You may remember Norway’s The 3rd and the Mortal from their Mid-nineties releases such as “Sorrow” and “Tears Laid In Earth.”. From those gothic-doom metal albums they went on to the more straight-ahead goth rock presentations like “Painting on Glass” and “In This Room”. After a 5 year hiatus they are now back with “Memoirs”. “Memoirs” was recorded in several intervals over a period of 4 years, and this time a lot of guest musicians are included. There are five different singers on the album, and several others are participating on various instruments.

Musically this ranges from mellow pop with bluesy vocals (“Zeppoliner”) to tracks like “The City” which sound something like a Nordic Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy to upbeat electro-jazz numbers (“Fools Like Us”) to the electronica/goth hybrids of “Those Of My Kind” and “Spider”. None of the earlier metal influences are present but don’t think of that as being a bad thing, it’s just different. Strangely lacking from most tracks are the haunting female vocals the band is so well known for. This could possibly be due to Ann-Mari Evardsen no longer being with the band. I don’t know this for sure but the labels web site does not list her among the members.

This album is pretty darn good background music if you want something on that won’t distract you from doing something else. Personally I’d get pretty bored of this after a bit simply because there isn’t enough happening to keep my attention nor is there anything really memorable about it. Fans of electronica and goth rock may enjoy this but I couldn’t recommend it to anyone else. Longtime fans of the band would be MUCH better served by picking up Tactile Gemma’s self-titled debut featuring the vocals of Ann-Mari Evardsen and Monica Evardsen.

1. Zeppoliner
2. Good Evening Mr. Q
3. The City
4. Reflections
5. Thin Dark Line
6. Fools Like Us
7. Those Of My Kind
8. Simple Mind
9. Spider

http://www.prophecyproductions.de/pr...n/thethird.htm

(Prophecy Productions) Rating: 6 /10