Theatre of tragedy has become softer over the last years. On their first album “Theatre of tragedy” (ToT) there was the frequent grunting of the male singer (Andreas) with a lot of slow guitar riffs and a smaller part for Liv Christien (the female singer). However, over the years Liv`s role got bigger and Andreas’ voice turned into cleaner vocals. Besides that the use of electronics got more frequent. The sound of “Theatre” went from gothic metal to gothic industrial, and this reached a climax in their last album “Musique”. With the more melodic and poppy character, the large amounts of electronics (in practically every song) and the clean vocals, that record was a big challenge for the “die hard” fans. After having lost a part of its original gothic-metal following, ToT gained a complete new group of industrial fans. But the largest part of their fan-base still hoped for a return to the older days, although somewhere everybody knew that this new style would be the way that ToT will stay; maybe even permanently.

Now with their new release “Assembly” all hopes for the old fans are gone. “Theatre” made an album that is a perfect fitting sequel to “Musique” in every way. Guitars are driven to the background even more and you get the idea that most of the songs could also have been made by a synthesizer and drum computer alone.

Samples play a prominent part all over the album, even more than on “musique”. Liv Christine uses her voice in a different, more “poppy” way, that is more suited to this new style. No more beautiful angelic female voices and definitely no more grunts from Andreas; both are coming from a sampler these days.

Although musically different from what they did in the past, this is still a very good album. Well produced, easy to listen to, loads of catchy choruses and for the boys: Liv is still a pleasure to look at (although this hasn’t got anything to do with the music). Top songs like “Automatic Lover” and “Superdrive” stay in your head for a long time. Variations in speed between the “harder” tracks like “Let You Down” and the ballads like “Liquid Man” are well balanced, making this album everything but boring. Lying on your bed in a dark room the last track “Motion” rocks you to sleep, being made up of only a synthesizer and the gentle voice of Liv. Although still recognizable as ToT this album will be the last goodbye for most gothic metal fans. While at the same time, electronic lovers will embrace this record. Objectively viewed, it’s still a good record of high compositional standard that isn’t boring to listen to due to the melodic character, and that still deserves a fair grade.