Style: gothic metal, beauty and the beast
Thoughts: There are some albums I never thought would get repressed. A few years ago Widow's Weeds was added to my collection, and now the follow up Beyond the Veil is now also in my collection. Who would have ever thought this would happen?
Tristania plays what is affectionately known as the beauty and the beast genre of metal. That being a soprano vocalist paired with a growling vocalist. Typically this is played over gothic metal, and that is certainly the case here.
Beyond the Veil is not only one of the finest albums in this micro genre, it's also one of the albums that should be used as a template for hot it is done. It combines varied riffs with female choirs, powerful male vocals (both clean and growled), with a violin sprinkled throughout.
Each song is written to sound more like a voyage than a typical song. They all have distinct parts and rarely follow the standard verse/chorus formula. Rather we have a collection of riffs that are put together in such a way that the songs keep progressing from idea to idea before finally reaching the conclusion.
Linear song writing is nothing new in the world of metal, but here it feels completely natural. These songs are composed like classical pieces; they flow from one idea to the next seamlessly yet every "movement" is still feels as if it belongs within the greater opus.
Tristania started out with two of the finest albums ever recorded in this genre. They would eventually lean further into the gothic metal realm and leave most of their harsh roots behind, but here they have the perfect mix of everything: female vocals, harsh male vocals, clean male vocals, riffs, and of course that elegant violin.
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