Earendel

I think The Sins of Thy Beloved debut album Lake of Sorrow despite the fact that is little-known deserves on a name of classic gothic metal album. Dark, melancholy, sad atmosphere, great vocals, lyrics about death, betrayal, hate and unattainaboe love and nice length of compositions. They released two lp, one demo, one ep and one concert video. Unfortunately they split up in 2013. 
 

I decided to put a few links to recordings of Tristania's concerts from Vibeke here. There are not many recordings with good quality. Beautiful concert video Widow's Tour has definitely the best quality.
There are only two songs on this recording from Hamburg, but the quality is also good
On this recording from Mexico unfortunately the quality of sound and video is really low but there are songs from Beyond The Veil. Not only from Widow's Weeds.
 
I almost forgot about these concerts! There is only sound on the following recordings. There is no video. Somehow the sound is a bit better than on the recording from a concert from Mexico. 
 

My top 10 Gothic Metal Albums
1 Tristania - Widow's Weeds
2 The Sins of Thy Beloved - Lake of Sorrow
3 The Gathering - Mandylion
4 Tristania - Beyond The Veil
5 Sirenia - An Elixir For Existance
6 Draconian - Sovran
7 Trail of Tears - Disclosure in Red
8 Sirenia - At Sixes And Sevens
9 The Gathering - Always...
10 Theatre of Tragedy - Theatre of Tragedy

My top 10 Gothic Metal Albums
1 Tristania - Widow's Weeds
2 The Sins of Thy Beloved - Lake of Sorrow
3 The Gathering - Mandylion
4 Tristania - Beyond The Veil
5 Sirenia - An Elixir For Existance
6 Draconian - Sovran
7 Trail of Tears - Disclosure in Red
8 Sirenia - At Sixes And Sevens
9 The Gathering - Always...
10 Theatre of Tragedy - Theatre of Tragedy

20th October Hallatar's debut No Stars Upon The Bridge was released. Hallatar was founded by Juha Raivio as tribute to Aleah (Juha was in a relationship with Aleah until her death) On this album we can hear Aleah's voice in the song Dreams Burn Down. Also we can hear Heike Langhans (vocalist of Draconian and ISON, Aleah's friend) in the song My Mistake. Whenever I listen Trees of Eternity album Houf of the Nightingale I have tears in my eyes. Hallatar's debut in my opinion is as emotional and beautiful as Hour of The Nightingale. When I listened to No Stars Upon The Bridge for the first time I was really touched by all emotions, all words in this music. I'm sure Aleah would be touched and proud of this beautiful tribute. 
 

Polish black metal makes me proud of my country
 

At the moment I'm listening to Bergtatt. I listen to this album every autumn evening. 
 

At the moment I'm listening to Bergtatt. I listen to this album every autumn evening. 
 

At the moment I'm listening to Bergtatt. I listen to this album every autumn evening. 
 

Darkthrone - Under A Funeral Moon

At the moment I'm listening to Bergtatt. I listen to this album every autumn evening. 
 

At the moment I'm listening to Bergtatt. I listen to this album every autumn evening. 
 

Ok @Earendel I finally watched those two clips. Thanks for posting them! 
Firstly, gosh it's good to hear that old classic track again. Reminds me how great 'Widow's Weeds' is. 
Secondly, Sirenia live sounds like a pretty frustrating proposition with all those backing tracks. I've made my view clear on backing tracks in a thread in the 'Deep and Meaningful' forum. Basically, I'm against them in most instances. For a band like Sirenia which has keyboards throughout all of their songs, I really think they should invest in a keyboard player for live shows. It would make it so much more authentic. Same goes with Katatonia and Paradise Lost. Obviously this would mean paying another person, and it's not my money so I shouldn't complain. There's no denying it would be better though. It's getting to the point where we have three instrumentalists playing along with a recording of the song (basically) and that ain't much fun. There's no atmosphere when keyboards and bass are backing tracks. 
Anyway, on to the actual point of your post. I think I prefer Ailyn's version. She really nails it. Of course the two contexts are very different. Ailyn was singing on a huge stage with a good sound recording, Emmanuelle was basically on a tiny stage with a bunch of phones in her face. Kind of an awkward gig really. I know I'd much rather see the band in the small setting though for intimacy. Still, they both sounded good. Emmanuelle definitely has more of an opera vibe. 
Of course, my favourite version is the 1998 Vibeke version
 

Thanks  I just started exploring the forum and there are lots of interesting topics

Wow, I hadn’t realised these two videos existed. I’m actually away from home without wifi so I dare not tempt the data gods by watching YouTube, but I’ll definitley check these out in a day or two when I get back into wifi land.
Your analysis of recent albums is ring-a-ding-ding (highly pleasing). For some reason the long songs on ‘Perils’ work really well and don’t feel laboured at all. ‘The Funeral March’ is a great example. That’s a brilliant song. God they’re all fantastic in that album. It’s like everything came together with ‘Perils’ - songwriting, production, quality control. 
I love everything the band has done except for ‘The Enigma of Life’ which feels really uninspired. I think that’s why ‘Perils’ blew me away, it sort of came out of nowhere. 
When I get back to wifi land I’m going to rank all the Morten Veland albums (and have my MacBook rather than this silly phone to tap into!) Look forward to it  

On BM scene there are also good worth of attention female vocalists. Some of my fav bands.
1 Astarte - All female black metal band from Greece. In my opinion Tristessa is one of the best female growler.
2 Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult - Onielar and her growls and style are something amazing. Nothing more nothing less. 
3 Gedanken Toten Lebens - Interesting one-woman atmospheric black metal project. Lyrics are about naure, death and philosophy. 
Who is your favourite black metal female vocalist? Do you like these bands? Or maybe you think black metal isn't for women? Let's start the discussion!

I like DNS. Love her image, so sick.  I really dig Spleen too, think she's amazing. Her vocals are awesome.

At the beginning check out Agalloch. Atmosphere of their music is something amazing. Especially I recommend you their debut album Pale Folklore.

Cool entry! Like I mentioned in the other thread, I really need to pick this up. I remember hearing it when it was released and it didn't really do it for me, but I'd really like to revisit it properly. 

I like a lot about this, although I could be biased because I see you've already posted in the Gothic Metal forum so I'm glad you're here! 

I have impression that this is one of the most underrated finnish black metal bands. 
 

Welcome. We have artwork/ photography and writing threads buried somewhere around, if you feel inclined to share any of your own work.

That's one of the most interesting introductions I have read on here in a long while.  Thank you and welcome.  Happy to see a Jazz lover knocking around too.

Hello and welcome  I feel the same about music and art.