21. February 2025
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Tristan Harders’ Twilight Theatre – Drifting Into Insanity

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Tristan Harders' Twilight Theatre - Drifting Into Insanity

Tristan Harders' Twilight Theatre - Drifting Into Insanity
4.3

Rating

 4.3/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Nice, very entertaining album
  • Nice vocals and instrumental work

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Some too strong similarities

Quite some artists used the Covid-19 limitation for some additional creativity. Tristan Harders, for example, invested the time during which he was not able to tour with his band and worked on some debut solo stuff. The project name is Tristan Harders’ Twilight Theater. The album, which he will release on 14th January 2022, is named Drifting Into Insanity.

 

Tristan Harders’ Twilight Theatre – About The Artist

Tristan Harders is the guitarist and singer of Terra Atlantica. The power metal band has been founded by him and drummer Nico Hauschildt in 2014. The other band members are Frederik Akkermann (guitar) and Julian Prüfer (bass). They released two albums so far, A City Once Divine (2017) and Age of Steam (2020). Tristan Harder’s Twilight Theatre is thereby not that much different from the Terra Atlantica tunes – both projects are doing rather traditional power metal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJghX5AcSv8

 

Tristan Harders’ Twilight Theatre – Drifting Into Insanity – Track by Track

The twelve track album lasts 49 minutes.

1. Entrance

31 seconds of marching into the scene of Drifting Into Insanity – Entrance is truly majestic intro.

2. The End

All over already right after the intro? Luckily, The End is not the final track of the album. The first notes feel a bit weird – but latest when the drums are hammering in the background, the track is more fun. A typical “earworm”, which even has a nice potential to attract the audience at a concert to sing along to the melody. Powerful, melodic – good!

3. Open The Gates

The first two songs, The End and Open The Gates, strongly remind me of the metal anthems written by Tobias Sammet and his Avantasia project. Undoubtedly, Sammet does it a bit better than Harders – but so far, listening to the songs is fun. The drums are nicely driving the fast speed until right before the chorus, when the song is initially slowing down massively and then turning into a lovely, almost pop-rock alike chorus.

4. Rise Against The Tyranny

Tristan Harders’ drummer just warmed for two songs, now the rhythm is in “machine gun mode” (I am indeed really afraid of that kind of gunfire). The fanfare-alike backing sound in the pre-chorus spread a really cool medieval touch and increase the atmosphere. Majestic with a really nicely contrasting interlude.

5. Halls Of Glory

I don’t want to call Halls Of Glory a pop song (that would really be wrong) – but this single release feels softer and more mainstream-alike than the tracks before. The chorus has a nice duet-alike structure between Harders and the backing vocals. Really nice listen. Only the oh-oh-oh style repetition of the chorus is a bit of strenuous – Harders uses that thing too often on the album.

This is the way (this is the way)
Into the Halls of Glory
Call my name (they call your name)
As I open up the gates
(As you reach for higher altitudes
You stumble and fall
But they never loose your hope)

6. Interlude In G# Minor

Okay, you might guess what this one is. Duration is 1:19 minutes and it is instrumental, in case you would like to go for all details.

7. Quest Into The Mountains Of Steel

After that short break, the seventh song is very melodic, the guitars feel a bit more defensive and in the background – especially at the beginning of the track. Nice one – and funny that Harders explicitly addresses the Brothers of metal in the lyrics. How could you dare to deny to raise the devil horns under these tempting circumstances?

8. When Fairytales Are Gone

Oh, ow can I carry on
When Fairytales are gone
And paradise
Is slipping through my hands
Oh, it seems they don’t exist
But I cannot resist
To built another castle in my head.

That’s one of these love-it-or-hate-it chorus things, ain’t it? I feel that When Fairytales Are Gone, even though the song is sometimes making me feel this could be a weird metal cover of It’s a sin by the Pet Shop Boys.

9. In The Realms Of Memories

A certain level of simplicity feels to stay at the beginning of In The Reals Of Memories. Luckily, the first tunes are pushed over by hammering riffs and the return of the machine gun drumming. The chorus feels a bit strange – but this pop-alike style at least quickly stays in your mind.

10. Back To Avalon

The tenth track starts with powerful riffs, but then almost turns into a folk-rock part. I don’t get into that song too well and prefer others more. To me, it feels a bit too confusing.

11. Save Me From Insanity (feat. Gabriel Tuxen)

For the second last song, Harders is supported by Gabriel Tuxen. The Dane leads to a wider sound on the vocal side, which is a nice thing. However, it would be even better if the two vocalists wouldn’t sound that similar.

12. Between The Battles

Some things about this album are weird. The End is coming right after the intro and the closing track is Between The Battles. The closing song is a ballad with a medieval rock touch. Nice, gentle sound.

 

Tristan Harders’ Twilight Theatre – Drifting Into Insanity – Spotify

I will add the Spotify widget once the album has been published.

 

Tristan Harders’ Twilight Theatre – Drifting Into Insanity – My View

Drifting Into Insanity presents some really nice melodic power metal. The songs could present some more melodic flavors and some more variety. But that would just even blow it to the very top of the rating scale. The album is a really good one already.

 

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