Two guest performers who were involved in Widow's Weeds would later get more prominent roles on Tristania's albums; singer Østen Bergøy (who would later become a full band member) and violinist Pete Johansen.

The album added classical and industrial elements to Tristania's sound, and included the band's only cover version: "The Modern End," originally by Seigmen.

The band then toured Europe and Latin America (sometimes without Moen, who chose to remain at home and focus on songwriting) along with Nightwish, Gothminister, and Kreator.

[citation needed] After the tours, Ingebrethsen decided to leave the band as he wanted to continue his musical career at a lower level.

Tristania's fifth album, Illumination, was released in January 2007, with touring guitarist Svein Terje Solvang added as an official member.

Shortly after the release of the album, Vibeke Stene suddenly decided to quit her musical career in order to focus on family and her work as a teacher.

In spring 2007, a few months after Stene left Tristania, the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish were going to announce the name of their new female vocalist.

Due to Stene's recent departure from Tristania, it was widely discussed in the musical circles whether Vibeke would be inducted into Nightwish to replace Tarja Turunen.

The next member to depart was drummer Kenneth Olsson, who was replaced by Tarald Lie; while singer Østen Bergøy scaled back to part-time status with the band due to family commitments.

Finally, on 17 September 2022, Tristania announced their official disbandment, due to an unspecified "medical situation in near family within the band" resulting in the scheduled tour of Latin America in December 2022 being cancelled.

[20] Tristania stood apart from the other bands of the genre with their use of three distinct vocal styles in the "operatic soprano Vibeke Stene, clean-singing baritone Østen Bergøy, and harsh, black metal-style shrieker Morten Veland".

[21] Their second album Beyond the Veil in 1999 made use of a ten members choir and featured violin passages from Pete Johansen of The Sins of Thy Beloved,[22] earning "rave reviews" across Europe.

[21] They were "dealt a potentially crippling blow" when singer, guitarist and principal composer Veland left the group to form Sirenia.