It’s a funny time for Goth Metal at the minute. The 69 Eyes are back to what they do best, leaving the cock rock behind in favour of their familiar Goth ‘n’ Roll. HIM’s latest offering has been joined in the thirteen-year-old Emo market by another distinctly boring bunch in the form of Dommin. And finally this past week we learnt of the death of the influential and unique Peter Steele of Type O Negative. Now into this state of flux appears a new album by German gloomsters Lacrimas Profundere.
The evolution of the band has been solid as far as song writing goes, but it is definitely a change that has been based on the successes of others. Their original ethereal doom sound that morphed into the attention grabbing ‘Burning: A Wish’ album (the band’s high water mark) and then the HIM and 69 Eyes influences began to dilute the backbone of the band’s sound. They clawed it back to a certain extent on 2006’s ‘Filthy Notes For Frozen Hearts,’ but the subsequent line-up change which saw the introduction of new vocalist Rob Vitacca has seen another major shift towards a generic sound.
Track one, ‘Be Mine in Tears,’ immediately displays the classic Profundere traits of memorable riffs, groovy keys and a foot tapping beat - Vitacca’s rockier vocals work well and it makes an effective start. ‘The Letter’ sounds like a leftover from Filthy Notes… which is a good thing and a bad thing - good as it is a strong musical moment, but bad as it draws comparisons to Christopher Schmid’s vocals. ‘Lips’ is a nice aggressive attack that uses some nice underlying garage rock style keyboard sounds that really tie the track together. ‘I Don’t Care’ sounds way too much like HIM for my liking, which is a shame as LP have always managed to walk the fine line between ‘influenced by…’ and ‘sounds like…’. ‘Her Occasion of Sin’ is a bit unremarkable - well written, and excellently performed but ultimately feeling like a quick bit of filler. The halfway point track on the album ‘A Plea’ steps it up in favour of those big keyboard sounds and mournful sounding guitars, vocally still a bit Ville Valo-ish but clawing the album back from the brink. ‘Not for Love’ is a nice rocky track that ups the credibility of the album another notch. However ‘The Fear of Being Alone’ brings some gothic chic back to the forefront with it’s nod to the classic albums of The 69 Eyes. ‘My Little Fear’ veers dangerously back towards HIM territory with a shaky attempt at the angst in eyeliner sound. ‘Side’ is more like it; another track that could have been on one of the band’s classic albums that works without baritone vocals. ‘Dead Heart Serenade’ is one of those tracks that you know is written for the audience to help sing, yet it doesn’t quite have the oomph it needs. The final song ‘No Matter Where You Shoot Me Down’ is a nice closing statement - it’s gritty, beat driven rock that is a nice change of pace.
This is a good album. It could have been very good if the band cut three of the weaker tracks off it, but on the whole it’s still worth a listen. With the Rock ‘n’ Sad crew heading in this more friendly direction it’s safe to say the Lacrimas Profundere I remember are not the ones that are about to enjoy a new surge of popularity. Instead it’s a band that, for good or bad, have the mainstream in their sights and are ready to make their mark. Time will tell if they reach the heights of HIM but in the here and now I’ll still happily take this over any HIM or Dommin albums.
http://www.lacrimas.com
http://www.myspace.com/lacrimasprofundre
