THEATRE OF TRAGEDY

Theatre of Tragedy are a Norwegian band from Stavanger, originally assembled in 1992 and best known for their earlier albums,which provided a great deal of influence to the gothic metal genre. The band made use of contrasting vocals - male bass vocals (making some use of death grunts) and female soprano singing (commonly referred to as "Beauty and the Beast" vocals) - and on their first three albums, presented lyrics written predominantly in Early Modern English. Starting from the album Musique, however, Theatre of Tragedy made drastic changes to its style, which became significantly inspired by the industrial rock genre, abandoning Early Modern English writing and death grunts in the process.

Biography

Theatre of Tragedy was founded in 1993 by Raymond István Rohonyi and Pål Bjåstad. Drummer Hein Frode Hansen quit his former band "Phobia" in 1993 and started looking for a new musical project to play in. A friend of his told Hein that a band called Suffering Grief was looking for a new drummer, and after entering in contact with them, he joined the band. At the time, Suffering Grief was composed of vocalist Raymond István Rohonyi and guitarists Pål Bjåstad and Tommy Lindal. No bassist had joined the band yet, but Eirik T. Saltrø had agreed to play with them in live concerts.

After finding a rehearsal place, the band decided to work upon a couple of piano arrangements composed by Lorentz. The vocals, at the time, were mostly entirely composed by raw death grunts.

After composing their first song, "Lament of the Perishing Roses", the band changed its name to La Reine Noir and then to Theatre of Tragedy. They subsequently invited singer Liv Kristine Espenæs to do female vocals for one song, but quickly invited her to join the band permanently.

In 1994, their first studio demo was recorded, and in 1995, the debut album Theatre of Tragedy was released,
followed by Velvet Darkness They Fear in 1996 and the A Rose for the Dead EP in 1997, which contained unreleased material from Velvet Darkness They Fear. Arguably, the band reached the apogee of its career in 1998, with the release of the critically acclaimed album Aégis.

In 2003 Liv Kristine assembled a band (Leaves' Eyes) with her husband Alexander Krull and musicians from his band Atrocity. Later on in August 2003, following Theatre of Tragedy's genre switch to industrial rock in their albums Musique (2000) and Assembly (2002), the band declared in an official statement on their website, that Liv Kristine was removed from the band's line-up due to "musical differences which could not be bridged". Liv Kristine, for her part, claimed in a statement on her website that she was fired via e-mail, and not personally informed of the fact by any of the band members. It is speculated that the primary reason for Liv's firing was due to her moving permanently to Germany, making it difficult for the rest of the band to keep in close contact with her. Her growing commitment to Leaves' Eyes may have also had influence.

Female singer Nell Sigland (from The Crest) joined Theatre of Tragedy on the following year. In winter 2004/2005 a short concert tour (together with Pain, Sirenia and Tiamat) with Sigland singing was performed.

The band released their sixth studio album Storm on March 24, 2006 and a European tour followed, with Gothminister as supporting act. The single to the album's title song was released on February 24, 2006. The new release sees the band taking a step away from the industrial and electronic sounds of the last two albums, returning to a sound closer to that of their first albums.

According to their official website, the band will start recording their 7th album on January 2009 and its release is expected for June of the same year.

Members

Current line up

* Raymond István Rohonyi - Vocals & Programming
* Nell Sigland - Vocals
* Frank Claussen - Guitar
* Vegard K. Thorsen - Guitar
* Lorentz Aspen - Keyboards
* Hein Frode Hansen - Drums

Former members

* Liv Kristine Espenæs Krull - Vocals
* Tommy Lindal - Guitar
* Tommy Olsson - Guitar
* Pål Bjåstad - Guitar
* Geir Flikkeid - Guitar
* Eirik T. Saltrø - Bass