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LACRIMOSA ¡¡
I've always had mixed feelings about Lacrimosa, as I've found that, in my opinion, on a song by song basis whatever they do is really good or really shit. The epitome of the often dodgy European cross-breed of goth and black metal, you're either going to love Lacrimosa from day one or you're going to hate them. That said, there are a helluva lot of Europeans (especially) who love Lacrimosa, as the fact that the new single "Alleine zu zweit" just entered the German charts attests. Lacrimosa have always been very theatrical in sound and performance, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that Elodia is being pitched as "a rock opera in three acts." Although it's a bit pedantic for me to say so, I have a problem with anything being billed as an opera that isn't staged, but I guess if they go out on tour and perform this album, then it qualifies as an opera. The story here is of a love doomed to failure, asking "whether love in excess can become a force that ultimately has the power to destroy itself, whether too much love will kill." Now, that's a pretty weighty and philosophical question, one that I would very much like to know the answer to, but I've no idea what Elodia's and Lacrimosa's take on this question is, as the album is in German and I don't speak a lick of German. (This should help to make it seem more operatic to us non-German speakers as most people don't understand the words in opera anyway.) The album begins with "Am Ende der Stille" ("At the End of Silence"), an eight-minute piece that begins with piano, strings (courtesy of The London Symphony Orchestra), and Tilo Wolff's low, growling voice that's a cross between Stefan Ackermann (Das Ich) and Tomaz Hostnik (Laibach). Very intense and emotional, primarily instrumental, and full of cadences and movement, it's a fitting piece for an overture, leading into the single "Alleine zu zweit," which has actually grown on me quite a bit. "Alleine zu zweit" ("Together Alone") again begins slowly with Tilo's sprechgesang style and gentle strings before everything just takes off with drums, guitars, and Anne Nurmi's vocals adding a lot of depth and emotion. Aside from an annoying, but thankfully short, really metal guitar bit, this song probably contains the best mesh of the strings and guitars. "Halt Mich" ("Hold Me") is very similar in structure and sound, although much more emotional,. Yet it is very illustrative of where the guitars and the very traditional use of the strings just don't work together. The damn gorgeous Anne Nurmi takes the lead with the next (and only English) track, "The Turning Point," a very slow piece which at times uncannily resembles "Sally's Song" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. A very nice piece, but followed by the monotonous and over the top "Ich verlasse heut dein Herz" ("I Take Leave Today of Your Heart"), a boring piano piece filled out with dodgy metal guitar riffs and solos that should've been left in the late 80's and which carry over into "Dich zu töten" ("Killing You Was Hard"). This piece is actually, at times, quite good but is too wide in scope, I think. The strings should just pretty much be left out completely as they really confuse the early part of the song, which should just be a full-on metal assault with Anne's very pissed-off sounding vocals, which unfortunately give way to Tilo. Next comes the fourteen-minute requiem/epic "Sanctus," a somewhat decent choral piece that unfortunately just fails to fully materialize, drags on, and which again is finally bludgeoned to death with dodgy guitar riffs. The final track is "Am Ende stehen wir zwei" which translates into "At the End, There Are the Two of Us," the barf-o-rama title summing up my thoughts on this song in general. The single for "Alleine zu zweit," which features a purely orchestral version of the title track, is backed with "Meine Welt" ("My World"), which sounds just like all the lesser tracks off Elodia (rock/orchestra/guitar solo). However, what makes the single worth having is the Samael remix of the brilliant "Copycat" (originally from Lacrimosa's 1995 album Inferno). A growling and distorted Tilo at his angry best, strings and piano, a crescendo of guitars and pounding drums, and the dreamy soprano voice of Anne Nurmi rising above all the madness. The combination and method here is what is sadly missing from half of Elodia.
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