ANGST

The first release of Lacrimosa presents us with a very symphonic album, but do not expect great musical arrangements. The structure of the music is very simple (several times boring), charged with intense negative mood. In this matter, this band is some sort of symphonic RED HOUSE PAINTERS.

The album starts with a church organ, leading to a disturbing and repetitive sort of "guitar scream". So, this must be the angst that gave the name of the album. Because you are not going to be able to see it anymore. The boring organ riff persists to the end of the 9:28 minutes of music. Requiem introduces the piano. More again, doses of depressing playing, like the end of everything was near, and there was nothing else to do. Lacrima Mosa is an instrumental, the best achieved song of the album. Here, a sad but this time beautiful piano playing is added to the depressive mood. So it is not boring (ore as boring) as the previous ones. Der Ketzer opens with a Pope Christmas wish, "peace in the heart of all men", introducing to electric guitar. Like elsewhere, simple arrangements and vulgar melody. The bass follows the simple riff showed by the guitar. Nothing new on Der Letzte Hilfescherei, except the regular cardiac rhythm all over the music. The last music has more sad piano and keyboards, sad melody and ends with church chorus.

Well, if you are in a depressive all-most suicide state, this album is the perfect for you since you can see you're not the only one who suffers like that, and that there's still hope. Otherwise, this album little or even nothing adds to the history of progressive rock.

My rate: 3/10

I feel a bit strange submitting a Lacrimosa review on Progarchives. Just because is NOT PROGRESSIVE!!!! (At least not this album cos Lacrimosa created later some prog- influenced pieces like for example Stille [Auf der Strasse der Zeit]) If it wasn't Progarchives I would maybe have given 4 stars, but here I just couldn't.

Angst is a quite good piece, but if you are a hard "progger" is NOT FOR YOU!!! If you sometimes like to explore different "musical landscapes" (even like dark wave. gothic etc.) you can find something interesting in it.

Angst is very simple - sometimes even a bit "boring" as the previous rewiever wrote. But it just couldn't be anything else!!!! Just for the same reason as eg. Joy Division couldn't have been more complicated. Only simple, monotonous melodies can transmit the feelings of depression, sadness, emptiness... Tilo's task was to express emotions and this he can do really well.

For sure Tilo have shown that he's got the potential, that we can fully apreciate on his further works. The only things that sometimes bothers me in this album is that it's simply NOT MATURE. With every single word you can feel that it's a piece created by a very young person with strong tendencies to exageration:-))) Well, everybody needs the time to learn... that there is always some hope....

Lacrimosa's 'Angst' has always been a difficult album for me to like, mainly because it is extremely dark and depressive. Prog rock fans will be very disappointed if they're looking for another 'Stille' or 'Elodia', because they definitely will not find it here. 'Angst' is Tilo Wolff's first album, and is also his darkest. The songs are mainly keyboards, with a small bit of simple guitar riffs in some of the songs. The album opens with 'Seele In Not', a nine minute piece with a organs and keyboards. Tilo's voice is very dark and laden with synthesizers, adding to the claustrophobic feel of the music. Tilo occasionally whispers, yells and shrieks which adds even more to the sombre mood of the album. The album is highly influenced classically, as seen on the second track, 'Requiem'. The classically based strings and piano are evident on this track, and near the end it grows to a climax, and then explodes into a bizarre carnival-like melody. An interesting piece, to be sure. 'Lacrima Mosa' is a simple, yet beautiful piano piece. The song, 'Der Ketzer' is perhaps the album's worst. It is mainly a song dissing the pope, and unfortunately it falls into goth cliches, complete with ridiculously simple guitar riffs and lots of organ and wailing. Luckily Tilo revives himself with 'Der Letzte Hilfeschrei', a heart wrenching song about a man dying in a hospital. The last song is the longest, clocking in at ten minutes. Tilo has expressed it is one of his most depressing songs, and that is evident from the lyrics: ' Ready to die Ready to decay Ready to forget Thus no tears will fall, Thus no souls will mourn, and thus I never existed'

The lyrics are a little overblown, but if you don't understand German you don't need to worry about it. Overall, 'Angst' is an extremely difficult album to like, but once to adapt to it's incredible darkness you will be able to enjoy Tilo's emotions and sense his feelings through the music.

I don't know,what the situation with Lacrimosa on Archives,but here ,in Ukraine,it is one of the MOST KNOWN bands (not only 'coz Lacrimosa IS NOT PROG AT ALL :-) ).They're Gothic Metal,I wonder what they're doing there. Anyway,thank you for putting them here.I adore L's first 3 CDs,though they're poorly produced & recorded.The drums' sound is EXCACTLY like on my demo!:-)If you like dark & very melancholic music,Lacrimosa is for you.Sometimes thy're sounding like David Lynch's OST!:-)I wonder.why they've change their misic after 94.And the structure of albums is CONSTANT ,beginning from Inferno: 1.An epic 2.A song for a single 3.With female vocald 4.Soft,"metal"-less 5.Another single 6.Another female 7."Metal" track 8.A closing epic There may be some changes,but they're unimportant...Look through,you'll definetely notice the scheme! Highly recommended anyway,but not for Proggers...or not for all Proggers...

Lacrimosa on PA? Who would imagine? But this is beyond the scope of this review…

But I must say this album is nothing but progressive… Progressive in terms of mood, originality… Progressive in terms of paranoia unveiled. I can’t think of anyone before to make us feel so clearly and unabashedly that he wants to commit suicide. This being music for an absolutely desperate, shows us how far the music can reach the limits of depression. Of course there will always be some cynics who will laugh about it, but people, c’mon…

Church organs, minimalist textures, some synthetic beats… They make very unnatural combination, but it really works because it emphasizes the hopelessness and pro-suicidal mood, transporting you somewhere beyond the reality a man could take.

From the church organ intro and horrible scream of the Soul In Need (Seele In Not) you’re transported to some Hoffman or E. A. Poe novel, devoid of sunbeams and hope…

1. Seele In Not – As I said it sets the mood for the rest of the album… It starts with the church organ intro and then there goes main theme… Quiet, almost spoken vocals are interrupted by impish howling throughout the song. Near the end guitar comes in shortly. Then the song fades out little by little. Maniacally depressive song. 2. Requiem – This song is slow like the first one and mood it pretty similar too. At the end marching drums fade in and the song ends with great organ theme again… This theme is pseudo-joyful, tragicomic. Shows me a hollow heart… 3. Lacrima Mosa – An instrumental. Depressive and with much reverb effect. 4. Der Ketzer – This song is the most aggressive from these. It starts with the religious speech in Spanish and then the drums and guitar as well as gloomy vocals come in. Here are also spoken female vocals and some howling interruptions. And note, when organ is left playing alone, doesn’t it remind one of Klaus Schulze’s Irrliht a bit? In case some don’t know, Der Ketzer means The Heretic. 5. Der Letzte Hilfeschrei – And this is most paranoid. Pulse of the heartbeat runs through whole song until it stops at the end. The man has died… 6. Tranen Der Existenziosigkeit – This track is again beautiful, dim, slow and the longest, lasting over ten minutes. Near the third minute there are really strange keyboard sounds and at the end suddenly choir comes in for about twenty seconds. Maybe less dramatic but still convincing.

Since this album features mostly keyboard and almost no guitar at all, its definitely not metal. So how to classify it? Gothic? I don’t know, maybe… But from PA sub-genres it’s more closer to Post Rock I think. Slow developing themes, depressive feel… just like GYBE!

Anyway, to put it short, this album is not for everyone but those for it is for (like me) will find this album really touching. For me, it’s the most hopeless album I have heard and it differs much from everything. So I‘m giving it the highest rank.

A cheap, amateur, and bad produced album... Full with good music!

I'm sure that Tilo Wolff heared the Devil Dolls albums before introducing himself in the world of dark music... Because the influence of the Mr. Doctor's band is just ovious. The same taste for the symphonic arrangement, with some classical mood, and mixed with a pair of heavy riffs. And not just the Lacrimosa's music is based in Devil Doll... Also the Wolff's retro-look reminds me to the image of Mr. Doctor himself. It's just the same attempt to rescue an obscure role token from some gothic novel, under the influence of the vanguard films and pictures made in the first half of the 20th century...

But the Devil Doll's influence is even more evident in later Lacrimosa's albums, the better produced ones... In Angst this influence is diminished by the weak production, because Tilo Wolff made everything here with some keyboard, guitars, sound effects, computers... And a good mixer! The result is an album wich sounds everything except natural. The sound is very synthethized, the drums are just empty rythms made by computer, the guitars sound weak, the voice's volume is not really well accomplished... But this flawed sound is a bit forgivable, because the quality of the music included here is high.

The gothic and dark style influenced by Devil Doll is very effective, and the weak sound make it even creepier and sometimes scary... In the contrary of Devil Doll, the style of Tilo Wolff is more songs oriented, far from the long concepts this great band made. The songs are sometimes a bit repetitive and boring, but the most of the time the hypnotic rythms and fantastic dark melodies make you have a good time listening this album. And this album is not Progressive Metal... It's not even metal. Maybe just symphonic gothic music with some guitars and drums, but the mood of the album is peaceful, sad and desperate... But not metal in amy terms. And progressive? Well, maybe, but not the kind of progressive music you will find in the usual bands included in ProgArchives.

Another important fact of this music are the lyrics, sung very properly by the Tilo Wolff's deep voice... Very introspective, talking about suicide, religion, loneliness... And like the title says, about fear. I have the luck to speak some german, so I can understand most of the lyrics... And I like them! They fit perfectly in the osbscurity of the music... Because they are even darker than the music!

Best songs: Seele in Not (good opening, with rythmic keyboards), Der Ketzer (song about the Pope and against the christian religion... Maybe the most variated and harder song of the album) and Der letze Hilfeschrei (great lyrics, and perfect music to give the sense of loneliness and desperation the song wants to give)

Conclusion: even with the weak sound and production, all very amateru made by Tilo Wolff, the music of this album is really enjoyable if you are into the depressive concepts, gothic music and symphonic dark ambients. Not metal, and maybe not progressive... But interensting and origininal music nevertheless, under the influence of another dark band: Devil Doll, but without reaching the great quality and majestic arrangements of the Mr.Doctor's band. Lacrimosa would easily surpase this album later... But Angst has some memorable tracks, and every fan of the band should hear it.

My rating: **1/2

Lacrimosa's debut album features none of the metal influences which would creep into their music over the years, instead offering a more or less straight-down-the-line darkwave album showing the influence of early Dead Can Dance. This time around founder Tilo Wolff is backed up by the same set of musicians who would help out with the second album, Einsamkeit, though the only one who really stands out is "Eric the Phantom" on viola. In general what we are presented with here are haunting, classical-influenced gothy pieces with a focus on keyboard textures and gloomy atmospheres. In general not one for those who aren't into gothic material, and to be honest it isn't a stellar accomplishment on that front, with excessive repetition of musical ideas betraying a lack of really strong material. If you're really, really into darkwave material it's a reasonable enough listen, but even then it's not likely to earn a spot amongst your favourite albums along these lines.