Outside the Goth box

Gothic music's heyday is long past. The few European Goth bands that have resisted change have made the genre as rigid as a face full of Botox. But in Norway they do things a bit differently. A whole swath of bands, including Theatre of Tragedy, Sirenia and The Sins of Thy Beloved are still very much in demand.

Adopting a doom-laden, melodramatic, symphonic metal stance with a beauty-and-the-beast aesthetic, Tristania, from Stavanger, on the southwest tip of Norway, fuse aggressive male and tender female vocals. The band uses three singers, ranging from the operatic soprano of Vibeke Stene and counter-tenor Osten Bergoy to the gravel-gargling vocal assaults of Morton Veland. Tristania's first two albums, Widow's Weeds, released in 1998, and Beyond the Veil, released in 1999, left an indelible imprint on European music.

Tristania, whose name stems from the Norwegian word for a melancholy "tryst," did not set out to be a typical Goth metal band, according to guitarist and vocalist Anders Hoyvik Hidle, who tells The Prague Post that the band has always tried to "think outside of the box and mix elements from other genres."

"Most bands that I like are difficult to place in a specific genre. Diversity has become a trademark for us, and although the mood in our music has been more or less consistent over the years, musical evolution from album to album has been essential," he says.

This commitment to development has led to a few musical casualties, including guitarist and singer Morton Veland, who left the band early on to form Sirenia. Much-adored singer Vibeke Stene left Tristania in 2007, but such disruption has always sparked the band's creativity.

"The line-up changes between Illumination and Rubicon were radical, but the main songwriters are still onboard," Hidle says. "Both Einar and myself have written music in Tristania since our debut album, and we have been responsible for writing the majority of our music during the last decade."

One positive outcome of Tristania's changing line-up has been the addition of new talent.

"The new members have definitely strengthened the band creatively. One of the most important new additions is Mariangela Demurtas, who was an important creative resource on Rubicon," Hidle says. "She took part in composing and wrote many of the vocal melodies herself. It's always an advantage if singers come up with their own ideas, as their own ideas are the most natural and work best for their voices."

Rubicon, the band's latest of six albums, stands out as one of their best, with Demurtas' input proving invaluable. More aggressive and guitar-oriented than the band's recent material, many of the songs on the album are played up-tempo, with drummer Tarald Lie Jr.'s double-bass drum propelling the band from the bottom up.

"Although the album brings along new elements and aspects of our music, it's also an album which nods musically to our past when it comes to heaviness and power," Hidle says.

Highlights on the album include "Patriot Games," on which Hidle sings "I live by the sword / bloodstained and deadly now." More than Gothic stereotypes, the song was inspired by real events.

"It's about some American soldier who wrote to us and said he had Tristania in his earphones before going out on the battlefield.  It really had an impact on us, and it was not a pleasant feeling to know that someone actually could use the energy in our music as inspiration for acts of war in Afghanistan or Iraq," he says.

Tristania's show this week marks the band's long overdue return to Prague after six years.

"I've always looked forward to returning to Prague," Hidle says. "I have a very good feeling about where Tristania is in 2010. The current line-up is the best we've had, and people can expect an energetic show with highlights from our entire history."

James Scanlon can be reached at
features@praguepost.com