Tristania - Beyond the Veil (1999)^{Release ID: 3361}

Having completed the albums of Type O negative on my gothic binge, I have now turned to Tristania, a band I was already familiar with but haven't heard in a long time.  I love the idea of a symphonic gothic side, being a Phantom of the Opera fan myself, and I was really eager to see if I loved this album as much as I did years ago when I first heard it.  Of course, since I have a lot of music to listen to and have always had a lot to listen to, I hadn't heard this again in years.  This gothic binge of mine is just what I needed to visit it again.

Tristania's presence is built on two things: switching up the sounds, and constant flow.  Their first album might've been just a good gothic album that stood out with a heavily symphonic touch, but this was the album where those strengths were fleshed out in a more artistic presence.  Every song takes a plethora of different approaches all used to empower its never-wavering atmosphere of theatrical romance and darkness.  We get plenty of the violins and pianos that come with the symphonic side, but we're also given time to explore the darker side of metal.  The death metal vocals from the previous album were no longer just a unique gimmick to symphonic metal, it was given matching music to switch out with the gothic, the symphonic and the progressive.  We're constantly on a merry-go-round of focal points that all bring out Tristania's personality.  Unfortunately, this also means every song is effectively tackling all the same elements, so the variety aspect isn't perfectly handled, not like it would later be on World of Glass.

Tristania were no longer a gimmick band with this album.  They helped the 90's prove that symphonic music is just as relevant to bringing out metal's strengths to the world as any of the speedy thrash or slow and psychedelic doom.  This, with Nightfall in Middle Earth and Theli, are essential to this, and this was the album that was the proggiest and most unpredictable.