Beyond the Veil (album)

Beyond the Veil
Studio album by Tristania
Released 8 September 1999
Recorded February/March, 1999 at Sound Suite Studio, Marseille, France
Genre Death/doom metal, gothic metal, symphonic metal
Length 52:24
Label Napalm
Producer Tristania, Terje Refsnes
Tristania chronology

Widow's Weeds
(1998)		 Beyond the Veil
(1999)		 World of Glass
(2001)
Singles from Beyond the Veil
  1. "Angina"
    Released: 18 May 1999[1]
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Metal Storm [2]
Rough Edge [3]
Sputnikmusic [4]
Tristania's "Angina" (1999)
This 30 second sample from the music Angina feature three distinct vocal styles with a black metal shriek followed by soprano and baritone vocals.
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Beyond the Veil is the second full-length album by the Norwegian band Tristania. It is the last album to feature the band's former vocalist, guitarist and core songwriter, Morten Veland.

Background and Influence

Tristania stood apart from the other bands of the genre with their use of three distinct vocal styles in the "operatic soprano Vibeke Stene, clean-singing counter-tenor Østen Bergøy, and harsh, black metal-style shrieker Morten Veland".[5] Beyond the Veil made use of a ten members choir and featured violin passages from Pete Johansen of The Sins of Thy Beloved,[6] earning "rave reviews" across Europe.[5] By then, the band had risen to "the top of the gothic metal heap"[7] with their "lush, symphonically enhanced" approach.[5] The album features "tender ethereal female voices" and "the brutality and harshness", making it a promoter on the gothic metal scene.[8] They were "dealt a potentially crippling blow" when singer, guitarist and principal composer Veland left the group to form Sirenia.[5] Tristania has continued to prosper with subsequent releases[9] and has since been "regarded as one of the world's premiere goth metal bands".[5] Review website sputnikmusic classified the album as a "classic" within the genre it helped to develop, pontuating that the album finds itselft to be "dark, symphonic, gothic metal that reeks in anger and despair. One of the crowning jewels to be found in the gothic metal genre and particularly one album that shouldn't be taken lightly." As the technical content of the album, it features "excellent synthesizer passages and haunting violin runs [...] Aside from the [operatic, clean and harsh] vocals." The album achieves to capture the "coldest emotion from the deepest, darkest corners of the earth with majestic piano leads and epic keyboard passages pulsating throughout the complex arrangements" purposed by keyboardist Einar Moen, as the drumming proceeds with considerable speed and, when necessary, slowing down.[10]

Track listing

No. TitleLyricsMusic Length
1. "Beyond the Veil"  Einar Moen, Morten VelandMoen, Veland 6:37
2. "Aphelion"  VelandVeland 7:49
3. "A Sequel of Decay"  VelandMoen, Veland 6:32
4. "Opus Relinque"  MoenAnders Hidle, Moen 6:06
5. "Lethean River"  VelandMoen, Veland 5:55
6. "...Of Ruins and a Red Nightfall"  VelandVeland 6:21
7. "Simbelmynë"  InstrumentalMoen 0:59
8. "Angina"  VelandVeland 4:38
9. "Heretique"  MoenHidle, Moen 4:49
10. "Dementia"  MoenMoen 2:21
Total length:
 52:24

Personnel

Tristania

Session members

References

  1. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/angina-mw0001201474/releases
  2. ↑ "Tristania Beyond the Veil". Metal Storm. Retrieved 2013-05-17.
  3. ↑ "Rough Edge: Tristania CD Reviews". Rough Edge. May 27, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Tristania Beyond the Veil". Sputnikmusic. 17 July 2008. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Tristania". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
  6. ↑ Eldefors, Vincent. "Beyond the Veil review". Tartareandesire.com. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
  7. ↑ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Sirenia". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
  8. ↑ http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/review.php?review_id=5311&page=&message_id=
  9. ↑ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Ashes review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
  10. ↑ "Tristania Beyond the Veil". Sputnikmusic. 17 July 2008. Retrieved 2011-10-14.