Eight of these songs have never been on a compact disc and one has never been out at all. Theatre Of Tragedy's The Demo Collection 1994-1999 arrives on 9 October through Cosmic Key Creations, fifteen remastered tracks, curated by the band and licensed from them.
The contents come off three tapes. The 1994 demo gives A Song By The Hearth, A Hamlet For A Slothful Vassal, Dying I Only Feel Apathy and Soliloquy. The 1994 promo gives Sweet Art Thou, To These Words I Beheld No Tongue, Lament Of The Perishing Roses and Hitherto One Blossom Withstands The Ever-Returning Sleepiness Of The Frost. The 1996 demo gives Der Tanz Der Schatten, Black As The Devil Painteth, And When He Falleth and A Rose For The Dead.
The edition is five hundred copies with a sixteen page booklet on uncoated offset stock. The band formed in Stavanger in 1993, and their first two albums set a pattern a great deal of gothic metal followed. They have been split up for years, which is why a release like this comes from a reissue label rather than from them.