The Last Grief

Put this on the police report – Rickard Bengtsson can’t sing for a doom metal band. The man obviously excels in power or heavy metal exclusively; this is a fact. His vocals are meant to soar positively without restraint like with Helloween, but in Tristitia that’s exactly what he isn’t doing. He’s either groaning or trying to pull off shrills while maintaining an intimidating (but fake) accent. Hearing Bengtsson in something like Last Tribe and then seeing him, you can come to terms with the man behind the voice. But hearing him here yawning for vocals is laughable and offensive to Bengtsson himself. I imagine James Hetfield of Metallica pulling off these vocals, because that’s the least I can expect at this point.

“… of a dying centuryaaaayayayeeaaaah!
Should I cry once more? While I piss on your graaayeeeaaave!
A sense of time within your liehihihiyeaaahs!”

Good lord what a monotonous performance; talk about underutilizing a vocalist and using him for the wrong genre of metal. Anyway the music on its own drags on and gets pretty damn boring. Production leans in favor of the guitars and bass, obviously, with a tone that’s tormented and thick. Slow is key, but sprinkle those lame vocals and I’m tired and bored out of my mind. As opposed to waiting for the next piece of the music, I’m expecting anything to come and save me from the dullness of lifeless riffs clawing their way down-tempo. The lack of atmosphere doesn’t help, either, and I mean there really isn’t anything beyond dreary riffs with thick bass back-up and crashing drums that just sit in the back and knock on cymbals and stomp on double bass from time to time (unless the tempo jumps up like with “Golden Goddess Of Fire” or “Angelwitches Palace"). These moments are brief though, so I’m stuck in a state of grief that only ends in me stopping the song and listening to something else entirely (preferably a better band that Bengtsson sings in).

Between the tracks with vocals (all of which sound alike; clear and well-produced, but not modern), Tristitia inserted seven instrumental tracks, which was a bad idea when I first saw it horribly used on Pestilence’s Testimony Of The Ancients. Some of these tracks are harmonic and poignant like “Tears And Tequila” or “In The Light Of The Moon” while others are just wastes of time (“MediEvil” and “Once Upon A Dawn…”). The difference is that the good instrumentals are fair toward the human emotion in times of sorrow, and Galvez plays well with his heart in both electric and acoustic to convey this. The others, primarily the intro track, are fake and inaccessible, with the intro being a really shitty track just stripped of credibility and containing a sample from a video game, which is cool in one sense but completely retarded in another (sounds like one of those lame fan-made video game music videos).

Lack of genuine flow, free-flowing ideas, and limited capacities during the proper tracks while tiring out the formula and miscasting the vocalist kill this album from rising to the challenge. A couple good instrumentals and one decent track (“Angelwitches Palace”) are all this album can muster, and even at that level it isn’t something I’d take over anything else. Their doom is done better by other doom bands on both sides of the doom (death/doom and traditional doom) genre. If I were you, I’d go look in those directions for something better. If you want to hear something better from the vocalist, then go check out his sole performance with Armageddon or his true work with Last Tribe.

For all those not interested in cryptic gothic metal bands from Sweden such as Tristitia, stop wasting your time reading this review and go on with your being. Do some sports, read a book, buy a new washing machine, whatever it may take to enrich your life. For the few interested, I stumbled across Tristitia while checking out another band with a similar name (Tristania), which have parallels in their sound, except the latter having female vocals included into their music. Tristitia focuses exclusively on the male vocals of its frontman Thomas Karlsson.

The only other album I got to hear from them was their 1995' effort "One With Darkness", which was rather disappointing and weak for that matter. This record was next on my "to listen to" list and wasn't at all a disappointment. In fact I really enjoyed this record, while not being a huge fan of the "gothic metal" scene or the gothic scene at all, for that matter. I also encourage any willing enough to go through the trouble in getting this record to give it a fair listen.

The production sound on the record fits the new millennium quite well, without showing any over-production-sickness symptoms. The guitar tone is as it should be for slow music. By no means would I call it standard, as it succeeds in conveying the musicians' message quite well. You do not need to push the speed to insane levels (at least not here) to make enjoyable music, so no extreme blasting is presented here. Instead we have pretty calming instrumental parts with orchestral instruments, such as strings or wind instruments that make up a good part of the album. Such tracks include the under two minute arrangements "In the Light of the Moon", "Evolic", "Tears & Tequila", "Memory's Garden" or "MediEvil". As cheesy as the tracks must sound, their execution is actually quite impressive. I'd consider this record over most "modern" crap you have intoxicating the heavy metal scene to date. Bands that wish to sound mature and modern/progressive or whatever, but fail miserably by being "emo". Tristitia is one of those bands that live up to their name and make little compromise. Beside all the acoustic and choral chanting we have good to amazing guitar solo parts that last just long enough to connect the listener to the gloomy atmosphere. Vocals are also quite lamented, though sadly not as extremely tormented as other vocalists within the Swedish scene (Entombed come to mind), they still have a very melancholic tone to them. Overall, the instrumental execution is impressive, drumming sounding very authentic and energetic, with a little echo internalised, adding to the atmosphere.

I recommend this album to fans of (old and new) Katatonia, My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost, without trying to compare them to the latter bands too much.

This album is an oddity as far as the bands style goes for a few reasons. While the style is still Doom, its not Black Doom. The vocals are clean, very much in the Power Metal field and there are some incredibly fast parts as well. There is also a strange intro to the intro that is a sound bite from an unnamed movie. Whether the band was intentionally trying to break their own mold or just a one off album is unknown. What is known is that this is one of the bands better releases by far.

The production is a step up from the bands first two releases. The guitars are heavier and more threatening on this release then on any other effort to date. The faster (old school Slayer speed) riffs are towards the end of the album. They are incredibly tight and fit well. There are a few solos but most are nothing more than glorified leads. Luis still lulls the listener into a trance with the bands trademarked ponderous acoustic passages and long, drawn out harmonizing guitar dirges. As with all the bands releases, sustain, is used whenever possible. There are is almost an equal amount of palm muting to open chorded passages here with the latter being the style of choice.

The bass doesn't do anything note worthy, he just plays along with the guitar. The drums sound programmed in some places, not that, that is a bad thing, but rather it takes away from the organic feel of the album.

The vocals are nothing short of outstanding from start to finish. The vocalist has an incredible range and if you listen you can hear his harmonized vocals when the are utilized. Most of the higher range/dual tracked vocals are buried in the mix unfortunately.

The few complaints that there are would be the intro sound bite at the beginning of the album. While cool, dark and evil, its out of place and pointless since there is an instrumental intro right after it. The lyrical device that Luis uses is the same from album to album, like Manowar but less interesting. Another would be that this album drags a lot. You REALLY need to be in the mood for it as its not something you casually listen too. This is a very involved recording.

Over all, in spite of its various short comings this is a pretty decent CD. There is a good mix of fast to slow speeds. This isn't for everyone however, aside from the bands core fans, those into Power Doom might find something of interest here.