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
Let Me Die
Theatres Des Vampires Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Take my blood
You will taste your emptiness
Fuck my blood
One more time
You've never been alive...
Lots of voices around me
All the time and everywhere
I don't need me...
I walk through a lake of sand
Leave me alone and let me die
Let me die without your prayers
Leave me alone and let me die
Let me die without your lies
Day by day I'm going away
Breathing slow the scent of hate
No reason to be here
No hopes to be realized
Let me die
Lots of voices around me
All the time and everywhere
I don't need you
I don't need me
I walk through a lake of sand
Leave me alone and let me die
Let me die without your prayers
Leave me alone and let me die
Let me die without your lies
Day by day I'm going away
Breathing slow the scent of hate
No reason to be here
No hopes to be realized
Leave me alone and let me die
Let me die without your prayers
Leave me alone and let me die
Let me die without your lies
The lyrics of “Let Me Die” by Theatres Des Vampires speak about the desire to be left alone and die without the interference of others. The first verse depicts a sense of emptiness, where the vampire character willingly offers his blood to feed someone, yet the person drinking it will never be alive. The second verse mentions being surrounded by lots of voices, but not needing anyone, including oneself. The repetition of “leave me alone and let me die” throughout the song’s refrain highlights the angst and desperation of the vampire character, who wants to be free from the burden of living. The vampire feels alone amidst the chaos of the world and desires to finally find peace in death.
Line by Line Meaning
Drop by drop
Slowly and steadily, my blood is being taken away
Take my blood
Someone is taking my blood, depriving me of life
You will taste your emptiness
By taking my blood, you fill the void in yourself, but it leaves you feeling empty
Fuck my blood
There is a sense of violation as my blood is being taken, as if it is being used for perverse purposes
One more time
This has happened before, and it's happening again
You've never been alive...
The person taking my blood has never truly experienced life and is attempting to feel alive by taking mine
Lots of voices around me
I am surrounded by many people, but I don't need any of them
All the time and everywhere
These voices are constantly present and can be heard wherever I go
I don't need you
I don't need anyone to save me
I don't need me...
I no longer feel the need to exist
I walk through a lake of sand
My life is a difficult journey, as if I am walking through quicksand
Leave me alone and let me die
Stop interfering with my life and let me end it
Let me die without your prayers
I don't need your prayers or your false hopes for me to get better
Let me die without your lies
I don't want to be told comforting lies about my situation, I just want the truth
Day by day I'm going away
With each passing day, I am getting closer to death
Breathing slow the scent of hate
My last breaths are filled with feelings of resentment and anger towards the world and towards myself
No reason to be here
There is no purpose or meaning to my existence
No hopes to be realized
I have no aspirations left to fulfill
Contributed by Joseph H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.