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
Une Saison En Enfer
Theatres Des Vampires Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What are his nets,and gins and traps; and how does he surround me
With cold floods of abstraction, and with forests of solitude,
To build him castles and high spires, where kings and priests may dwell;
Till she who burns with youth and knows no fixed lot is bound,
In a spell of law to one she loathes?
And must she drag the chain
The clear heaven of her eternal spring; to bear the wintry rage
Of a harsh terror driv'n to madness, bound to hold a rod
Over her shrinking shoulders all the day, and all the night
To turn the wheel of false desire, and longings that wake her womb
To the abhorred birth of cherubs in the human form,
That live a pestilence an die a meteor, and are no more;
Till the child dwell with one he hates, and do the deed he loathes,
And the impure scourge forge his seed into its unripe birth,
Ere yet his eyelids can behold the arrows of the day?
The lyrics of "Une Saison En Enfer" explores the themes of entrapment, oppression, and despair. The singer questions the methods employed by a powerful figure who has entrapped and surrounded him with desolation and isolation, inferring that the intention of such behavior is to create a suitable environment for kings and priests. However, in doing so, the singer contemplates the life of a young girl who is constrained by law to be with someone she detests, and is forced to bear the burden of unfulfilled longing and desire. In this condition of helplessness, she is driven close to madness and finds herself struggling with the chilling and murderous thoughts that threaten to obscure her clarity.
The song's lyrics are drawn from poet William Blake's "Visions of the daughters of Albion" poem, highlighting the struggles of women under patriarchy, a topic that the band has explored in previous works. The song's gothic and dark atmosphere, coupled with the haunting and melancholic tones, creates an aura of sadness and despair that underscores the message of the lyrics. "Une Saison En Enfer" is a reflection of the artist's perspective of the arbitrary and malevolent nature of power, and how it can lead to the degradation of the human spirit.
Line by Line Meaning
What are his nets,and gins and traps; and how does he surround me
What are the methods of the adversary, and how does he ensnare and confine me?
With cold floods of abstraction, and with forests of solitude,
He isolates me and makes me lose touch with reality and the outside world.
To build him castles and high spires, where kings and priests may dwell;
He creates a false sense of grandeur and authority, where those in power reside.
Till she who burns with youth and knows no fixed lot is bound,
Until the young and free-spirited are trapped and confined.
In a spell of law to one she loathes?
Forced into a legal bond with someone despised.
And must she drag the chain
Does she have to suffer the burdens of this union?
Of life in weary lust? Must chilling, murderous thoughts obscure
Will her life be filled with passionless exhaustion, overshadowed by dark and violent fantasies?
The clear heaven of her eternal spring; to bear the wintry rage
Her joyful and eternal spirit will be stifled by cold and harsh discipline.
Of a harsh terror driv'n to madness, bound to hold a rod
The terror of cruel oppression forcing her into madness, holding authority over her.
Over her shrinking shoulders all the day, and all the night
A burden that weighs upon her constantly, day and night.
To turn the wheel of false desire, and longings that wake her womb
Forcing her to perpetuate false desires and urges, arousing her fertility.
To the abhorred birth of cherubs in the human form,
Giving birth to detestable human-like creatures.
That live a pestilence an die a meteor, and are no more;
Creatures that spread disease and destruction, doomed to a short and fiery existence.
Till the child dwell with one he hates, and do the deed he loathes,
The offspring will live with someone despised and perform detestable acts.
And the impure scourge forge his seed into its unripe birth,
The corrupt society forcefully creates its future generations before they are fully developed.
Ere yet his eyelids can behold the arrows of the day?
Before the children can even open their eyes and witness the light of the world?
Contributed by Emma N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
igor djordjevic
I love Old Theatres :-)
gothicshadow
Very interesting!
Macarena Q.M
Nice
wolfravnyx
rather the older stuff than what Sonya is doing now
Macarena Q.M
:3