Stille You Turn Me On!
Written: Oct 02 '03 (Updated Dec 15 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Symphonic Gothique music of the highest order played by Lestat and friend.
Cons: Zip, unless long is bad
The Bottom Line: A Tour de Force! Music like you've never heard. Question is are you ready for it or do you even want to hear it.
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| daumco's Full Review: Stille - Lacrimosa Movies |
I don't know if I said this before but about two years ago, my musical life was in limbo. I had always been a pop to metal fan with a little New Age thrown in but from about 1995 on, the available music wasn't getting it for me. There was and always had been untold quantities of unknown albums around including plenty imports but there was no way to sample any of them, then. I wonder now, how many of those I would have loved.
So to pass my time and for entertainment I would listen to audio tapes, primarily fiction. The musical scene from 1995 thru 2001 wasn't totally barren for me but it was sparse. I probably bought about sixty CDs during that period, mostly older or best of CDs. I did manage to get a few gems like Haunted by Poe, Anemia by Tool, Power Trip by Monster Magnet, Supernatural by Santana, Garbage I and II and The Better Life by Three Doors Down, all told maybe 25 - 30 CDs I enjoyed in that 6 - 7 year period.
Fast forward to 2001. That year I started fooling around with music downloads and eventually, out of curiosity I started downloading groups I had never heard of. I remember some of those first groups that I downloaded. There was Ayreon, Therion, After Forever, Hammerfall, Nightwish and more. These are groups that play the music that I (subconsciously) always wanted to hear and didn't think existed.
I became impassioned with these new kinds of music and I headed to the local Best Buy (the store that I had always thought had the best selection) armed with a list of fifteen or so artists from which to purchase goodies. Alas, it was not to be, as their selection was not as complete as I thought. The only things I found on my list were one Nightwish and one Hammerfall, of which I quickly grew tired.
I was not deterred, I discovered this music on the internet and I would locate it on the internet. I became a music detective, deducing that, feeling out this and sniffing out that. Admittedly, Amazon.com was and still is a big help but even it has it's limitations. Which brings me to Lacrimosa
Lacrimosa was one of the groups that I had tested early on and had dismissed. Perhaps I had downloaded one or two of their worst songs but more likely my taste had evolved in the next two years. Any way, a couple months ago I was placing a large order with a distributor and on a lark I decided to give ole Lacrimosa a shot and I ordered what I believe is their fourth studio album, Inferno.
Lacrimosa
Lacrimosa is a German duo consisting of Tilo Wolff and Ann Nurmi formed in 1990. They have started their own record label, Hall of Sermon and have managed to produce eight studio albums, six EPs and one Live album in that time.
Lacrimosa's music is dark, melodious, ambient and symphonic in what could be described as Darkwave / Doom metal with forays into progressive, even heavy metal. Wolff seems to be the creative force and he is creative and prolific having fifteen releases in twelve years. Wolff and Nurmi share the vocal duties with Wolff doing approximately two thirds of the vocals, despite the fact that Nurmi's voice is much better. Tilo and Ann make a striking couple, they act like a couple, I'm sure they're a couple. Tilo with his Prince style 17th century clothes and two toned hair and Ann with her pretty, full, low cut, always black dresses present a royal appearance as if they the King and Queen of Goth or better yet the Vampires. Of course sometimes Ann appears in sexy under clothes and leather like a Dominatrix.
But don't let their appearance scare you. This couple play music suitable for a Symphonic Hall. In fact their 2003 release, Echoes, sounds like that's exactly where it came from.
I won't kid anyone, Lacrimosa is not for everyone. It's not accessible, Wolff's voice is barely average, they sing in German and the music is not particularly beautiful as say Therion. It is, however, extremely catchy, loaded with hooks, haunting and generally captivating, plus the music is somewhat varied and there's one song that even sounds like Metallica
After receiving Inferno, I proceeded to order their entire catalog, some 14 more CDs as I've mentioned. After having gone through the entire catalog a couple times I have determined that Stille is one of the three or four best albums, if not the best.
Lacrimosa uses guest musicians for their recording sessions and on the more recent albums have utilized the symphonic orchestras. On Stille they used the Bamberker Symphonic Orchestra and Deutsche Lunkewitz SängerInnen (German Lunkewitz Singers). Each succeeding album seems to get more complicated, lush and at times Bombastic.
I might add too, that Lacrimosa is quite generous with this album running over 70 minutes in length. Just think you could start this album in your Cd player and go do your weekly grocery shopping and put your groceries away to the last 15 or twenty minutes. Why would you want to do this? I don't know, but you could.
Stille
Song / Track List
1) Der Erste Tag 10:09 5 stars
2) Not Every Pain Hurts 5:19 4 stars
3) Siehst di mich im Licht 8:18 5 stars
4) Deine Nahe 11:00 4 1/2 star
5) Stolzes Herz 8:45 4 1/2 star
6) Mein Zweites Herz 6:52 4 stars
7) Make it End 6:03 5 stars
8) Die Strasse der Zeit 14:42 5 1/2 stars*
*you've heard athletes say they gave 110% and you say to yourself, how do you give 110%? Well they gave 110%. You try making a 14 minute masterpiece.
"Der Erste Tag" opens with the symphonic orchestra playing very pretty classical style music. Tilo and Ann perform a duet to backing choirs and some heavy metal parts at about the 4 minute mark. this song has progressive intensities as well as tendencies and it seems like three or four songs in one neat package
"Not Every Pain Hurts"
"When you have the will
You learn to forgive and to forget
You have to -
Collect the broken pieces and
Humble hearted
Stand up from the place you hide
If I wouldn't know to miss anything
It couldn't hurt me no more
Mistakes tought to build life
From the ashes, that fell down to ground"
"Not every Pain Hurts" one of two songs in English, I rated this 4 stars but it would have been higher except for the merry-go-round sounding squeezebox accompaniment in places. Ann is the vocalist on this variable paced piece.
"Siehst du mich im Licht" Tilo and Ann start out sharing vocals on this catchy up tempo rock sounding number as the orchestra stays in the background except, for highlights and vocal breaks. Eventually Tilo takes over vocals
"Deine Nahe" Has a heavy metal beginning with a medium slow pace and intermittently throughout the first half of the song with Tilo singing and then the pace doubles then goes back again and back again (what do you expect on an eleven minute song) Some great piano and guitar solos in the last three minutes. A metal lovers dream.
"Stotzes Herz" this song bounces all over the place. It starts out slow and melodic with Tilo's Sonny Bono quality voice then picks up to slow medium pace then gets ethereal and electronic at the 4 minute mark and my goodness, heavy metal at the 5:30 mark leading to an marching pace uptempo climax.
"Mein Zweites Herz" starts slowly then builds up to a nice orchestra portion then a reflective portion with an organ, Tilo is the Vocalist in moderation as this is heavily instumentalized.
"Make It End"
"Listen to the silence
Hear your blood running
Search for the truth
Hear the silence
Memories that made you mad
Hear, oh hear inside the fear
How different
Is this burning
Giving everything
And not finding back"
"Make It End" the other song with English lyrics, a rather clever rock/metal beginning with Tilo and Ann both handling the vocals.
"Die Strasse der Zeit" I'm not even going to describe this song. It is fourteen minutes of lush, bombastic, heavily orchestrated, catchy melodies. wonderful piano and violin. I'm in awe! This is genius!
Conclusion
The trouble with describing these songs is they change so much, not from song to song but within each song. This is wonderful to listen to but a challenge to characterize.
As I earlier stated Lacrimosa is not for everybody and it may also be an acquired taste. An interesting thing about this music is it doesn't demand your attention. It works very nicely as background music.
If I have piqued your interest, compare your likes against this check list:
1) You must like long involved songs.
2) You must like songs with varying tempos.
3) You must have a proclivity for compound styles.
4) Appreciation of choirs and heavy instrumentation.
5) You must overlook Tilos mediocre vocals (it actually
goes good with the music)
6) You must not have any preconceived ideas about Gothique.
Similar Artists
Therion, Nightwish, Weltenbrand, Das Vebannter Kinder Evas, Dark Sanctuary
Author's Note
Thanks again are in order to our wonderful Cat Lead who continues to be most helpful and even writes great reviews on Femme Metal. Thanks for placing this album in the data bank.
Recommended:
Yes
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daumco
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