Search - Theatre of Tragedy :: Assembly

It actually deserves 3.5 stars,

8er Martin | 08/09/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I must confess that I loved first 3 TOT albums and hated with my whole black heart Musique, actually I thought it was the most horrible thing I'd ever heard and when I heard the single "Let You Down" I thought this would be another Musique. I've been listening to this CD all day long, and it's begun to grow on me. Of course it has nothing to do with Aegis, Velvet Darkness or TOT's debut album, those were 3 masterpieces, but Assembly is not as bad as it was Musique, this one sounded better produced, music was far more creative than Musique's, and even though lyrics here are still a bit silly, some of them deserve to be read. There some good moments on this album (Superdrive, which sounds very much like Garbage's Run Baby Run, Starlit and Envision, for example). Automatic Lover has a very good melody, the only thing I found disgusting were the lyrics, too repetitive, and too focused on creating a catchy song that you can sing along with your friends as you drive your car and drink vodka. Let You Down is also good after all, it has something that i can't describe and that simply made me fall in love with the song, despiting the bad impression I had when I first heard it.

Another nice song is Flickerlight, again too Garbage-ish, but still good.

Basically this is not an excellent album, but it still has some good things on it and certainly was very much better than Musique. I'd recommend that you get a few songs (or even the whole album) from internet, and if you like the songs enough, then go to buy it (that's what I did, but I'm not so sure yet about buying it or not).

And, in case you find this really disgusting, you might want to check out Liv Kristine's new band "Leaves' Eyes", whose albums Lovelorn and Vinland Saga are very good (specially Lovelorn, which is already my favorite)."

No Doubt meets Zeromancer?

Sugarplumeferry | Pittsburgh | 05/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Being an avid fan of industrial music (including Zeromancer, Apoptygma Berzerk, And One, Wolfsheim, etc.), it is probably a lot easier for me to appreciate such albums as Musique and Assembly as opposed to someone who exclusively prefers the gloomy metallic sound of the debut through Aegis. Although I still prefer their older material, I consider Assembly to be a great (if flawed) album.



I can understand why the band chose to change their music the way they did. It was obvious that they were getting bored with the gothic metal genre and wanted to do something new. I have absolutely no problem with this, as I would much rather hear innovative industrial albums than uninspired gothic ones. However, I am bothered by the fact that they decided not to change their band name. Needless to say, this is not the TOT I fell in love with when I first heard songs like "A Hamlet for a Slothful Vassal" or "Aoede" - the band name does not fit with this new style of music, I'm sorry to say. If Peter Tatgtren decided to make Pain his primary musical outfit under the Hypocrisy label, how many Hypocrisy fans do you think would be pissed? More than you can count on your fingers, that's for sure.



With that frustration out of the way, I shall move on to describe TOT's 5th (and 2nd under the industrial category) album. Just by looking at the album inlay - new logo, new image, new label - you know you're not going to be hearing another Aegis anytime soon. The band make well use of their newfound synthesizers - a new layer to the TOT musical theorem that is actually integrated with skilled execution (Lorentz Aspen has always been a synth & piano genius). Raymond Rohonyi continues his rather odd English-accented verses (which actually developed on the Aegis album, despite what many will tell you) which you'll either grow to love or to hate. As many have mentioned before, the guitars are used sparingly, mainly during intros and choruses - and if you've ever listened to the German band Zeromancer, then you should have a distinct idea as to what I'm talking about. Liv, as always, is what ties the band together - no matter how the music has changed, and it's a shame that she was silently booted from TOT (although her new band Leaves' Eyes is excellent if I must say). She looks very young in the album pics, with extra makeup and leather jackets - hard to believe she's the same gal as the pale, fragile looking siren from those old black-and-white TOT photos. Her voice is much "poppier" here - singing rhythmically on opener "Automatic Lover", and eerily resembling the pop singer Kylie Minogue on "Envision". This is funny that I say this, considering I compared her voice to that of Enya's in my review of the self-titled LP. It's still the same Liv though, no matter how you look at it.



I would say the songs that stick out for me most are the driving opener "Automatic Lover", written about a man who treats women like whores; the stunning "Envision" (Liv's voice is great on this track, by the way); the cutesy-pop of "Flickerlight"; and also the subtle "Liquid Man", whose chorus is probably the closest thing you'll find to TOT's older work on Assembly.



Once again, I find that both Musique and Assembly will appeal to fans of industrial/synth-pop more than fans of the first three albums. Those that fall in the latter category would do well to stick with Tristania, After Forever and Within Temptation.



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