It was last October when the Norwegians announced their disbanding, due to personal problems and their intention to lead a more… normal life.
“Last Curtain Call” is Theatre Of Tragedy’s swan song, following eighteen years of illustrious career in gothic metal. During the end of the nineties they were close to the top, maybe they even touched it, however, those internal problems they were facing – the biggest problem occurred when Liv Kristine left in 2003 – would not allow them to move solidly, despite the decent releases that followed.
Their sophomore live album is a farewell to the fans, a decent goodbye.
The double c.d. contains material coming from their second half, as a band, mainly, featuring the amazing “Velvet Darkness They Fear” and “Aegis” represented by three songs only, “Der Tanz Der Schatten”, “When The Fallen” and “Venus”. Apart from that, the band sounds fantastic on stage, transmitting the concert vibe with a rather satisfactory manner. There are no songs off the their first album or “Assembly”, however, I don’t think anybody would be bothered. What bothers me is Theatre Of Tragedy leaving music; I believe that this band had so much to offer considering certain things would be handled better.
History writes that Theatre Of Tragedy were one of the contemporary gothic metal pioneers, they influenced lots of younger musicians and the crowd loved them. “Last Curtain Call” is a modest and decent epitaph for the Norwegians, the ones who wrote and sang about death so many times…
