TRISTANIA — Midwinter Tears (review)

Boxset / Compilation · 2005 · Gothic Metal

3/5 · 2021-12-05
lukretion

Midwinter Tears is a compilation of three different Tristania’s early releases that was put together by Napalm Records in 2005. The three albums are Tristania’s first demo, dating back to 1997, the single Angina from 1999 and the video Widow's Tour also from 1999. Needless to say, this is good value for money as some of these releases are quite hard to find nowadays.

The demo Tristania (that also goes by the alternate title Midwinter Tears) is comprised of four songs. Two of these were re-recorded for Tristania’ first full-length album Widow’s Weeds. These are “Midwinter Tears” and the beautiful “Pale Enchantress”. The differences relative to the full-length album aren’t massive, bar the inferior production which is a tad too muddy and dirty for my taste. These songs give nevertheless a great overview of how talented Tristania were from the very onset of their career. The late 1990s saw many bands purveying the “beauty and the beast” formula that Theatre of Tragedy had contributed to popularize a few years earlier. Many of these bands will not stand the test of time and have gone down in metal history as pale imitators of the leaders in the genre. Tristania instead are widely considered one of the best bands in this style of music, and the 1997 demo clearly shows why. Their special blend of doom/death/gothic metal is highly melodic, yet heavy and with the right amount of teeth. The contrast between heavily distorted guitars and symphonic arrangements is enthralling and so is the juxtaposition between Morten Veland’s harsh growls and Vibeke Stene’s operatic clean vocals, which are very expressive and full of pathos. “Pale Enchantress” is a great example of this, as it will also be one of the best tracks of the full-length album.

The other two songs on the demo are part of Widow’s Weeds and may therefore be more interesting to fans. One is a short and fairly interlocutory symphonic prelude that opens the demo with some moody ambiance but does little else to excite the earbuds. “Cease to Exist”, the last song of the demo, is more interesting. It is a moody and atmospheric piece where Vibeke takes the spotlight with a histrionic performance, mixing whispered spoken words and operatic vocals. The structure of the song is slightly meandering and probably the song is too long for its own sake. It is clearly inferior to the two tracks that made it on the full-length debut, but it is nevertheless interesting as it foreshadows the more gothic and atmospheric sound that Tristania will develop later on in their career.

The single Angina is comprised of three tracks, two taken from Tristania’s sophomore album Beyond the Veil. The improvement in terms of sound and style is massive and the two songs included here, “Angina” and an edited version of “Opus Relinque” are witness to this. Both show how Tristania quickly managed to carve their own niche in the beauty and the beast genre, by mixing influences from gothic rock and black metal, as well as from the more traditional doom/death sound. “Angina” well deserves its status as single as it is one of the best tracks from Beyond the Veil. It contains a very striking and memorable melody on the chorus (sung by Vibeke) that creates a mighty contrast with the song’s melodic black metal influences and Morten’s powerful growls. “Opus Relinque” is another great track that on the full-length album develops in a progressive metal monster of over 6 minutes. The edited version included here cuts down the running time by about a minute, reducing somewhat the strong impact the track has on me when I listen it in full. It remains nevertheless a great song, with particularly rich dynamics and contrasts between the black/death metal parts and intermezzos where nearly all instruments disappear, making room for some haunting choir singing. The remaining song, “Saturnine”, is a short outro with some eerie electronica, spoken vocal and symphonic keyboards that show once again the forward-thinking nature of this great band.

The second disc of this compilation is a DVD containing the video recording of a live show from the Widow’s Weeds tour. The live show was recorded in Oberwart, Austria. The video and sound quality are decent enough for their time, but are not exactly transcendental. Tristania was still at the beginning of their career back then and so the budget for such a live recording was probably not very large. The place where they played was also pretty small and the six band members are crammed on the stage with not much room for any type of action that would allow them to increase their scenic presence. The result is a fairly flat performance in terms of visual impact. Sonically, however, the band is on top form and the playing is very strong. The selection of tracks from Widow’s Weeds is also good, with “My Lost Lenore” and “Pale Enchantress” clear highlights.

Overall, if you are a fan of the band, Midwinter Tears is a worthy addition to your Tristania’s collection. It has historical value as it gathers together recordings from the band’s early days that are hard to come by today. The quality of the recordings and video are not always amazing, but these are the late 1990s and Tristania were just beginning their career, so some rough edges in the production are to be expected. But taken as a documentary of the band’s beginnings, this is a very solid and valuable release.