Tristania – Rubicon (2010)

Tristania has always been one of our favorite bands since the late 90’s with their impressive “Widows Weeds” and “Beyond The Veil” albums. Fast forward to the mid 00’s and we have that Morten Veland left the band and Tristania was stuck in a creative limbo releasing somewhat dull and uninspired releases. Lastly in 2007 we got Illuminate, and album that was somewhat decent and marked the last release of the band with Vibeke Stene, the band’s iconic Female singer. Many people gave Tristania for dead after Vibeke left and not a lot of people had confidence that the band would ever return with release solid enough to get them back on top of the Gothic Metal world.

With “Rubicon”, Tristania proves us all wrong (yes, including us). The band’s latest release is as great as we could have ever expected, not like Morten Veland would have done (for this check out Mortemia), but like the ever shape-shifting Tristania only knows how to do: it’s complex, powerful and well designed to keep the listener engaged. With the band’s new female singer Mary Demurtas, we get a more than worthy replacement for Vibeke. Mary’s voice is indeed different than Vibeke, but it has enough power and range to helm Tristania’s female singer crown gracefully.

The best addition to this band for us has been the incursion of Kjetil Nordhus (of Green Carnation fame) on clean male vocals. We absolutely love this singer and his voice brings Tristania’s sound to a whole different level, we liked Østen Bergøy vocals since “World of Glass”, but he is no Kjetil. We also have the return of Pete Johansen (ex-The Sins of Thy Beloved) on some violin sections in “Rubicon”.

Musically, “Rubicon” is a very diverse album since it features complex songs that swirl around the vocal melodies created for Mary and Kjetil. There are plenty of keyboard, samples, and soaring guitar riffs that craft very catchy and powerful songs. Einar Moen (keyboards) and Anders Hidle (guitars) are the two remaining original members, and have been in charge of crafting the band’s sound since Morten lefy, creating the band’s signature sound.

Tristania might have suffered countless line-up changes over the years but their ability to reinvent and rediscover themselves has been what keeps them on the top places the Gothic Metal genre. “Rubicon” is just another step in this band’s interesting musical voyage, and while we lost fate in them a few years ago, they have managed to win us back with this great new release.

Release: August 31st, 2010

Country: Norway