Lacrimosa is a Swiss

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal music, heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different ...

band led by German musician

Tilo Wolff Tilo Wolff (born 10 July 1972) is a German musician and artist. He was born in Frankfurt am Main and currently lives in Switzerland. His longest-running project is the band Lacrimosa, which debuted in 1990. The band embraces a diverse range o ...

, who is also the main composer, and Finn Anne Nurmi. They are currently based in Switzerland, but originally from Germany. Originally counted among the bands of the Neue Deutsche Todeskunst genre, Lacrimosa are most commonly associated with the

genre. Their musical style mixes

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...

and heavy metal, along with

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

, and more classical instruments, although their musical development throughout the years has led to changes in instrumentation. Lacrimosa's lyrics are written almost exclusively in German, although since the 1995 album ''Inferno,'' every album has featured one or two songs in English. These songs are generally written by Anne Nurmi. Finnish has also appeared in the spoken intro to two songs ("Schakal" on ''Inferno'' and "The Turning Point" on ''Elodia'') and on a bonus track in a limited edition release of '' Fassade'' called ''Vankina''. Their lyrics are mainly about loneliness, sadness, darkness, despair, and love. The band has sold more than 20,000 copies of each album in Germany, but has also gained a large fanbase in Russia, Mexico and China.

Brief timeline

* 1990: Tilo Wolff releases a tape called ''Clamor'' using the band name of Lacrimosa. * 1991: Tilo Wolff founds a new record company called Hall of Sermon, as an independent label to publish Lacrimosa's records. * 1993: Anne Nurmi joins the solo project to play keyboard, becoming a permanent member soon after.

Style and themes

Lacrimosa's first album, ''Angst'', is slow and minimal music, dominated by keyboards and voice. This early period explores fear, helplessness, loneliness, non-existence, unattainability, the illusionary nature of love, and death. The same themes can be found on the next three albums, ''Einsamkeit'', ''Satura'', and ''Inferno''. Musically, this period is characterised by the introduction of electric guitars and basses, with more rock elements being added. ''Stille'' was the beginning of their

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

style. Heavy guitars and bombastic arrangements for classical instruments dominate the music in the style of

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars ...

. Thematically, ''Stille'' features several uplifting songs. "Stolzes Herz" ("Proud heart") and "Die Strasse der Zeit" ("The Lane of Time") praise individual and cultural strength. "Die Strasse der Zeit" describes a journey backwards through a history of war, greed, and stupidity, until the protagonist finds solace in

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

culture. The next album, '' Elodia'', reduced the metal-style guitars and increases the symphonic, classical arrangements, this time recorded in part by the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

. Presented as a play in three parts, ''Elodia'' revolves around the theme of

love Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...

. The gothic element is still present and the themes of loss and death feature prominently in the latter half, but it ends with an affirmation of hope. '' Fassade'' features a variety of musical visions, from the metal sound of "Liebesspiel" ("Love Game") to flowing keyboards of "Senses", and the symphonic interplay between guitars and orchestra on "Fassade". The latter, a piece in three movements arranged on the album as tracks 1, 5, and 8, explores a critique of modern society. It ends with an affirmation of individuality and the protagonist's retreat from society. In ''

Echos Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system ( oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and ...

,'' guitars and other rock elements appear less often, whereas classical instruments feature more prominently. The orchestral arrangements move away from standard symphonic arrangements often found in contemporary metal music, as in the album's first track, "Kyrie - Overture". ''Echos'' also shows influence from electronic and industrial music, as in the song "Ein Hauch von Menschlichkeit" ("A Touch of Humanity"). This album is more personal and quieter than those before it. It continues to explore love with gothic twists. Lacrimosa's ninth album, ''

Lichtgestalt ''Lichtgestalt'' is a 2005 album by German goth rock, gothic rock duo Lacrimosa (band), Lacrimosa. The album was released on 2 May 2005 by Hall of Sermon. Music Recorded in 2005, it consists of 9 tracks, including the two different versions of ...

'', retains the classical elements, but rock elements begin to resurface. The first track, "Sapphire", begins as a slow, classical song but halfway moves into a

section; the pace of the song increases, a heavy

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

backing takes over, and Wolff switches from singing into a high-pitched

death grunt The death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Sometimes death growl vocals are criticized for their ...

for a few minutes. The remaining songs display a similar mix of styles to previous albums, with some upbeat songs, a song written and sung in English mainly by Anne Nurmi, and some slower-paced, sadder pieces. In 2005, ''Lichtgestalten'' was released, containing a new electronic version of the song "Lichtgestalt", produced by Tilo for his solo project, ''Snakeskin''. In 2006, a DVD called ''Musikkurzfilme'' was released, which contained all the video clips that Lacrimosa shot throughout their career, including the video for "Lichtgestalt". ''Sehnsucht'' was released in 2009. Wolff wanted to create an album that was less conceptual and more spontaneous than the previous releases, so ''Sehnsucht'' features a variety of musical expressions. In 2008, Lacrimosa's label Hall of Sermon reclaimed the rights to all of the band's Nuclear Blast releases. In March 2008, Lacrimosa started working on their next studio album, entitled "Sehnsucht", which was released on 8 May 2009. Their eleventh studio album was released in September 2012, called ''

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

''. The first song on this release was written in 2009 while they were touring in China. In 2015, '' Hoffnung'' was released, followed in 2017 by ''Testimonium'', which was meant as a commemorative album for recently deceased musicians like

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

and

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

. The band's latest album was released on 24 December 2021 with the title ''Leidenschaft'' ("Passion").

Members

– vocals, programming, piano, keyboards, music production, arrangements (1990–present) * Anne Nurmi – vocals, keyboards (1993–present) * Jay P. (Jan-Peter Genkel) - guitar (1996–present), bass (1996–2001, studio) * Yenz Leonhardt (Jens Arnsted) - bass (2001–present) *

Henrik Flyman Henrik Flyman (born on September 6 in Norrland, Sweden) is a composer, guitarist and producer. He is active in the bands Lacrimosa, Evil Masquerade and his own solo career. Biography Henrik Flyman is best known as a touring and recording musici ...

- guitar (2009–present) * Julien Schmidt - drums (2013–present) Past members: *Gottfried Koch - guitar *Sascha Gerbig - guitar *Rüdiger "AC" Dreffein - drums *Stefan Schwarzmann - drums

Discography

All albums and DVDs were published by Tilo Wolff's own label, Hall of Sermon.

Albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Singles

Demos and extended plays

Videography

VHS

DVD

References

External links

*
Snakeskin
a side project of Tilo Wolff
Interview with Tilo Wolff "Emotional Concept" June 4, 2010
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacrimosa German dark wave musical groups German gothic metal musical groups German symphonic metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1990 Neue Deutsche Todeskunst groups Nuclear Blast artists