Lacrimosa live in 2015. L-R: Julien Schmidt (drums), Jay P. (guitar), Yenz Leonhardt (bass), Tilo Wolff (vocals), Henrik Flyman (guitar), Anne Nurmi (keyboard).
Lacrimosa is a Swiss gothic metal band led by German Tilo Wolff, the main composer, and Finn Anne Nurmi. They are currently based in Switzerland, but originally from Germany. Originally counted among the bands of the Neue Deutsche Todeskunst genre, Lacrimosa are most associated with the gothic metal genre.[1]
Their musical style mixes gothic rock and heavy metal, along with violin, trumpet, and more classical instruments, although their musical development throughout the years has also led to changes in instrumentation. Lacrimosa's lyrics are written almost exclusively in German, although since the 1995 album Inferno, every album has featured one or two songs in English. These songs are generally written by Anne Nurmi. Finnish has also appeared in the spoken intro to two songs ("Schakal" on Inferno and "The Turning Point" on Elodia) and on a bonus track in a limited edition release of Fassade called Vankina. Their lyrics are mainly about loneliness, sadness, darkness, despair, and love.[2]
The band has sold more than 20,000 copies of each album in Germany, but has also gained a large fanbase in Russia, Mexico and China.[1]
Brief timeline
1990: Tilo Wolff releases a tape called Clamor using the band name of Lacrimosa.
1991: Tilo Wolff founds a new record company called Hall of Sermon, as an independent label to publish Lacrimosa's records.
1993: Anne Nurmi joins the solo project to play keyboard, becoming a permanent member soon after.
Lacrimosa's first album, Angst, is slow and minimal music, dominated by keyboards and voice. This early period explores fear, helplessness, loneliness, non-existence, unattainability, the illusionary nature of love, and death. The same themes can be found on the next three albums, Einsamkeit, Satura, and Inferno. Musically, this period is characterised by the introduction of electric guitars and basses, with more rock elements being added.
Stille was the beginning of their metal style. Heavy guitars and bombastic arrangements for classical instruments dominate the music in the style of symphonic metal. Thematically, Stille features several uplifting songs. "Stolzes Herz" ("Proud heart") and "Die Strasse der Zeit" ("The Lane of Time") praise individual and cultural strength. "Die Strasse der Zeit" describes a journey backwards through a history of war, greed, and stupidity, until the protagonist finds solace in ancient Greek culture.
The next album, Elodia, reduced the metal-style guitars and increases the symphonic, classical arrangements, this time recorded in part by the London Symphony Orchestra. Presented as a play in three parts, Elodia revolves around the theme of love.[3] The gothic element is still present and the themes of loss and death feature prominently in the latter half, but it ends with an affirmation of hope.
Fassade features a variety of musical visions, from the metal sound of "Liebesspiel" ("Love Game") to flowing keyboards of "Senses", and the symphonic interplay between guitars and orchestra on "Fassade". The latter, a piece in three movements arranged on the album as tracks 1, 5, and 8, explores a critique of modern society.[4][5] It ends with an affirmation of individuality and the protagonist's retreat from society.
In Echos, guitars and other rock elements appear less often, whereas classical instruments feature more prominently. The orchestral arrangements move away from standard symphonic arrangements often found in contemporary metal music, as in the album's first track, "Kyrie - Overture". Echos also shows influence from electronic and industrial music, as in the song "Ein Hauch von Menschlichkeit" ("A Touch of Humanity"). This album is more personal and quiet than those before it. It continues to explore love with gothic twists.[6]
Lacrimosa's ninth album, Lichtgestalt, retains the classical elements, but rock elements begin to resurface.[7] The first track, "Sapphire", begins as a slow, classical song but halfway moves into a metal section; the pace of the song increases, a heavy guitar backing takes over, and Wolff switches from singing into a high-pitched death grunt for a few minutes. The remaining songs display a similar mix of styles to previous albums, with some upbeat songs, a song written and sung in English mainly by Anne Nurmi, and some slower-paced, sadder pieces.
In 2005, Lichtgestalten was released, containing a new electronic version of the song "Lichtgestalt", produced by Tilo for his solo project, Snakeskin.
In 2006, a DVD called Musikkurzfilme was released, which contained all the video clips that Lacrimosa shot throughout their career, including the video for "Lichtgestalt".
Sehnsucht was released in 2009. Wolff wanted to create an album that was less conceptual and more spontaneous than the previous releases, so Sehnsucht features a variety of musical expressions.[8]
In 2008, Lacrimosa's label Hall of Sermon reclaimed the rights to all of the band's Nuclear Blast releases.[9] In March 2008, Lacrimosa started working on their next studio album, entitled "Sehnsucht", which was released on 8 May 2009.
Their eleventh studio album was released in September 2012,[10] called Revolution.[11] The first song on this release was written in 2009 while they were touring in China.[12]
In 2015, Hoffnung was released, followed in 2017 by Testimonium, which was meant as a commemorative album for recently deceased musicians like David Bowie and Prince. The band's latest album was released on 24 December 2021 with the title Leidenschaft ("Passion").[13]
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