THEATRE OF TRAGEDY — Last Curtain Call (review)

THEATRE OF TRAGEDY — Last Curtain Call album cover

Live album · 2011 · Gothic Metal

4/5 · 2021-05-30
lukretion

Last Curtain Call immortalizes Theatre of Tragedy’s last ever live performance, which took place on October, 2nd, 2010 in their hometown of Stavanger. This was the last date of the farewell tour that the band took after announcing their desire to end their glorious 15-year career due to personal reasons. The band’s lineup is the same as the one that recorded their last two studio albums. Singers Nell Sigland and Raymond Rohonyi swap duties behind the mic, Franck Claussen and Vegard Thorsen are responsible for the guitar work and Lorentz Aspen adds some great texture with his keyboards. The tight rhythm section is comprised of long-time drummer Hein Frode Hansen and session bass player Erik Torp.

The album is amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a proper introduction to the band. The selection of songs on this live record is absolutely top-notch. It covers the whole gamut of styles the band experimented with during their career, which is no mean feat given that we are talking about a band that started as a pioneer in the death/doom metal scene, before turning to a leaner, catchier gothic metal style, only to take a further dramatic turn with the release of a couple of industrial / electro-gothic albums. The tracklist cherry-picks the absolute best songs of each phase of the band’s career, resulting in an irresistible greatest hits collection, featuring 5 tracks from their early doom/death gothic metal albums (their 1995’s debut album, 1996's Velvet Darkness They Fear and the 1997 EP A Rose for the Dead), 1 song from Aégis, 3 songs from their electro-gothic period, and the remaining 7 songs from their two most recent albums (Storm and Forever Is the World). What is most remarkable is that, despite the wide range of styles at play here, there is a strong sense of continuity in the way the tracks from the different albums are presented, with the electro-gothic songs bestowed with more metallic arrangements to bridge the gap with the rest of the tracks. The overall effect is that of a strongly cohesive and tightly arranged set of songs that leaves long-time fans like myself once more astonished by the mastery of this band.

There are other aspects of the album that makes it so special. Nell Sigland’s performance is absolutely superb. Her work on Storm and Forever is the World was already impressive, but this live album really shows what an amazing singer she is. Her voice covers a wide range of approaches. She can use her naturally warm and deep tone (listen to her performance on the goth-club hit “Image”), but she can also faultlessly reproduce Liv Kristin Espenæs’ soprano-like vocal lines on the songs from the earlier albums. Her duets with Raymond Rohonyi on the songs taken from Velvet Darkness They Fear (“Bring Forth Ye Shadow”, “And When He Falleth”) leave me breathless every single time. Raymond’s vocals are also quite good, although his growls lack perhaps the depth and power that one can find on the studio albums. The rest of the band also play faultlessly. Lorentz Aspen’s piano and keyboard work is particularly remarkable, as his instrument is the glue that keeps the songs together. Hein Frode Hansen also stands out with some great fills and a varied performance.

If I had to nitpick, I’d say that I missed one or two more tracks from Aégis. The DVD version of the album contains “Lorelei” and “Cassandra”, which are instead criminally omitted from the double-disc CD version of the record. I would have easily swapped one or two tracks from Forever Is the World and Storm, like “Hollow” or “Ashes and Dreams”, with those two classics from Aégis, though I understand why the band may have felt otherwise. I also regret that the live audience is not more audible on the record. This takes away a bit of the “live feel” from the album, which is a pity.

But these are minor quibbles that do not detract too much from the strength of this release. If you are new to the band, this is truly a great place to start. You will get a peerless birdeye perspective on the various phases of the band’s sound, nicely condensed in its most electrifying moments. If you are a long-time fan this release is also unmissable, if nothing else for the sentimental value of witnessing the last curtain fall on one of the greatest gothic metal bands of our times. Highly recommended!