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
Two Seconds
Theatres Des Vampires Lyrics
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Two seconds it's more that what you say
Two seconds the hell is in your life
Two seconds, two seconds
This is the life
Open up your eyes
The life...
Two seconds to live your life again
Two seconds it's less that what you say
Two seconds time is running fast
Two seconds, two seconds
This is the life
Open up your eyes
The life...
Open up your eyes
Tick tack, tick tack... this is the life...
The lyrics to "Two Seconds" by Theatres Des Vampires seem to be about the realization of pain and the fleeting nature of time. The singer suggests that it only takes two seconds to truly understand the pain someone is feeling. The repetition of "two seconds" throughout the song emphasizes the idea of quickness and urgency. The second verse adds to this theme by saying that it only takes two seconds to live life again and that time is running fast. The chorus then encourages the listener to open up their eyes to the reality of life. The last line of the song, "Tick tack, tick tack... this is the life," reinforces the message of the song that time is constantly moving and we must be aware of it in order to truly live.
Line by Line Meaning
Two seconds to realize your pain
You only need a brief amount of time to understand the suffering you're going through.
Two seconds it's more that what you say
Your physical and emotional pain may be greater than you're able to express with words.
Two seconds the hell is in your life
Your life is filled with intense difficulties that feel like living in a personal hell.
Two seconds, two seconds
These moments of realization are fleeting and go by quickly.
This is the life
This is reality and the circumstances we must face.
Open up your eyes
Become aware of the world around you and the challenges you need to overcome.
Two seconds to live your life again
You can only relive moments in your life for a very short amount of time.
Two seconds it's less that what you say
Memories may feel as though they were shorter than what you remember them being.
Two seconds time is running fast
Time passes quickly, and it's important to live life to the fullest before it's too late.
Tick tack, tick tack... this is the life...
The sound of a clock ticking represents the limited amount of time we have in life.
Contributed by Christopher W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.