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Genres: Gothic Metal, Symphonic Metal
Label: Napalm Records

Truthfully, I’ve never checked out Leaves’ Eyes before, but with this album I was quite excited to. They are legends in their musical realm with a huge following, but it was the album artwork that really caught my eye at first, as it’s a gorgeous piece of art. Naturally, it seems to follow the symphonic/gothic metal conventions that some bands have taken with having a hot chick on the cover, but this hot chick is surfacing from underwater amid Celtic cross gravestones. Really cool looking.
The music is just as good as the cover art, with a wonderful singer backed up by a killer band. Heavy riffs put a strong backbone to the music with some really deadly leads overlaid. The keys aren’t just boring drones or background noise, or being used as an annoying weapon against the listener, but actually taking a major role inside of the music, working in concert with everything else. One of the biggest bonuses for me is songs that aren’t sung in English. I don’t know if that’s a usual thing for Leaves’ Eyes, but some of the songs on Meredead are in Liv Kristine’s native Norwegian. The use of traditional instruments (violins and the like) is a bonus too.
My favorite songs are “Kråkevisa”, “Meredead” (great guitar solo and keyboards in this song), and “Sigrlinn” (there’s some serious death growls in this song with the most vicious riffing on the album).
7.5 out of 10.

Leaves’ Eyes on Facebook.
Leaves’ Eyes on MySpace.

Genres: Gothic Metal
Label: AFM Records

The newest, and tragically the last, album from these gothic metal pioneers is also one of their finest.
Since the 90’s they’ve been kicking ass and taking names, pretty much starting the trend of dark, haunting metal music with a beautiful siren’s voice, full of dark imagery and emotion.
Forever is the World, in both album and the song, is a bright light of dark music, something that helps to redefine the blueprint for female-fronted gothic metal. It’s a heart wrenching, sorrow filled album full of wicked hooks that are catchy, and choruses that are twice as much so.
If you’re a fan of Napalm Records’ roster of gothic metal (Sirenia, Trail of Tears, etc.) you’ll love this album.
8.5 out of 10.

Theatre of Tragedy on MySpace.

After nearly two decades, long-running Norwegian goth metal outfit Theatre of Tragedy are officially parting ways. In a collective message from the band: “After nearly 17 years in existence Theatre of Tragedy decided to call it a day and close down. This has not been an easy decision and we have thought about this for a long long time. We finally agreed to this during the production of our latest album Forever Is The World.

Theatre of Tragedy will come to an end on October 2, 2010, exactly 17 years after we started making music together. Over the years all of us have strived to combine Theatre of Tragedy with everyday life but in the end it has proven more and more difficult. We have come to appreciate our family lives and jobs, which makes it very hard to continue this life of rock ‘n’ roll on the road.

We know that some of you will probably be very disappointed, but we also hope you will continue to listen to our music, which all of you learned to appreciate and love so much.

We want to thank everyone of you for all your support over the past 17 years! Theatre of Tragedy wouldn’t have been possible without you! Be sure to catch us on the last Theatre of Tragedy shows ever this year! The final gig will take place on October 2nd in Stavanger, where it all began.

Our music will live on… and forever is the world.”

Theatre of Tragedy on MySpace. Keep your eyes peeled for a review of Forever Is The World here at FuneralRain.net.