Happy Music Monday everyone. Hope you had an amazing weekend and spent the entire Saturday or Sunday nursing a hangover. Lolz. And if the DJ climbs over the console and grabs a bottle of tequila screaming “Free drinks on the houuuuuuse” and pours it into whoever opens their mouth, I am never going to fall for that one again!
For this week’s Monday Music, I would like to honor my first crush in symphonic gothic metal, and the lady who got me interested in this genre in the first place.
Ladies and gentlemen – Liv Kristine!
Around the summer of ’98 – ’99, I was still listening to mainly glam rock and speed metal. And then my friend OPie came along and introduced me to Theatre of Tragedy. There was no looking back since then. Liv Kristine was the vocalist of Theatre of Tragedy, and it was more of a doom/death metal band with symphonic element – A definite “love at first sound” for me.
Many people still think Nightwish are the pioneer of symphonic goth metal with a female soprano voice (aka Tarja Turunen’s legacy). Nopsie. Nightwish was formed in ’96. ToT was formed way back in ’93.
Theatre of Tragedy, along with Atrocity, is the first gothic metal band to play at the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, Germany. With their appearance they open the doors to dozens of other gothic acts to the most important festival of the scene.
But their first album (ToT – 1995) fails in the view of most press issues: Although German Break Out-Magazine calls them “Newcomer of the Month”, most of the other media do not exactly know how to “handle” this new combination of female vocals and harsh metal riffs. But it turns out to be exactly what the audience had been waiting for: within a short time the album sells the sensational number of 25.000 copies, which has tripled its numbers until today.
My favorite song by Theatre of Tragedy - “Venus”. I loveeee this song.
The lyrics are a mixture of Latin and Old English. Romantic tragedy at its darkest and most passionate, especially with the “beauty and the beast” kinda epilogue exchange between the two vocalists.
Circa mea pectora multa sunt suspiria
De tua pulchritudine, que me ledunt misere.
Venus! - I trow'd thou wast my friend -
Professed to Heaven thou wouldst send;
As a disciple of a villain
Didst thou act the tragedienne.
Translation:
Down inside this soul of mine a heavy sigh consumes me.
The yearning for your beauty strikes me wretchedly.
Venus! - I trusted you were my friend -
Swore upon the Heavens you wouldn't come
as a disciple of a villain
Why did you act the role of a tragedienne?
Check the rest of the translations here: songmeanings.net
After 10 years with Theatre of Tragedy, Liv was fired from the band in 2003, due to “musical differences which could not be bridged” but she had already formed her new band called “Leaves’ Eyes” by then. (Why is it so difficult to admit that she was fired because she formed another band?
)My favorite from Leaves’ Eyes is Elegy.
Ps. For the uninitiated, elegy means: “A mournful poem; a lament for the dead.”
The style is more atmospheric in nature, as compared to her previous musical style in ToT. This song is also my “most listened track” in my last.fm profile. You HAVE to listen to this song, my dear friends. It is PURE HEAVEN!!!
Teardrop on a fragile eyelash
She's looking like a dream
Hoping for some understanding
An answer or at least
A calming word a single sentence
To restore her heart
Aching since the day I left her
Crossing lonely seas
Silent tears of a woman
Make a warrior cry
Heaven, I beg you
Please release hopes from fears
This is my elegy
Do you know what I feel?
This is my elegy
Do you believe it's real?
Will I hold you in my arms again?
Well that’s it for me. Happy Music Monday everyone, and hope you enjoy these two songs by Liv Kristine.
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