''Forever Is the World'' is the seventh and final

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy met ...

band

Theatre of Tragedy Theatre of Tragedy was a Norwegian band from Stavanger, active between 1993 and 2010. They are best known for their earlier albums, which influenced the gothic metal genre. History Formation (1993) Theatre of Tragedy was founded on 2 October 19 ...

. It was released on 18 September 2009, on

AFM Records AFM Records GmbH is a music label based in Schwalmstadt, Germany. They focus on the heavy metal musical genre, signing bands such as U.D.O., Doro, Lordi, Kotipelto, Masterplan, Nostradameus, and Annihilator. In 2005, Candlelight Records si ...

. The album was produced by the

Zeromancer Zeromancer is a Norwegian industrial rock band formed in 1999 by members of the band Seigmen. The current lineup is Alex Møklebust (vocals), Kim Ljung (bass guitar/backup vocals), Noralf Ronthi (drums), Lorry Kristiansen (programming) and Per- ...

singer Alexander Møklebust and mastered by Bjørn Engelmann. The cover art was designed by Thomas Ewerhard, who made the covers for the previous two albums by the band, ''

Storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...

'' and ''

Assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

''. When the cover art was revealed on the band's website, they said that it had been designed to incorporate elements from the covers of all of their previous studio albums as a challenge to their most diehard fans. Since the release of the record there have been complaints about the mixing and mastering of the album with claims of fuzzing and clipping. The album has been linked by fans to the

loudness war The loudness war (or loudness race) is a trend of increasing audio levels in recorded music, which reduces audio fidelity and—according to many critics—listener enjoyment. Increasing loudness was first reported as early as the 1940s, with ...

Track listing

Personnel

Theatre of Tragedy

Nell Sigland Ragnhild Westgaard "Nell" Sigland (born 13 November 1976) is a Norwegian singer from Hamar, best known as the lead vocalist of Norwegian gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy from 2004 to 2010. She was also the lead singer for Norwegian gothic ro ...

– vocals *Raymond István Rohonyi – programming, vocals *

Frank Claussen Frank Claussen (born 19 March 1976 in Stavanger) is a Norwegian heavy metal guitarist. From 1997 to 2010 he played in Theatre of Tragedy, and with them released six studio albums, a live album and several studio EP's. With Theatre of Traged ...

– guitar *Vegard K. Thorsen – guitar *

Lorentz Aspen Lorentz Aspen (born 23 April 1978 in Stavanger) is a Norwegian heavy metal pianist and keyboardist. He played in Theatre of Tragedy from 2 October 1993 to 2 October 2010 and with them he released seven studio albums, one live album and five EP ...

– keyboards *

Hein Frode Hansen Hein Frode Hansen (born 25 March 1972 in Haugesund) is a Norwegian heavy metal drummer. He was the original vocalist of the power metal band Serpent, formed in 1989. In 1990 he started playing drums in the death metal band Phobia. Both bands b ...

– drums

Additional musicians

*Magnus Westgaard – bass guitar

Production

*Alexander Møklebust – producer, engineer, mixing *Mads Storkersen, Aleksander Nyhus - engineers *

Pzy-clone Amund Svensson, born 21 April 1978, is a Norwegian musician and composer. He is the co-founder and the main composer of the band The Kovenant, for which he plays guitars and keyboards as well as write orchestrations. He is also involved in his ow ...

- drum editing & additional string arrangements *Kristian Sigland - additional writing and arrangements on tracks 1, 3 and 7 *Björn Engelmann – mastering at Cutting Room, Sweden *Thomas Ewerhard – cover art

References

{{Authority control 2009 albums Theatre of Tragedy albums AFM Records albums