Band:	Theatres Des Vampires
Album:	Nightbreed Of Macabria
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	May 03, 2004
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Welcome To Macabria
02. A Macabre Banquet
03. Lady In Black
04. Angel Of Lust
05. Luciferia
06. Incubo # 1
07. Macabria
08. The Jester's Shadow
09. The Golden Sin
10. Carnival Day
11. Incubo # 2
12. The Curse Of Headless Christ
13. Mourning Day
14. The Undertaker & The Crow
15. The Beginning Of The End
16. La Danse Macabria Du Vampire [bonus]

Theatres De Vampires is back with their new Cd, and from the start you know something is different, the cover art is pretty weird, but very cool, dark art at its finest moment!
I really like this band, the strange mixture of Black and Gothic Metal paired with the band's over the top crazy antics and looks, made my day back then when they released "Suicide Vampire", a fine album if you ask me.

But as I was saying, things are different now, the band dropped all the Black Metal imaginary and style too, and I must say that since this release, Theatres Des Vampires can be considered Gothic Metal. But these guys are no newcomers on the genre, because their past albums successfully combined Gothic Metal with Black Metal, they just removed the latter in this album.

The Cd starts with a weird intro, with violins and spoken passages, then "A Macabre Banquet" starts, the choirs are still there, but mostly the vocals are clear, there's one or two shrieks but buried into the mix, "Lady In Black" follows the same path than the previous, but female vocalist Scarlet appears here, sadly, both songs are somewhat chaotic. The first surprise of the album is "Angel Of Lust" the first cohesive song of the Cd, the choirs, the vocals and all the arrangements are all in place, making of this song, one of the best ones in the album, and my personal favorite.

Some electro loops appear in "Incubo # 1" and to be honest, it doesn't surprise me, with all the changes on the band, a future Electro Gothic album of Theatres Des Vampires wouldn't be a crazy thought. Later on the album some good songs make their appearance, like "The Jester's Shadows" where the violin gets more predominance than other songs, "The Golden Sin" features a catchy choir, while "Mourning Day" is a great semi-acoustic song. Don't forget the bonus track! A danceable remix version of "La Danse Macabre Du Vampire" (originally appeared on "Suicide Vampire") now titled "La Danse MACABRIA Du Vampire (horror club remix feat. Radamantis -SixSexSix)".

I must say one thing though, this is a good album, it got its moments, it also got some flaws, I think that these guys haven't exploited too well the genre, and haven't crafted their musical geniuses too well, I mean, I was expecting a much more weirder thing, but some songs are just plain Gothic Metal, I'm not saying that the vampires should do Avant-Garde or something like that, I'm just saying that they can do way better than this.
A disappointment in one side, a great surprise on the other, the thing is, Theatres Des Vampires will always manage to shock me one way or other.