Tristania - Widow's Weeds (1998)

Back in the late 90's one of the most popular styles of play within the metal underground was the Gothic/doom metal sound, which usually consisted of a male singer using a death metal growl while alongside him a female singer who opted for an angelic soprano voice, which often times had people dubbing this style, 'Beauty and the Beast Metal.' The music was generally slow, heavy and melancholic in character with the admittance of keyboards and even classical instruments like violins and cellos and lyrically themes that centered around sadness, love, religion and loss.

As far as I know in 1991 Paradise Lost became the first band to mix growled male voices with female singing, and in '92, The Gathering pushed the sound a bit more on their debut, 'Always,' but it wasn't until 1995 when Norwegian band, Theatre of Tragedy released their debut self-titled album that this style of music really became a thing of its own. Quickly other similar sounding bands like Lacrimas Profundere, Haggard, The Sins of Thy Beloved, Trail of Tears and Tristania released albums. Admittedly, there was a point where I was really into this style, but years later the only band and album that has stuck with me is Tristania and their incredible debut album, 'Widow's Weeds,' which is not just one of the best albums within the genre, but an all-time fav for me on a personal level.

I remember first hearing this album in the autumn/winter of 2000 and if this isn't music suited for that time of the year then I don't know what is. For me it was a completely fresh sound; I'd never imagined before that death growls, female singing, classical instruments and metal could be combined to form such a lush, beautiful and melancholy form of music, but then I heard this and I was obsessed, immediately.

What simply makes this album so pleasing to me is that each of the seven songs (plus intro/outro) are wrote incredible well with each song flowing perfectly along whilst introducing new elements as they progress and bringing about different moods of melancholy with them. I've always found these songs to be fairly catchy too and I must admit back when I first got myself a copy of this album I played the thing nearly to death. Each song features quality sounding heavy riffs which you could certainly bang your head to, the lovely synth/piano parts add incredible depth, the stunning but mournful sounding violin adds a funeral dirge like atmosphere, the superb low growls/screams give it a bit of a violent twist and of course the wonderful lead female voice of Vibeke Stene (and the backing choir) are gorgeous beyond description.

Naturally, being the depressed teen I was at the time I often allowed the music to effect me and I'm not at all shy about saying that I had a serious crush on Vibeke too (even tried writing her a few times, haha). Years later and not much into the idea of killing myself any longer I still find parts of this record to be incredibly sad sounding, but it doesn't quite get to me the same way.

Anyway, I find very little fault within this fifty three minute opus. Songs like, 'Evenfall' has everything that makes this record great and prepares the listener for what to expect the rest of the journey, while 'December Elegy' permeates the most melancholic vibes, whereas, 'Pale Enchantress' somewhat does away with the sadness altogether in favor of a more mysterious sentiment. 'Angellore' takes a break from the growled male voice in favor of a clearly sung baritone voice during most of the song, while, 'Wasteland's Caress' almost has an epic like vibe as the song builds up to a stunning climax.

After this album Tristania would go on to release another great, but unfortunately overlooked album titled, 'Beyond the Veil,' which featured faster songs and more usage of the full choir, but ultimately much less doomy and melancholy sounding. Shortly thereafter guitarist/grunter, Morten Veland was booted from the band and he went on to form the awful band Sirenia, while the remaining members of Tristania unleashed, 'World of Glass,' which introduced electronics into their music and largely sounded like a completely different band by this point. Two other mediocre albums have followed since then and recently they released a new album titled, 'Rubicon,' which features only two original Tristania members; keyboardist, Einar Moen and guitarist Anders Høyvik Hidle. At some point even Vibeke quit and they got some ugly Italian whore to sing for them instead. I'll do the right thing and stay clear of this one altogether.

I still have my Tristania long sleeve in my closet; I don't bring it out much because its a bit worn out from wearing it so much back in the day, but after revisiting this album again I just might. Regretably, my VHS player said, 'fuck you Joe,' and ate my, 'Widow's Tour' video a few years ago, but I guess it got re-released somewhere along the way on DVD.

Anyway, if you've heard the Gothic/doom/beauty and the beast metal genre before and were turned off then give this album a chance. It's been re-released a few times, so it shouldn't be hard to track down, and as far as I'm concerned it's an absolute masterpiece of the genre too.