Theatres des Vampires - Nightbreed of Macabria

On this occasion I bring to you an album I very much like.
This is Theatres des Vampires, a band that despite the French name, hails from Rome, Italy.
I actually once had a debate with some ignorant about the language of the band's name... she said it was Italian, but it takes only a little bit of knowledge in that language to know the name would be Teatri dei Vampiri. Her argument was that it didn't "look French." I had to explain to her that it doesn't "look French" because they omit the accents in the band's spelling; otherwise it'd be Théâtres des Vampires.
Contrary to popular belief, the name translates to English as Theatres of the Vampires, rather than Theatre of Vampires.

Irrelevant linguistics anecdote aside, this band was founded in 1994, after the demise of Sepolcrum (which later became VII Arcano), by their former members Lord Vampyr and Count Morgoth, real names Alessandro Nunziati and Roberto Cufaro, respectively.
They began playing black metal, of the more melodious sort, and became increasingly so, to a point where they became more of a gothic metal band with more extreme overtones, perhaps also a bit on the symphonic black metal path, one could say.
With this album, their sixth, and the following too, they dropped nearly all of their extreme metal elements and adopted a gothic metal sound closer to deathrock than their roots.
Lord Vampyr would leave the band and instead focus on his solo band after this album, and Count Morgoth would follow after the next album, leaving female vocalist Sonya Scarlet and company in charge of the band. They shifted to a gothic sound closer to darkwave, EBM and industrial in their latest album at the time of this writing, titled Anima Noir. They have an album scheduled for release in 2011.

Personally, I think this band's best era was the mid-period, when they went softer but kept it metal, still. This is their last great album according to me, and my favorite by them, without a doubt.
Whether you're into metal of all sorts, or into the numerous varities of gothic music, but particularly if you're into gothic, metal, and gothic metal, I think this album has something for everyone.
Gothic dance-ish beats like Macabria, symphonic metal stuff with great choruses like The Jester's Shadow, sorrowful gothic rock moments like in The Curse of Headless Christ, double bass drumming over plam-muted riffs on A Macabre Banquet, vocal duets in Lady In Black... and so on.
Another thing I like about this album, is that despite the variety, it does feel like a cohesive work. There are some themes here and there repeated throughout the album, but it's not made blatantly obvious. There are also certain atmospheres achieved throughout the album with different songs. On occasion, I play only a selected portion of the album so stay within a specific ambiance. And I'm able to play another portion to seek out different things.

In conclusion if this is the sort of stuff that appeals to you, you'll likely love this, if not as a whole, at least many of the great individual songs in this opus. If you're the kind of person who uses the term "faggoth" often, you're better off sticking to the first couple of albums, 'cause you'll hate this, no doubt.

Lastly, if you like this, you may want to check out Lord Vampyr.


Theatres des Vampires - Nightbreed of Macabria

Tracklist:

1. Welcome To Macabria
2. A Macabre Banquet
3. Lady In Black
4. Angel of Lust
5. Luciferia
6. Incubo #1
7. Macabria
8. The Jester's Shadow
9. The Golden Sin
10. Carnival Day
11. Incubo #2
12. The Curse of Headless Christ
13. Mourning Day
14. The Undertaker & The Crow
15. The Beginning of The End
16. La Danse MacabriA du Vampire