Title: Nekrolog 43
Band: Diary of Dreams
Genre: Electro/Dark Wave
Release Date: 26th October 2007
Label: Accession Records
Introduction
I guess DIARY OF DREAMS need no closer introduction anymore. Mastermind and singer Adrian Hates started the band in 1989, while he was still playing bass in GARDEN OF DELIGHT. The first album 'Cholymelan' was released in 1994. The latest album 'Nigredo' was already released in 2004, followed by the 'MenschFeind' EP as well as the live CD 'Alive' and the live DVD 'Nine in Numbers', but now - after a waiting period of almost three years - the time has come to open a new chapter in the DIARY OF DREAMS. The preceding single 'The Plague' which served as a teaser for the new album 'Nekrolog 43' was already a foretaste of what is to expect from the album.
Members
Adrian Hates
Gaun:A
D.N.S.
Taste
Torben Wendt
Website
http://www.diaryofdreams.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/diaryofdreams
Track Review
01. Nekrolog 43 - 7:05
A necrology or obituary attempts to give an account of the texture and significance of the life of someone who has recently died. If I listen to this song it conjures up the image of a dying world but I’m not quite sure if it's the real world or the inner world...of a soul. But there's still hope in the shape of a child, which always symbolised life and pureness. A child also means future, the knowledge that life goes on even under adverse circumstances. This world maybe is in a dying condition, but a child... the hope is carried away out of this dying world... At first, there's nothing but after a few seconds of silence a high frequency tone appears and a deeper tone like a deep grumbling or something gets audible, strange sounds fade out of the background and are creating a subliminal tension and darkness. Accompanied by lots of different sounds and some screams that send shivers down my spine, the beat starts. The drums are processed with a little bit of distortion and also guitars were integrated into the sound. If you listen carefully you will recognize the enormous amount of details and with every new listen you will discover new details and sounds.
“Gently close your eyes my child
And stay in my arms
I carry you away
Through this old world”
02. The Plague - 4:54
In DIARY OF DREAMS terms this is a very aggressive and harsh track where the guitars play a major role. The album version differs quite a bit from the one heard on the single. There's a strange sound at the beginning then the guitar as well as the strings fade in, before the drums start. The drums, even though they are programmed sounds, are very organic. The short string arrangement gives also a certain dramatic note to the track. In the album version, the strings which appeared during the verses are gone, which gives the vocals more room to unfold. Content-wise it continues where MenschFeind left off. While the protagonist in MenschFeind was a child, he's now a full grown-up adult, who's still wearing this weird mask and still is locked away in a dark prison cell judging from the cover of the ‘The Plague’ single. If you equal the two persons, this could mean that the “curse” Nigredo doesn't lead to death at least to a certain age. But it causes several physiological and psychological mutations. That would also explain why the lyrics sound as if they were told from different personalities. Here's a little example: “pretty face you think that you can hide behind this mask of yours; prison cell you can't keep me here...”
03. Son of a Thief - 5:31
“So sick of being friendly, so sick of being nice, so sick of being thoughtful, you think I hate my kind…” This sounds to me like the person in this song is really sick of mankind. You always have to be friendly and kind. You always have to smile even when you feel like crying and you just want to show it. Only the facade counts today. No one takes the time to look behind the mask and see what's going on inside. Does nobody see it or do we just close our eyes, because we don't want to see it? Are we really that apathetic already, that we don't care anymore; that it doesn't matter to us anymore if someone suffers? Of course everyone has its own problems today, but we should sometimes just cast off our egoism and take care of someone other than ourselves. It is a song that continuously sends shivers all over your body with its wide and spherical synth layers and piano sounds and the sometimes fragile sounding vocals of Adrian. Even though the beat is very club-friendly it's not just a mere 4/4 beat. It has many frisky sounds and you will discover new sounds with every listen.
04. Tears of Joy - 5:20
He spent a big part of this life in this room. They said he was one of them. He has “The Plague” so they imprisoned him, all alone in this room for a long, long time. After a certain time, he felt home in this room. He got used to be alone in this room. But he escaped...he was able to leave this room behind, but in this new life he started, he never really felt home. He yearns to be there again and he believes that it will bring a relief and will ease the pain he feels. So he returns to this place and once he gets back there, in the silence of this room he felt relief and “Tears of Joy” running down his cheeks. Maybe he just wasn't destined to live under humans and better off alone. As time goes by he becomes aware that this obviously was a wrong conclusion and he hates himself for giving in to this yearning. Now he's alone again... When one reads the title of this track one could believe of something happy nut it's not. It's sick at heart and makes me cry. Adrian’s vocals are very haunting and sometimes fragile like glass. In some moments I thought they were about to break. They are underlined by halting beats beautiful piano chords and layered strings.
05. UnWanted? - 4:18
Now it's getting a little bit more aggressive but at the beginning it sounds very balladry with the piano sounds and a few laid-back beats, but a short while later they get replaced by a very diverse and fractured drum arrangement and also the guitars kick in. The drumming changes again and Adrian starts the verses. The piano lines in the background during the chorus remind me a little bit of the ones used in 'Kindrom' on 'Nigredo'. The title is some kind of word-play in my opinion: Wanted is term that is used, when someone committed some very bad crimes and that the police or FBI or something similar is looking for him or her. In this correlation 'UnWanted' could mean that they are no longer looking for this person, because of the fact, that he or she is proven not guilty; or it could mean that they just gave up looking for that particular person. Another possibility is that “unwanted” means that someone has the feeling to be obsolete and not needed by anyone, so this person asks “Am I UnWanted?” “What ever you believe was invented for control“. Some folks always try to manipulate people to get their will, but we just let it happen and go on with our lives. The new often don’t show the truth, they often show us only the things, that others want us to believe and we accept it. We don't even try to form our own opinions because it is too exhausting, so we take the one we get served on a silver plate. But sometimes it's worth to look behind this network of lies built up around us and start to think again. Or fight against the lies. You may not change the world, but that is not important.
06. Matching Lives - 7:00
A melancholic and slow-played piano melody immediately carries us away into another world and lets us fully delve in into the atmosphere of this song. Gentle acoustic guitar sounds appear and intensify the melancholic mood of this tune. When the drumming starts and Adrian starts the chants, you'll also recognize this beautiful choral in the background that condenses the atmosphere even more in my opinion. When the chorus starts and Adrian starts to sing “Our worlds have always collided, our worlds have never been one”, I always have a lump in my throat and my eyes are getting wet. Those words radiate so much longing; it overwhelms me when I listen to them. For me a very special and impressing performance! Not all lyrics are able to have such an impact on me. For me they seem to tell a story of a love that never was fulfilled. He feels so well near her. Maybe it is something he never felt for someone else before. He is willing to let her in his world and to open up for her and walk with her until the end of time, but either she doesn't feel the same or it's his own fault because he didn’t' tell her how he feels so she never knows. This might sound a little bit tawdry, but this is how I personally feel about this song.
07. Remedy Child - 4:56
'Remedy Child' starts out with a synth line that already gives the impression that this song will be of a more aggressive kind in terms of the instrumentation. I couldn't recognize any strings or wide synth layers during the first half of the song, but during the second part of the verses there's a barely audible synth layer in the background. Apart from that, the demanding powerful beats and guitar chords are dominating the scene. The drum arrangement is full of little bits and pieces to discover. Sounds really good on headphones! The 'Remedy Child'... could it bring the cure for this disease? Is it really a child we're talking about here? I mean it also could be an adult. It isn't specifically mentioned in the lyrics if it's a child or rather an adult. Although the line “Your hair is grey, your childhood gone” points to an adult, but it's also possible that it's a child if you remember the one shown on the 'MenschFeind' cover, which had also grey hair. But how could this person - whether it's a child or not - bring a cure? Is it a special type of blood or a gene anomaly? The chosen one himself was obviously not pared by the effects of the plague. The hair is grey. He even hears a tune inside his head to which he dances around and sings along. Maybe it's a melody that was buried in his memory for a long time....
08. Malice - 5:10
We hear a loud blustering some kind of noise and a low yet dark melody in the background. As the song goes on, there are still some sounds that are echoing dull out of the background. But now there's also a synth line and soon the powerful mid-tempo beat start accompanied by the rough guitar parts. You really can feel the aggressiveness in this song even though it is sometimes moderated a bit by some strings. The lyrics are sounding to me like the protagonist is fighting out an inner conflict as if he was fighting with his dark side. I could also be a multiple personality, one the evil one full of all kinds of bad emotions like revenge or hate. This personality is only driven by those feelings. The other one is the weaker part the good one but he senses, that there is something really bad inside him. He fears those dark feelings echoing in his head. Maybe he tries to hide from these bad feelings, but does it really make any sense... Of course this is just a guess, but a thought that doesn't seem so far-fetched for me.
09. The Darkest of all Hours - 4:19
A glimpse of hope is shining through the darkness. There's someone who wants to guide the protagonist out of the dark, but he has doubts. Is it really a good idea to open up myself to someone else and is somebody really able to help me??? What if it fails? Will I survive this or will I get lost forever in the everlasting darkness, never to be rescued again? But he finally decides to open up his heart. But it won't be easy for another person to get into his secret world and to understand him. He never thought, someone would be willing to do that. Someone is seeing something in him, what he probably hasn't noticed already. “Please be gentle with this heart of mine, it still is torn into pieces”. A Heart is a fragile thing. It's easy to break it within a few seconds, but it takes so much time to mend it again. It's the same thing with trust, so be careful with it. Once it is gone you're maybe not able to get it back again. This mid-tempo song has a rather harsh beat with many layers and sounds so you'll not get bored. The sounds in the background during the strophe sounds like it would come out of a musical clock. But what I really love is when the chorus starts and the wide synth layers and piano sounds appear, so goose bumps are guaranteed here. The song also bears a feeling of hope that one wouldn't expect, when reading the title.
10. Congratulations - 6:41
This is another very dark and sad tune, where the atmosphere is almost impossible to cut through. Multiple layers of strings and piano sounds generate an inconceivable dense atmosphere and Adrian’s voice seems to be pervaded by sadness. It is sounding so resigning. The drum programming matches the atmosphere of the song as it is very slow complex and very diverse. For me the drums are arranged very restrainedly to give the atmosphere more room to unfold itself. “What have we become? A cynical crowd? Sarcastic and temped, why are we so proud?” I thought about these lines for quite a long time and I can agree with that. Why are we so proud??? We still fight wars, started under false pretences, just to get oil for our cars that pollute the air and we already got some little foretastes o the consequences of this behaviour and I guess this was just the beginning. It will get even worse than that. And we're not able to stop it anymore. We maybe are able to soften the effects a little bit, but that's all. “Congratulations, you wasted my life for yours!”
11. Hypo)crypticK(al - 5:36
Now it gets a little bit more rhythmic again with organic beats and harsh guitars. It reminded me a little bit of 'The Witching Hour' but it's much more melodic and the melancholy is in my opinion much more distinctive, especially in the chorus, where Adrian's voice turns into a fragile pleading. Hope that's a proper description. The wide synth layers and piano sounds appear on the scene as well as a sound that sounds like a whistling to me; carried by the wind. It radiates such wistfulness; it causes me heavy goose bumps. The spelling of the title still confuses me. I'm still not quite sure, what the meaning of those brackets is. The term “hypo” for example is a Greek preposition which means “under” or “'to” if it refers to a location. If it refers to time it means “against” or “while” and in a metaphorical sense, the meaning can also be “due to”. I figured the second term “crypticK” regardless of the fact that the spelling is different also derives from an ancient Greek term “kryptós” which means “hidden” or “veiled”. The only thing I could find out about the last two letters after the bracket “al” is the short description for the chemical element aluminium. I'm not quite sure, how that fits in; maybe it is not even the right direction. One meaning of the title could be “A secret that lies hidden under the surface”. “Please take this one last assignment, turn silent my friends, welcome fate, we're in this together”. These lines have something resigning to it, as if these people gave up. No more running and hiding, whereas the lines “You came to test my sanity, you had to learn this mind is free” for example tell another story. They have something more aggressive and pugnacious. Something like: You may break my bones and you can torture me if you want. You're obviously a master at that, but you will not break me and you'll not get what you're looking for.
12. AlLone - 4:09
'AlLone' starts out very dark and this won't change during the course of the track. Only darkness exists there. No glimpse of light beaks through. The synth layers are dark and also do the piano chords. The spelling of the title is again a little bit mysterious. If we spell it just the usual way also “Alone”, does it refer to the person in the lyrics??? The lines “I take you by your clammy hand... or we celebrate the deed with laughter...” tell a different story for me. The way how he says: “I take you by your clammy hand” lets me assume that he's talking to a child. But who would take a child to a crime scene if one hasn’t in mind to scare it to death, but I guess we're not talking about a normal child here. Maybe this one has also white hairs and black eyes like the ones mentioned on 'Nigredo'? But what has happened there and why are they celebrating it??? I'm still not quite sure about that. The second possibility for the spelling I have in mind is “All one”. This would at least explain the second “L” but not why it's capitalized. “All one” could refer to the part of the lyrics, where he looks in the mirror and sees this crippled face, looking back at him. He asks himself “How did he get inside my house?” Maybe he's just a mirror image of a tormented and crippled soul. The mirror shows the truth. He looks behind the mask of beauty and shows the true face. “I think I’ve seen this man before”....
13. The Valley - 6:40
If I listen to this song I always get sad, because the person in this song has lost all his hope and he only seems to find relief in leaving this world. If everything you try fails and there's no one left, then one could get the feeling to be not needed anymore, that he or she is just obsolete. Some would say, that there's always a reason to life. But they probably never were in that kind of situation and just can’t understand what it feels like. The person in such a situation isn't able to see any other exit and thoughts like “Maybe I should just disappear from this earth, because no one cares if I’m here or not and it wouldn't catch somebody’s eye, but my pain would finally disappear”. The hopelessness this song spreads is overwhelming and every time I listen to it I have tears in my eyes. It is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. We all have times, where we think our life is over and we'll never see the light again, but we're still alive. We dragged ourselves out of the shadows. There's always hope....always. But it's not only the lyrics; the whole arrangement of the song intensifies the feeling of sadness quite a lot. The minor piano chords in combination with the strings in the background and Adrian’s fragile vocals are making the pain and sadness sensible as if you were the one who would make it through.
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 10
Sound: 10
Extras: Ltd. edition with special booklet
Total: 10
Conclusion
When I saw the cover of this album for the first time, I was shocked and many others felt the same as I did. The pictures inside the booklet aren't happy either. One picture shows Adrian hanging dead in a dark room for example. The mood of the album is for long periods dark and melancholic and sad. 'The Valley' - the closing title - is a good example for the sadness. I never heard it in such a concentration in a single song. But there's also hope shining through in some songs, even though one wouldn't expect this, if he just looks at the cover. But one shouldn’t judge a book only by its cover. 'Nekrolog 43' has become an album where you forget the world outside when listening to it. You just let yourself fall and drown in the diversified soundscapes or you get busy with the lyrics which provide again a lot of room for speculations and interpretations so everyone finds something for him/herself in it. This time, there are many balladry songs with many piano sounds on the album. I can never get enough of ballads; even better if the include piano sounds. Where the ballades have much depth, the more aggressive songs like 'The Plague' are really powerful with their harsh guitar parts and pounding beats. The photos in the booklet were shot by Annie Bertram who also did the photos for the latest DIORAMA album 'A different life' and she did a very good job as well as Monozelle (Ingo Römling) who did the editing and artwork afterwards. The pictures have an unbelievable atmosphere and still send cold shivers down my spine. One word about the packaging: The limited edition comes in a special book with additional photos not included in the regular edition. The whole packaging is very precious, so it's a great collectors item and of course a must have for fans. You really get value for your money here so grab your copy before it's sold out. There's also an additional bonus track which is only available via Itunes. The song is called 'Out of my World'.
{jos_sb_discuss:19}
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