Search - Tristania :: World of Glass

World of Glass weaves opera and metal beautifully!

Daniel J. Hamlow | Narita, Japan | 12/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yet another planet has been discovered--it is that of Tristania, a.k.a. the World Of Glass. From the cover, it appears to be a blue-white world of ice. Oh yes, and glass. It's a world of hard, beautiful melancholy. It's also my pick as one of the best albums of 2001.The choir, with its Latin words, opens with a soaring power and vitality in the opening track, "The Shining Path," accompanied by Tristania's usual sound of fury. Vibeke's operatic voice then appears in its full beauty. The song's about a female witch or heretic who is burned at the stake, and the point of view is alternately omniscient, and from her. My second favorite track, and what an opener at that!The millennial "Wormwood," equally potent, seems to be taken from the book of Revelation, about the end of the world, and the loss of faith proceeding from it.Osten Bergoy is Vibeke Stene's male counterpart, and is billed as "clean male vocals." Both he and Vibeke sing on "Tender Trip On Earth," and sing together on the last verse. Love that refrain: "Tears falling from the sky/Words from a lullaby/Everything beautiful dies."Tristania then takes an unexpected trip to techno in "Lost." There are some catchy guitar riffs in the chorus: "I'm one--I'm anyone you like me to be/I'm gone--Whenever you would like to be free."The haunting ballad "Deadlocked" has Vibeke on lead vocals, accompanied by her choir on the chorus. My third favorite track.One line in the depressing "Selling Out" describes my life to a tee: "The years that passed me by/The child in me just died/The scars in me will never heal/An overdose of nothingness," with the last line repeated a couple times. It is a softer track ringing of despair, and Vibeke sings of running out of dreams, words, tears, screams,... essentially, "I'm running out of life again.""Hatred" is a wonderfully realized anti-war song, with Vibeke playing the goddess of war and destruction, with her choir as accompanying war sirens: "I'll give you strength to continue the fight/I'll feed you anger and soft little lies." One line in particular makes me angry: "My god is great/I've killed before/All is fair and love and war and peace." I've read of various heads of state and secret societies who think like that, and that is total bollocks! The ugly side of religion is people who kill in its name, believing their god is the greatest. I'm not referring to just militant hijackers, but Pope Urban and the warriors of the Crusades. Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindi, Muslims equal share the blame. And we are no different, as we use the phrase "God Bless America." I don't think we have a monopoly on the Christian god. The bottom line of war: "So much pain/so many tears/Out of blood hatred grows."
The title track may also have war connotations: "a falling stone in a world of glass." It's the final track, the 7:41 long "Crushed Dreams," that's my favorite. The choir sings "Exterminate.../Eradicate..." accompanied by frenzied strings.There's a more consistent and refined sound on World Of Glass. Vibeke and the choir, the features I enjoyed upon first hearing them, play a larger and more vital role than on Beyond The Veil. I hope they keep this style."

It's Pretty Good

S. Morales | Levittown, NY United States | 03/04/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Well, keep in mind that this review might changed but im kinda 30% on that happening. I've listened to this album a couple of times and bought it because of all the rave reviews on this website plus the style of music seemed different than anything else I've heard. Well, I do have to say that it definitely is very unique music; many different styles of music are fused together to make up something most people just want to label as Progressive Gothic Metal.
Well, I think it goes beyond that in many aspects, there is also some use of industrial synth within this, as well as melodic death metal guitars, opera influences and folkish flare throughout the whole thing-very progressive indeed. There are a few styles of vocal as well: black/gothic male growls (which is used most), operatic female (gorgeous vocals, and is used almost as much as the goth growls), and clean male (which isn't used a whole lot, but still decent sounding). This is all very different and all, but unfortunately a lot of the songs feel too bloated with all these styles, none really sticking to a pattern. Yes, i understand progressive music doesn't stick to a "pattern" so to speak but bands like Opeth and Dream Theater are also very progressive, but most of the songs have a rhythmic pattern going within them the whole time, and it doesn't feel like there are 2 or 3 different songs in one like it does with WOG. Well, because of this, the songs just had a very hard time keeping my attention, a lot of it just got kinda boring to be honest. There are a FEW parts within some songs that are really good, most especially the use of violins, which doesn't sound like the typical folk violin, but more like a sea of ghosts chanting some gorgeous songs at once, almost sounding like a few violins at one time-very nice.
On top of this, I didn't think the goth growls were all that interesting either, and the song choruses didn't provide anything really catchy, rhythmic, or melodic. Yet, even though I thought all this was apparent, the music was still very very unique.
The one thing I LOVED about this album was easily track 5 "DeadLocked." This is the one song where the female vocals are exclusive, and this song is the epitamy of all beautiful music, and is worth the purchase price of this album alone. Therefore, even though the rest of the album didn't hold up to me, this one song is truly the highlight and one of the best songs I've ever heard. Anyone who hears this album must admit that "DeadLocked" is the only song in the album that actually sounds like a well constructed song, everything flows together well, the tempo changes and pattern changes are flawlessly fused together-whereas most of the rest of the album is just TOO unpredictable for its own good. Now, keep in mind, there are a couple of other good songs on this one, the first couple I thought were actually very good; the first 2 were catchy and melodic, then again, every song really has some good moments within them, but OVERALL most songs just get to be too confused too much, either that or just boring. This album is just another example of how abstract art can be misinterpreted as good solid entertainment. Buy this for Track 5."

Tristania does it.... yet again!

Y. Alekseyev | New York | 11/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't want to repeat to much of what has already been said: it is an album unlike the previous two - that's absolutely true. but is it any worse? I guess it's just a matter of taste, but I thoroughly appreciated variations of this kind. First off, the music became more diverse, and while there are still plenty of moments a-la Beyond The Vail, there are plenty of other styles mixed in here - and they are matched beautifully. Second off, to reply to those who complain that the band has changed too much to like it, I'd say that the band has simply matured and grown in all aspects (and besides, previous two albums have pretty much exhausted all reasonable variations on the theme, so something had to change - it's absulutely inevitable) Now, let me be clear: I'm a very big fan of both Widow's Weeds, and Beyond..., and all dark gothic music alike, and think Tristania's got the best of it, and especiallly so with this release.
The mood now is a bit lighter : as one reviewer rightfully noted, the "pain" is gone. So what's there to complain about: now you've got Tristania with different moods, so you can listen to it more! After all, these changes we're talking about are NOT EVEN CLOSE to the scale and direction of TOT with their cursed Musique (devil forbid!), and I don't think they will turn away any considerable quantity of Tristania's old fans - quite the contrary, they'll attract new ones.
If you haven't bought Tristania before it might actually be a good album to start with, although it all depends on your backgound in this genre: if gothic is as light as you go, then maybe Beyond the Vail is the best to start with. Either way, the new toy is worth it!"