At the end of the 90s the Gothic Metal movement was in its bloom and one of the groundbreaking forces which practiced this musical style was THEATRE OF TRAGEDY with their outstanding self-titled debut album and the world famous Velvet Darkness They Fear. The mixture of male death metal growls and a female soprano voice was quite innovative back then and quickly found many followers and copycats. After the release of their third album Aegis in 1998 it got a little quiet around the band. Aegis featured a significant shift in direction concerning the music as it contained softer songs with clean male and female vocals and a strong affinity towards classical Gothic Rock which seemed somewhat undetermined and awkward to many former fans of the band while it was highly acclaimed by the critics. In 2000, THEATRE OF TRAGEDY returned with another album named Musique which was heavily influenced by modern EBM/Industrial sounds and had a futuristic touch, almost completely denying the gothic roots of the band. Even though Musique attracted a completely different audience, many of the old fans who bravely tolerated the music on Aegis simply could not abide the band's most recent change of style for any longer. Nevertheless another album featuring the same EBM/Metal mixture was released only two years later – and while Musique still had its special moments, Assembly did not. To cut it short, at least in my opinion the album was completely negligible as it mainly consisted of insignificant pop songs. By then, THEATRE OF TRAGEDY was almost dead and due to personal and musical problems vocalist Liv Kristine (who continued as a solo artist and with her new band Leaves Eyes) was kicked out of the band. Things did not look too bright until a new female vocalist was found. Nell, who is also the singer of the band The Crest, joined the band only a short time after Liv's departure and during winter 2004/05 THEATRE OF TRAGEDY toured with Pain, Sirenia and Tiamat which allowed them to regain and fortify their position as Gothic Metal institution. By now, they released a new album called Storm which turned out to be a little more back to the roots. Actually, it is not an attempt in bringing back the glory of the Velvet Darkness era, but guitars and piano synths come to the fore again while electronic elements are not as frequently and obtrusively used as on Musique and Assembly, which makes the album a pleasure to listen to. Especially the voice of Nell is definitely superior to that of Liv Kristine, and even though some songs are quite catchy and sort of light-hearted, the music never turns out as blunt and annoying as some Within Temptation or Nightwish songs do. It obviously was the band's main intention to hold back false orotundity and stick to well-written songs and atmosphere instead. Especially the piano parts by Lorentz Aspen underline the high quality of the music. Raymond, who is responsible for the male vocals, sounds much more natural on Storm than on its two predecessors and creates a stunning contrast to Nell's clear voice by slightly using electronic distortion to adumbrate a connection to the death metal vocals on the first two albums. To put it together, Storm is neither totally innovative nor the best album of the century, but especially songs like Storm, Ashes & Dreams and Senseless demonstrate that THEATRE OF TRAGEDY returned with a vengeance to show the Gothic Metal scene that they are neither out-dated nor obsolete.