ANGST

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.