Beyond the Veil (album)

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". Beyond the Veil made use of a ten members choir and featured violin passages from Pete Johansen of The Sins of Thy Beloved, earning "rave reviews" across Europe. By then, the band had risen to "the top of the gothic metal heap" with their "lush, symphonically enhanced" approach. The album features "tender ethereal female voices" and "the brutality and harshness", making it a promoter on the gothic metal scene. They were "dealt a potentially crippling blow" when singer, guitarist and principal composer Veland left the group to form Sirenia. Tristania has continued to prosper with subsequent releases and has since been "regarded as one of the world's premiere goth metal bands". Review website sputnikmusic classified the album as a "classic" within the genre it helped to develop, stating that the album finds itself 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.

Tristania

Session members