TRISTANIA always wrote felicitous songs in the past. This fact does not change with the new disc Illumination. Nowadays the band focuses on atmospheric, oftentimes borne structures.
The introducing track Mercyside comes up with the combination of double bass and Vibeke’s characteristic, sometimes way-out voice. This composition really appears well balanced, because of the interspersed faster passages featuring the required heaviness. In further progression the Norsemen present their sound in mid tempo for most of the time - the refrains are the biggest brownie point. I don’t know if I should denominate this mixture as Gothic Metal or as mellow variant Gothic Rock? The musical description lies somewhere in between, sometimes the guitars and the drums come to the fore with harsher chords respectively rhythms. For the most part the tracks rock along in a fluffy-flaky way. According to this, Illumination is rather slight fare, convenient to listen to, for recreation to lean back. For this approach the male voice is contributed harmonically and in clear pitch, every now and then more bleak rumbling. I miss the snap like in the past, the speed and abundance, but this reduction, almost slimmed to the acoustic skeleton brings about something good: the song itself does not get drowned by an opulence of choirs or symphonic gimmicks. The gentle Destination Departure for instance is carried by female voices, male recitatives and basic, slightly modern-electronic instrumentation. This simple, reluctant manner is uncommon for TRISTANIA and therefore needs to get used to by the fans. The following song Down turns out to be heavier, double bass and more aggressive vocals provide for a completely different sentiment. At first sight the listener can anticipate the diminution to the essentials by means of the songs’ lengths hardly overleaping the five minute mark; sole the concluding Deadlands TRISTANIA present in a more epic form with bacchanal melodies performed by acoustic guitars and strings. In addition to that the vocal arrangements take a more sumptuous effect.
All in all, Illumination is calm, low-key, but felicitous still in its entirety, even though not continuously first class, almost a little bit unspectacular. I could discover a lot of fine elements and ideas, the copiousness is gone completely, but TRISTANIA managed to create an above-average album with the help of more simple Rock/Metal songs. Illumination makes up a well done and convenient release!