I have somewhat mixed feelings concerning Tristania. Long time I’ve felt that solely the qualities of female singer Vibeke Stene caused the success of the band (and I don’t mean the vocal qualities). After I saw the band perform live for the first time, I had to change my opinion. Tristania is a lot more than an average band with a striking front lady. The joy, the power and especially the interaction between the other band members on stage was very pleasant to watch. At moments I had a hard time figuring out why this band even had a female vocalist. Yet, even after that impressive show, I never took the time to listen to one of their albums. I’m sad to conclude, however, that Illumination won’t change that much. Despite the fact that I like the heavy and energetic sound of the new album, I’m not overly excited.

The album features a couple of nice tracks but is, all-in-all, way too predictable. I even think that the heavy sound caused the album to be slightly boring. I can hear that most of the tracks are based on good ideas, but these are pushed to the background by the dominating sound of bass and drums. At times the high-pitched vocals of Vibeke even sound out-of-place, like for example on the track ‘The Ravens’ – still one of the better tracks though. This time the male vocals impress which take the music above average. Highlights on the album are the atmospheric ‘The Raven’ and closing track ‘Deadlines’, featuring strings. The latter is one of the rare tracks on which Vibeke excels. I wonder what this album would have sounded like with only male vocals…