 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".