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Lacrimosa
Lacrimosa live in 2015. L-R: Julien Schmidt (drums), Jay P. (guitar), Yenz Leonhardt (bass), Tilo Wolff (vocals), Henrik Flyman (guitar), Anne Nurmi (keyboard).
Background information
Origin	Frankfurt, Germany
Genres	Gothic metal gothic rock dark wave (early)
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Hall of Sermon Nuclear Blast East West Records Deathwish Office
Members	Tilo Wolff Anne Nurmi
Website	lacrimosa.com

Lacrimosa is a Swiss gothic metal band led by German musician Tilo Wolff, 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 gothic metal genre.

Their musical style mixes gothic rock and heavy metal, along with violin, trumpet, 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

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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 style. Heavy guitars and bombastic arrangements for classical instruments dominate the music in the style of symphonic metal. 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 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. Presented as a play in three parts, Elodia revolves around the theme of love. 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, 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, 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 metal section; the pace of the song increases, a heavy guitar backing takes over, and Wolff switches from singing into a high-pitched death grunt 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. 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 and Prince. The band's latest album was released on 24 December 2021 with the title Leidenschaft ("Passion").

Members

• Tilo Wolff – 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 - 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

1. ^ Hartmann, Andreas (10 August 2007). "Ach, diese Tieftraurigkeit". Die Tageszeitung (in German).
2. "Lacrimosa".
3. Grundei, Daniela (11 October 2005). "Lacrimosa – Elodia". Terrorverlag (in German). Retrieved 21 November 2011.
4. Wolanski, Coreen (1 February 2002). "Lacrimosa Fassade". Exclaim!. No. 2. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
5. Abresche, Thomas (October 2001). "Lacrimosa – Fassade". Sonic Seducer (in German). Archived from the original on 5 April 2012.
6. Abresche, Thomas (February 2003). "Lacrimosa – Echos". Sonic Seducer (in German). Archived from the original on 5 April 2012.
7. Lattekamp, Hendrik (May 2005). "Lacrimosa – Lichtgestalt". Sonic Seducer (in German). Archived from the original on 4 October 2013.
8. Schwarz, Jan (May 2009). "Lacrimosa – Sehnsucht". Sonic Seducer (in German). Archived from the original on 12 January 2014.
9. "Lacrimosa albums re-released". Side-Line. 1 February 2008. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008.
10. Heymann, Peter (2012). "Lacrimosa: Flexibilität" [Lacrimosa: Flexibility]. Sonic Seducer. Vol. 19, no. 7/8. Thomas Vogel Media. pp. 14–15.
11. Wolff, Tilo (27 July 2012). "LACRIMOSA "Revolution" – the new artwork". Lacrimosa - official page. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
12. Spiegel, Jase (15 December 2012). "Interview: Lacrimosa". RockRevolt Mag.
13. "Lacrimosa - Leidenschaft (2021, CD)", Discogs, retrieved 1 December 2023
14. ^ "Discographie von Lacrimosa". GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
15. "Lacrimosa in der österreichischen Hitparade". austriancharts.at (in German). Hung Medien. Archived from the original on 19 June 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
16. "Lacrimosa in Swiss Charts". hitparade.ch. Hung Medien. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
17. "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS (in Polish). 22 October 2001. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
18. "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS (in Polish). 23 May 2005. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
19. "Lacrimosa - Sehnsucht". aCharts.us. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
20. The new Album: TESTIMONIUM
21. "Lacrimosa - Lichtjahre". aCharts.us. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
22. "Lacrimosa - Schattenspiel". aCharts.us. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
23. "Lacrimosa – Single-Chartverfolgung". Musicline.de (in German). Phononet. Retrieved 14 November 2015.

External links

• Lacrimosa
• Snakeskin, a side project of Tilo Wolff
• Interview with Tilo Wolff "Emotional Concept" June 4, 2010
• Lacrimosa discography at Discogs
• Lacrimosa at IMDb

• German dark wave musical groups
• German gothic metal musical groups
• German symphonic metal musical groups
• German musical duos
• Musical groups established in 1990
• Neue Deutsche Todeskunst groups
• Nuclear Blast artists