Artist: Lacrimas Profundere
Title: Antiadore
Genre: Gothic Rock/Metal
Release Date: 24th May 2013
Label: Napalm Records
Album Review
For over twenty years German band LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE have been successfully building bridges across metal and Goth and creating a few sub-genres along the way. Even the name, “To Shed Tears” in Latin, sounds comfortable in either camp. Live, they have supported some of the big names including PARADISE LOST, LACUNA COIL, MARILYN MANSON, and TYPE O NEGATIVE, played many major festivals and enjoyed a number of headlining tours. After numerous line-up changes, different vocalists and an impressive run of albums, 2013 sees the release of ‘Antiadore’.
It’s always a good idea to set out your stall as early as possible on a new album, and ‘My Release In Pain’ does just that. Piano intro and metal guitars sounds like a busy NIGHTWISH, the melancholy vocals propelling the song hurriedly towards a screamed mid-section, before rushing back towards the kind of simple chorus that makes this feel instantly recognisable. It’s the 2013 version of LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE wrapped up completely in just over three minutes. And it’s very good indeed. Title track ‘Antiadore’ continues at break-neck speed, a heady rush of staccato guitar and exotic strings, and another big chorus. The menace underpinning the song is palpable, and it’s a perfect example of what the band do best. Dynamic and dramatic, there’s so much going on here it’s hard to latch onto just what makes it so good, before it’s over and the next track has introduced itself. No point in hanging around after all.
A heavier and slower riff on ‘What I’m Not’ will keep the more metal-minded happy. A definite guitar-lovers song, the melody is almost secondary as the busy interplay of loud and soft, heavy and muted keeps this one interesting. Things slow significantly for ‘All For Nothing’, a shimmering, pulsing intro setting a dark mood. Vocalist Rob Vitacca is on fine form here, it’s well sung and lyrically excellent, and bizarrely wouldn’t sound out of place on METALLICA’S Black album, which is quite a compliment. It gets a bit stodgy at times however. ‘Dead To Me’ is just too obvious, lazy almost, and it plods around for far too long, not really sure which direction to take. Some synths join the party on ‘Abandon’, but this one still sounds a bit dated. Perhaps if written on the road while supporting LACUNA COIL, then a more forgiving approach could be employed as that bands influence is obvious here. There’s nothing really wrong with it, but we’ve definitely heard it all before which is a shame, because on the whole this is an inventive enough set of songs to lift it from the boggy mire of mediocrity.
‘Deny For Now’ is big and bold and back to the earlier blueprint, solid metal guitar play, fast tempo and memorable chorus. ‘Head Held High’ that follows is a great mid-paced stab of angsty singing and doom-laden chord changes, patiently unfolding itself blackly and building up to an inventive and surprisingly tender climax. The awful guitar solo mid-song jars horribly, but that aside, this is an excellent piece of genre-splicing. A rich vocal underpins ‘My Chest’, a low rumble of a song with a massive chorus; it’s a desperately sad-sounding piece of music and a genuine highlight on the album, a perfectly formed Gothic-Rock song, a dark and moving mini-opera. The pace picks up significantly for Big Rock Song ‘Remembrance Day’ which will surely be a popular live fixture this Summer and so wonderfully bloated it will no doubt insist on its own tour bus.
Things conclude with ‘A Sigh’ which has every dial turned up to 11, and all settings pointing strictly to Epic. Huge, lunging slabs of guitar are layered beneath the world-weary vocals. A song like this is only ever going in one direction, which is bigger, heavier and more dramatic the closer it gets to the end. It’s good, but not brilliant, perhaps too convinced that all things epic equal greatness. Stuck in a genre rut at times, which means lapsing occasionally into cliché and over-familiarity, on the whole LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE succeeds by delivering a suitably forward thinking album here. It will happily grace cobwebbed shelves stuffed with poetry or reside among copies of Kerrang and Metal Hammer, and there is a feeling that live, some of these songs will come into their own and develop a whole new life. The sound quality is superb throughout, as is the artwork, and in Rob Vitacca, the band have an assured and impressive vocalist. Whether or not they will continue in the increasingly crowded space they helped create, or push the musical boundaries and further develop the genre remains to be seen. But for now, they are a welcome and reliable fixture on the Goth/Metal landscape.
Tracklist
01. My Release In Pain
02. Antiadore
03. What I’m Not
04. All For Nothing
05. Dead To Me
06. Abandon
07. Still In Need
08. Deny For Now
09. Head Held High
10. My Chest
11. Remembrance Song
12. A Sigh
Line-up
Rob Vitacca – Vocals
Oliver Nikolas Schmid – Guitars
Tony Berger – Guitars
Dominik Scholz – Drums
Website
https://www.facebook.com/lacrimasprofundereofficial / http://www.lacrimas.com
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10
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