Theatre of Tragedy - The Velvet Darkness They Fear

"Not good -- seems like a bad joke."

What a great idea! Take a beautifully melodic female vocalist, lugubrious and moody music, and throw in a ridiculous sounding death metal vocalist to ruin the entire thing!

_Velvet Darkness They Fear_ has to have been one of the most confusing, downright weird musical journeys of my life. At first, I was rather impressed. You start with some cool, dark, quiet textures with some element of beauty. You also have a lovely female vocalist with a delightful voice. So why the stupid sounding death metal vox? Maybe it's "cool" or whatever, but to me it just sounded stupid. Why? Why? Why? It's dumb and ridiculous. I am not in principle opposed to death vox, but here it just doesn't work. I fully accept that I might not "get it." But I keep thinking if they wanted to preserve the gothic mood, it IS possible to find a vocalist with talent beyond growling that still sounds "dark" and "gothic."

Be warned. This music is strange and confusing. This is a "beauty & the beast" metal album where I am not convinced the "beast" is a benefit.