The band's members expressed a fascination with vampires and anything connected to them, earning themselves and their music the title "vampiric metal" from their contemporaries. The band created a coherent image of vampirism in their stage performance and within the lyrical themes and atmospheres of their music, which contributed heavily to the gaining of their fan-base.
During their career, the band was first primarily influenced by symphonic black metal, but later tended to include differing influences, including: classicalmusic, opera, darkwave, deathrock, gothic rock and several electro-industrial sub-genres. Throughout this stylistic deviation, a few characteristics of the band's music have remained consistent; melancholic atmospheres and lyrics, vocal styles of akin to gothic metal, and their vampiric image.
The band has produced ten albums in ten years with the English label Plastic Head, and has gained more recognition within the metal scene in Europe, South America and Russia, partially due to the band's participation in various festivals around the world. These include: Vampyria III in London in 1999, Gods of Metal in Italy in 2000, Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig in 2003 and in 2006, Gotham in London in 2004, Female Voices Festival in Wieze, Belgium in 2006.
In 2003, the band toured with Christian Death throughout Europe, and recorded an album with Valor of Christian Death and Gian Pyres of Cradle of Filth as special guests.
The band's shows have always seen a reasonable level of attendance, and have become more dramatic over the band's career, incorporating fireworks and "out of line" appearances by Scarlet.
Since 2004, Sonya Scarlet has remained the solo vocalist and front of the band, replacing her previous role as backing vocals.
Scarlet sometimes cuts herself with razors at performances, freely letting fans drink her blood, promising them the gift of immortality. In 2005 several English clubs forbade her performing the display of bloodletting, because it violates English laws against the incitement to commit suicide.
On 28 November 2005, Aural Music released the album Pleasure and Pain. Distributors throughout Europe bought the album and it was published with permission in Europe, South America, the USA, Russia, and Japan.
On 19 March 2007, they released their album Desire of Damnation. Desire of Damnation is a double CD, with live songs from The Addiction tour 2006 and some new studio songs and remixes.
Guitarist Robert "Morgoth" left the band in 2006 and was replaced by Stephan Benfante.
On 2 May 2008, they released their 8th studio album Anima Noir. With this album their sound evolves once again, taking the route of electronic/industrial gothic metal while still retaining vampiric lyrics.
In November, 2008, Theatres des Vampires announced that they would go on a temporary hiatus due to both personal and health related issued of vocalist Sonya Scarlet.
On 14 January 2011 Aural Music released the album Moonlight Waltz, their ninth studio album. A music video for the song "Carmilla" was filmed on August 28 and 29, directed by David Bracci, who worked on most of Dario Argento's films in the past decade, and has also directed the "Lilith Mater Inferorum" music video.
The name "Théâtre des Vampires" was inspired by a fictional location created by Gothic fantasy writer Anne Rice of the same name. Rice's Théâtre des Vampires is a Parisian theater, in which vampires pretend to be mortal actors, their performances consisting of the feeding on mortals disguised as part of a play and staged in front of human audiences. The location is mentioned in several of Rice's books, including Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat.
Official site: http://www.theatres-des-vampires.net
Carnival Day
Theatres Des Vampires Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Evil dolls without mouths are singing a symphony of death, witches are laughing while drinking blood of virgins
A juggler plays with little eyes of the heretic priest, the cruel werewolf is howling to the bleeding room
Screams in this night's party in this mad carnival, the cart of sex... where the dead fuck the living
It's the day of flesh! You will trust in this evil breed, sweet perversion! Join us!
A woman made of mirrors sucks the souls that she meets a girl with snake's eyes have a killing glance
Dark virgin plays with a hammer the head of her spouse, shadows of forgotten angels are whirling in the dark air
The vampire on the cart brings a dead sun and darkness triumph on the light...
The lyrics to Carnival Day by Theatres Des Vampires paint a vivid and grotesque picture of a macabre carnival. The imagery in this song is vivid and detailed, creating a haunting and unsettling mood. The line "all is dancing around the evil's eye" evokes a sense of chaos and malevolence, as if the participants in this carnival are caught up in a frenzy of fear and violence.
Throughout the song, we are given a glimpse into a world of darkness and death. The clowns in black on the cart throwing bits of flesh are a disturbing image, as are the evil dolls without mouths and the witches drinking blood of virgins. The juggler playing with the eyes of the heretic priest and the howling werewolf add to the sense of horror and grotesquerie.
Despite the disturbing subject matter, there is also an element of seduction and temptation in the lyrics. Lines like "you will trust in this evil breed, sweet perversion! Join us!" are designed to draw the listener in and make them feel complicit in the depravity happening at the carnival. Overall, the lyrics to Carnival Day are a powerful and unsettling portrayal of the darker aspects of human nature.
Line by Line Meaning
All is dancing around the evil's eye; clowns in black on the cart are throwing bits of flesh
The carnival celebrates evil, with black-clad clowns throwing pieces of flesh around
Evil dolls without mouths are singing a symphony of death, witches are laughing while drinking blood of virgins
Dolls that lack mouths sing a song of death, while witches feast on the blood of virgins and laugh hysterically
A juggler plays with little eyes of the heretic priest, the cruel werewolf is howling to the bleeding room
A juggler toys with the eyes of a heretical priest, while a werewolf howls in a room of bleeding victims
Screams in this night's party in this mad carnival, the cart of sex... where the dead fuck the living
Visitors to the carnival scream in terror as they witness the disturbing sight of dead and living beings engaging in sexual activities on a cart
It's the day of flesh! You will trust in this evil breed, sweet perversion! Join us!
The carnival revels in the worship of flesh and the perversion of evil, and invites visitors to take part
A woman made of mirrors sucks the souls that she meets a girl with snake's eyes have a killing glance
A woman made of mirrors steals the souls of those she meets, while another girl with snake-like eyes has a deadly stare
This ceremony of death is a praise to flesh; lady death is licking blood on her sickle, blood of her victims
A deadly ritual that pays homage to flesh takes place, as Lady Death licks the blood of her victims off her sickle
Dark virgin plays with a hammer the head of her spouse, shadows of forgotten angels are whirling in the dark air
A dark virgin takes a hammer to the head of her spouse, as shadows of forgotten angels move about in the dark sky
The vampire on the cart brings a dead sun and darkness triumph on the light...
A vampire on a cart brings a dead sun, and darkness reigns over the light
Contributed by Declan C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.