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
Lacrima Christi
Theatres Des Vampires Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Prede immortali cosi perfette nel peccato
Nascondono le voglie nelle unghie
Spaventano le mani
Disperdendo il sangue della vita
Una minaccia
Corpi nel porto delle anime
Another tear for you
E dal mio bouquet
seleziono un'altra rosa
per la pazza del carnevale
che scrive con gli alluci
i quattro corpi piu in basso
sono gli angeli caduti
Le loro lacrime laggiu nella catacomba
perché...
Lacrima Christi
Another tear for you
And when the blade of fire touches the face
on the murder more murder will be perpetrated
And in the year 1999 from the sky shall come
the great king of terror
When thee day shall look like the night
and the night will be forever
Lacrima Christi
Another tear for you.
The lyrics to Theatres Des Vampires' "Lacrima Christi" paint a dark and disturbing picture of preternatural creatures indulging in sin and violence. The first stanza describes "immortal prey" so perfect in their sins that they hide their desires in their nails and terrify with their hands. They scatter the "blood of life" as a threat, and their bodies lie in the harbor of souls. The second stanza describes the singer selecting a rose from their bouquet for the madness of the carnival, where someone writes with their toes about the four fallen angels whose tears stains the catacombs. The third stanza speaks of murder upon murder after a blade of fire touches a face, and a prophecy for the year 1999 when a great king of terror descends from the sky, turning day into perpetual night.
The overall atmosphere of the song is one of gothic horror and decadent excess. The unnatural beings in the first stanza suggest vampires or demonic entities, preying on humans and leaving bodies in their wake. The carnival mentioned in the second stanza could represent the superficiality and moral corruption of human society, as well as the fascination of vampires with masquerades and theatricality. The murder and prophecy in the third stanza add a sense of impending doom, as if the world is on the threshold of an apocalypse.
Line by Line Meaning
Pagani sodomizzati
Pagan people being sodomized
Prede immortali cosi perfette nel peccato
Immortal prey so perfect in sin
Nascondono le voglie nelle unghie
They hide their desires in their nails
Spaventano le mani
Their hands frighten
Disperdendo il sangue della vita
Scattering the blood of life
Una minaccia
A threat
Corpi nel porto delle anime
Bodies in the port of souls
Lacrima Christi
Tear of Christ
Another tear for you
Another tear shed for you
E dal mio bouquet
And from my bouquet
seleziono un'altra rosa
I select another rose
per la pazza del carnevale
For the madwoman of the carnival
che scrive con gli alluci
Who writes with her toes
i quattro corpi piu in basso
The four bodies lower down
sono gli angeli caduti
Are the fallen angels
Le loro lacrime laggiu nella catacomba
Their tears down there in the catacomb
perche...
Because...
And when the blade of fire touches the face
And when the blade of fire touches the face
on the murder more murder will be perpetrated
More murder will be committed on top of the murder
And in the year 1999 from the sky shall come
And in the year 1999, the great king of terror will come from the sky
the great king of terror
A terrifying ruler
When thee day shall look like the night
When the day looks like night
and the night will be forever
And the night will be everlasting
Contributed by Jordyn V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Christian Mendez jacome
De las mejores de theatre des vampires!
Eikki Kalevi
Pedazo de rola 🤘