ANGST

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

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