Liv Kristine

Liv Kristine Espenæs (born 14 February 1976) is a Norwegian singer who has performed and composed songs mostly for various subgenres of heavy metal music.

She started her career in the music industry as a vocalist for the gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy, and is the former lead vocalist for the symphonic metal band Leaves' Eyes.

She is known for her work in close association with her then-husband and leader of the German band Atrocity, Alexander Krull.

Currently she is a singer of a German band Midnattsol alongside her younger sister Carmen Elise Espenæs.

She also released a number of solo albums in various genres.

Kristine was born in Stavanger, and joined the Norwegian gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy in 1994 as a backup singer, but was soon sharing lead vocals duties with Raymond István Rohonyi.

Paradise Lost and The Gathering had already made use of this technique on some songs from their earlier albums but it was the Norwegian Theatre of Tragedy, Kristine's former band, that first released an entire album devoted to this approach with their self-titled debut in 1995.

A second album Velvet Darkness They Fear arrived in the following year.

Theatre of Tragedy's third album Aégis in 1998 saw the band "venturing into fresh musical territory".

The piano was replaced by electronic keyboards while Raymond Rohonyi opted to discard his death growls in favor of a "soft, spoken, sometimes whispering voice".

The music was more clean and soft, "stripped of guitar harshness" but with a "near flawless execution" that "prompted many European critics to award Aégis perfect review scores".

For over a decade, this beauty and the beast aesthetic has flourished with many representatives across the European continent.

Cradle of Filth has also been known to make use of this approach through guest female vocalists such as Kristine and Sarah Jezebel Deva.

Studio albums

Singles

EPs

Live albums

Studio albums

Studio albums

EPs

Studio albums

EPs

Live albums

She was fired from Theatre of Tragedy in 2003, a fact she learned about via an e-mail.

She had been living in Germany since 1996 and collaborating with the death metal band Atrocity, whose singer Alexander Krull she married on 3 July 2003.

With the five musicians from Atrocity she formed a new band, Leaves' Eyes, in August 2003.

On 3 July 2003, Kristine married Atrocity vocalist Alexander Krull.

They have a son, Leon Alexander.

In 2005, Kristine was nominated for a Grammy award with Cradle of Filth for the song "Nymphetamine".

She has also released five solo albums, the most recent of which was released in October 2014 through Napalm Records.

Kristine has a soprano vocal range.

In 2016, she joined Eluveitie as a session vocalist for a couple of their live shows after the departure of their singer Anna Murphy.

On 16 April 2016, Leaves' Eyes stated that Kristine, who formed and had the idea of the band project, was no longer the singer of the band.

Kristine and her husband split-up in early January 2016.

She married Michael Hansen, in June 2021.

Her younger sister, Carmen Elise Espenæs, is the vocalist of the German symphonic/folk metal band Midnattsol and of the Norwegian gothic/folk metal band Savn.

Kristine helped to pioneer the beauty and the beast vocals approach, later used by many other successful bands such as Tristania, After Forever, Epica and Within Temptation in their beginnings.

The term "beauty and the beast" refers to an aesthetic contrasting "angelic" female vocals with male growls or aggressive singing.

In December 2017 it was announced that Kristine joined her sister Carmen's band Midnattsol.

She was originally announced to be a guest on their new album but after some discussions, the band picked her up as a permanent member.