Way back in the early nineties Lacrimas Profundere started out as a gothic doom band.

‘La naissance d’un rêve’ is still a much sought after gem from a time before that style become overpopulated and plagiarized. The German band quickly realized afterwards they needed to break new ground to stay ahead of the pack. So they shifted gears and incorporated a lot more straightforward rock influences without forsaking the sense of goth melodrama. They were not alone in this direction. Likewise Sentenced, Katatonia or even HIM had taken a similar path to melancholy. Now many years later, their gloomy musings still echo very little hope despite the optimistically monikered title. It’s a concept story around a boy Aramis, alone and lost out in the woods. With a concept album you can’t just string a couple of songs together that have matching lyrics. You need to make the music itself tell a tale as well, much in the same way as a soundtrack works. Not so easy for gothic rock that needs to have its fair share of crunchy guitars and sweeping melodies ingrained in its DNA on every song. They make it work quite well, however. The songs “Pageant” and “You, my North” are a particularly good examples of their storytelling capabilities. “Hope is Here”  has pushed the envelope for them once again and that is a for sure a sign of hope for any band with a twenty year plus successful career.

Tracklist:

1. The Worship of Counting Down
2. My Halo Ground
3. Hope is Here
4. Aramis
5. A Million Miles
6. No Man’s Land
7. Pageant
8. You, my North
9. Awake
10. The Path of Broken Homes
11. Timbre

Label: SPV

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7.5/10