Theatre of Tragedy

Theatre of Tragedy is a Norwegian band from Stavanger, originally assembled in 1993 and best known for their earlier albums, which were to a great extent the basis for the development of gothic metal. The band makes use of contrasting voca

Theatre of Tragedy is a Norwegian band from Stavanger, originally assembled in 1993 and best known for their earlier albums, which were to a great extent the basis for the development of gothic metal. The band makes use of contrasting vocals - male bass vocals (making rare use of death grunts) and female soprano singing - and on their first three albums, presented lyrics written predominantly in Old English. Starting from the album Musique, however, Theatre of Tragedy made drastic changes to its style, which shifted towards the techno genre, abandoning Old English writing and death grunts in the process.

Theatre of Tragedy begun when drummer Hein Frode Hansen quit his former band Phobia in 1993 and started looking for a new musical project to play in. A friend of his, who worked on a record store, told Frode that a band called Suffering Grief was looking for a new drummer, and after entering in contact with them, he joined the band. At the time, Suffering Grief was composed of vocalist Raymond István, keyboard player Lorentz Aspen and guitarist Tommy Lindahl. No bassist had joined the band yet, but "Eirik" had agreed to play with them in live concerts.