Tristania - Rubicon

Release Date: August 25th, 2010
Label: Napalm Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Year of the Rat
2.  Protection
3.  Patriot Games
4.  The Passing
5.  Exile
6.  Sirens
7.  Vulture
8.  Amnesia
9.  Magical Fix
10.  Illumination

Total playing time:  47:14

July 23, 2010

Reviewer: Jesse

I don’t know why I keep trying.  Goth metal isn’t goth metal anymore.  It’s been mainly reduced to poppy hard rock with a female singer and the field has been absolutely flooded with copycats.  I wouldn’t even mind poppy hard rock if the music was good, memorable and with some personality, but to say that the majority of goth metal bands over the last decade have been virtually interchangeable would be an understatement that isn’t even necessary to be mentioned.  (hey look, the attractive female singer is on the cover of the album… haven’t seen that before)  Tristania however, are one of the originators releasing two of the best albums ever in this genre, so I feel oddly compelled to keep giving them another chance, but even with low expectations (I in no way would ever expect a return to that early style), I’m again surprised at the level of blandness this genre has to offer.

Rubicon is Tristania’s sixth full-length album and is the second album to usher in a new era for them.  World of Glass was the beginning of their career post-Morten Veland and Rubicon is the first album without Vibeke Stene and I’d say that their transformation is officially complete.  Mary Demurtas is a decent singer, but offers nothing that they couldn’t have gotten from probably a dozen other women who tried-out for the spot.  Stene had a very distinct, operatic vocal style and had become as much of Tristania’s persona as anything else.  Obviously whoever would come next had big shoes to fill, so complaining about Mary’s singing is sort of a cop-out and I’ll just drop it.

Musically, well, take a guess.  Wait, before you do, consider this fact about Rubicon: seven out of the ten songs are essentially the same length and with the exception of the last song, none are over five minutes.  Ready to guess?  I’ll give you a hint: it starts with an “F.”  That would be formulaic which is synonymous with generic.  One forgettable and uninspired song after the next; all completely safe and unintimidating and if they were to ever even come within ten miles of a boundary, they wouldn’t have the strength to even apply any pressure to it.  Each song works with the chorus-verse-chorus-verse structure which like I said earlier, wouldn’t even be a negative if the songs were somewhat catchy and memorable, but they aren’t, so it is.

Honestly, this album, like the majority of their peers’ material, will go in one ear and out the other.  If you’ve heard Leaves’ Eyes/Liv Kristine, Delain, Lacuna Coil, later Sirenia, later Theatre of Tragedy, etc then you’ve heard this.  And hey, maybe I just sold you on it if you’re a fan of those bands.  Well, then in that case, what are you waiting for?

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