middle, I think I never thought it could be live. I'm sorry to say, but Theatre Of Tragedy's last work missed the point. It's a pretty good compilation, a great Best Of... but I will buy the DVD to remember a brilliant band and to add it to my collection. It also contains two more songs - two songs that should have been added to the double CD, too...
The double CD Last Curtain Call gets>
Rating:
4 out of 7 Ankhs
Marion Ney / Sarkophag Rocks
23.05.2011
Translation by Susanne Blum
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