Artist: Lacrimas Profundere
Title: Hope is Here
Genre: Gothic Metal
Release Date: 12th August 2016
Label: Oblivion / SPV
Album Review
LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE - Hope is Here … or the cheapening of common places.
Concept albums are a field that not every band or musician should venture into. Although lax when it comes to a definition of, or what characteristics pay into their creation, jumping into composing one should not be taken lightly. Unfortunately, this is exactly the way it feels with latest veteran Goth Metal band LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE´s album ‘Hope is Here’. It´s said the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and that is the story of this album. Putting together some elements do not make an instant success. From the core idea of the outcast curlicues with the fairy dark forest, night, moon and sadness, to the piling up of prog rock, power balladry, and gothic metal elements proven too much to handle, the best way these rockers found to solve the conundrum? wash out all elements, walk down the common places and, if it could be possible, cheapening them beyond regular clichés.
To begin with, a blatant rip-off from Pink Floyd’s ‘Goodbye cruel world,’ in the shape of an almost suicide note ‘The workshop of counting down’ seeks to build up tension falling short towards the verse. Commonplace number one that will run the whole album? The singer’s dispassionate approach to lyrics and performance. This is Gothic Metal, not minimal cold-wave. It just doesn’t work, fading the ending out to awkwardly giving way to the second track. Continuing the beat, recycling the intro and fattening the sound, ‘My Halo ground’ as a whole became commonplace number two: being another track in the pile of dark metal tracks, halting point blank to the next song. ‘Hope s Here’ combines the two first tracks confirming the lack of imagination and creativity full stop.
Then is time to meet the protagonist who takes shape through a stand-alone guitar that leads the song. Commonplace number three in ‘Aramis’? The revival of the pop song. Remember how the grunge reinvented the pop song? Particularly NIRVANA by taking the verse-chorus-verse structure and added soft verse - harsh chorus - soft verse? That’s exactly what this track’s all about. Is that really the way to grasp the listeners attention? And even failing at that when ‘A million miles’ hits the waves, trying too hard to go the metal way and disappointing once more with the humdrum vocals. The lack of passion is not even sad is just poor.
‘No Man’s land’ promises through its intro to break the soporific state we have been subsumed into after five too many previous tracks of the same. It flirts with a too pop texture and ends up becoming a cliché again. Yet it gives hope that what follows might not be a carbon copy for we are surprised by ‘Pageant’ venturing into country and some blues territory, even the voice tries hard at expressing something more than minimalism. Commonplace number four: a good power ballad trying too hard. ‘You, my north’ is another regular gothic metal track followed by ‘Awake’ with a pompous repeating intro all through the verse getting killed by the monotonous voice. Commonplace number five comes with the building of atmospheres, an attempt taking place in ‘The path of broken homes’ that at least breaks with the unnerving sudden halts from past tracks and gives way to ‘Timbre,’ another song without shame nor glory.
Finally we have reached the end of an incredibly dull experience with ‘Black Moon,’ a track that could’ve been a perfect rock ballad... in the 90s! As a bonus track the band, maybe aware of the lack of energy and emotion throughout the almost 50 minutes of this feeble attempt at composing a concept album, asked fellow countrymen EISBRECHER to mix the protagonist’s track ‘Aramis’ resulting, not surprisingly into the only song that awakens and grabs the listener enough to form an ear worm. In the band’s website, founder guitarist Oliver Nikolas states about the challenges of making a concept album that “you have to follow certain moods and really think about where to put the faster, harder pieces and where the slower and sadder moments best fit in,”still ‘Hope is Here’ is but a rigmarole of soporiferous “wannabe martyrdom” and a lame attempt walking down the path of melancholia. All in all, ‘Hope is Here’ is an inchoate piece jumping from foreign element to the other betraying each and disappointing all.
Tracklist
01. The Worship of Counting Down
02. My Halo Ground
03. Hope is Here
04. Aramis
05. A Million Miles
06. No Man’s Land
07. Pageant
08. You, My North
09. Awake
10. The Path of Broken Homes
11. Timbre
12. Black Moon
13. Aramis (Eisbrecher Neuschnitt)
Line-up
Oliver Nikolas – Guitars
Rob Vitacca – Vox
Tony Berger – Guitars
Clea – Bass
Chris – Drums
Website
http://www.lacrimas.com / https://www.facebook.com/lacrimasprofundereofficial/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 3
Sound: 8
Total: 5.5 / 10
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