Lacrimas Profundere. A name almost entirely new to me, yet so familiar. It feels like I’ve always known them. I have no idea how I managed to avoid this group till now, but here I am, ready to live and die through the entire discography.
I came across this band a couple of times before, through Spotify recommendations, artists, or track radios. When I hear something interesting, I look at the track info and like or save the song so I can go back to it later. The last couple of days most of the songs catching my attention were by Lacrimas Profundere, so it was inevitable to develop some kind of feelings for them.
As I started googling, the more I learned about this band, the more hooked I was, so I decided to sit down for once, go through everything from where it all started to their most recents, and give them my first music-related blog post ever. I have no background in music, so I will not touch on the technicalities. My aim is just to write about how the songs/albums make me feel, so if anyone ever reads this, please forgive my amateurism.
A Few Words About the Band
Lacrimas Profundere was founded in 1993 by guitarist Oliver Nikolas Schmid. His brother, Christopher joined the project shortly after and remained the lead vocalist till 2007. He was briefly substituted by Peter Kafka, who was followed by Rob Vitacca until 2018, when the band’s current lead singer, Julian Larre joined the group. The other musicians involved changed several times over the 3 decades, and in the end, Oliver remained the only permanent member of the group. Although it feels like Christopher never really left, as he keeps supporting the band with vocal lines and lyrics.
…and the Wings Embraced Us (1995)
The band’s first album, practically created by a group of teenagers, features 6 tracks. If you pay close attention, you can even smell puberty and all the beer that was probably involved in the making. At least this is how the recording process went among my musician friends when I was around the same age. The album is great for what it is: a demo album from a group of promising, young talents. And I haven’t even considered the lyrics yet. I can’t pick a favorite song; I simply love them all, for bringing back the memories of my youth, with all its beauty and suffering. Thanks, teen Lacrimas! I wonder where the album cover came from though. Somebody, please let me know!
La Naissance D’un Rêve (1997)
At this point, it is clear that these youngsters have mad skills, I couldn’t be more impressed. “A Fairy’s Breath” already shows how much they improved over 2 years, and I don’t want this song to ever end. Luckily, it’s almost 13 minutes long, so I have time to accept the inescapable. The guys – and gals! – did their homework well. The vocals are more stable and technical, the melodies are complex, and the lyrics gained a certain maturity. I feel like this was an incredibly long album for just 6 songs but me gusta mucho regardless.
Memorandum (1999)
Now we are talking! Another 2 years passed, and it sounds like the band cooked up a real album. I gotta say, almost every song made my playlist, but the dearest for me is definitely “Helplessness”, which I consider the strongest track of this album. “Black Swans” was somehow out of place, and the screams of “The Crown of Leaving” left me uneasy. I gave it a second listen though, and while I still don’t like it much, I ended up appreciating the experiment.
Burning: A Wish (2001)
The lyrics are the usual, but oh my, the vocals improved! The album’s first half is faster-paced than the ones before, the second half is more melodic. I simply love “Without” and “Solicitude, Silence”, that’s where the vocals shine the most. The rest of the songs are somewhat fillers for me after hearing them for the first time. All in all, it’s a nice LP from LP (haha), leaning towards a more gothic sound compared to the previous ones, “Adorer and Somebody” is a perfect example of this change.
Fall, I Will Follow (2002)
We’re only one year after Burning: A Wish. The doomy sound, the beautiful growls, and the somewhat deep lyrics are completely gone, and we entered the “it sounds just like HIM” phase, only it is empty and soulless. As much as I want to love it, it doesn’t grab me at all. “Last” makes me really sad, as the vocalist struggles to imitate a style so foreign to him. Chris is so lost in this effort that his personality barely shines through (if ever) throughout this album, and I hate that. I understand the why, but it makes me really sad for these youngsters, who decided to put their interests aside in an attempt to gain momentum. “Liquid” is another disappointing effort to copy a formula, and it just breaks my heart, as I grew to love these guys. I wish they’d waited another year before putting out a new album.
Ave End (2004)
Not gonna lie, “One Hope’s Evening” got me scared, but “Ave End” already saved the day. We’re finally starting to distance ourselves from other bands while staying in the goth line. Some of the lyrics don’t make much sense to me, but there’s a certain silliness to them, so I can’t really be mad about it. The album took a few sexy turns, which I truly enjoy. Oh, those hormonal years of youth!
Looking at the music videos from this album, all I see is a young nerd in big boy clothes being completely embarrassed in front of the camera. A few analogies are funny, because it’s a tiny bit hard to believe our singer has any experience with needles and syringes, but I’m not really mad about them.
“Amber Girl” made it to my permanent playlist, it has such a sweet – and naughty – boyfriend energy, it makes me feel young again. “Astronautumn” is one of the few songs on this album that have real lyric effort in them, and I got a little reminder that there are still unheard growls somewhere, buried under the goth trenchcoat. Either I have a very dirty mind or “Evade” is just too hot to handle. Is there more…? “Wake Down” reminds me once again that there’s so much more in there musically than the group showed us in these two albums, so I have hopes for the rest of the discography.
Filthy Notes for Frozen Hearts (2006)
Here we are, at the last album before Christopher officially left the band. “My Velvet Little Darkness” is a great opener, fast-paced, fun, and catchy, and leaves me longing for more. The following tracks are nothing special for me, no victory, no shame. “Short Glance” has a refreshingly clean and simple melody, the lyrics deliver real pain that won’t go away later. I absolutely love this song. “Filthy Notes” is yet another catchy piece on this rather moody album.
Songs for the Last View (2008)
“A Pearl” starts out great, the lyrics are already more complex than the ones I heard on the previous 3 albums, and “the sweetest lovely mist” is my favorite expression from “The Shadow I Once Kissed”. The backing vocals somehow take away from the song’s intended sweetness, but still, it’s a decent song. The album has an overall weird vibe as Rob Vitacca tries out his wings in a new setting. “Suicide Sun” is probably the best outcome yet from this experiment. “Sacrificial Lamb” is somewhat promising but the change of voice and those little “growls” towards the end just ruin the mood they tried to build up earlier.
The Grandiose Nowhere (2010)
Excuse me but what is it with the recurring “beheading” theme? It hit me in the previous album too. I mean, I’m sort of used to the ongoing “give me a head” theme already from the past albums, I guess I can take a little bit of “beheading” too. I have to say this “liar-enemy” theme is getting old too, but maybe it’s because I literally didn’t do anything else these last few days but listened to these songs and read all the lyrics. I do check the credits too, so I know which song was written by who – and I have to say that young Christopher is either brilliant or a hot mess. Usually, there’s a balanced bipolarity, but not on this album, which makes me wonder what was going on in the writing room. Rob’s contributions aren’t helping much to raise the average quality either. All in all, this album is exhausting, there’s not much ease, but lots of pain and sweat in it for me.
Antiadore (2013)
This album finally sounds like a completed work, nothing is falling apart, and there’s harmony, catchy melodies, and thoughtfully crafted lyrics. Sounds like the group found a balancing point where they can work together productively. These guys always put their strongest ones at the beginning: “My Release in Pain” is exceptionally beautiful (the screams are maybe a bit off though) and the title song, “Antiadore” is also near perfect for my ears and soul. Then again, we are back to the lies, a theme that cannot seem to escape Rob’s songwriting toolkit. Let it out of your system, buddy, I know it hurts… But holy shit, 3 songs about lies in a row! The tables had turned in “Abandon”, where the writer himself (Chris) becomes the liar. So refreshing… “Still in Need” is a well-rounded ballad from Vitacca, but a moment later he returns to the lies in “Head Held High”. Seriously, who hurt you? Other than my issue with all the nasty lies that surround these boys, I can’t stress enough how happy I am with the overall harmony of this album.
Hope Is Here (2016)
This is almost entirely Rob Vitacca’s album lyrics-vise, with the exception of 2 songs, one of which was co-written with Oliver, the other is under the invisible Schmid brother’s belt. It seems that Rob finally got over his trust issues, and started to freely explore other, more complex topics. Good for him! With the liberty of writing his own lyrics and singing in his own style, both his confidence and his vocabulary grew significantly – let’s just take a look at “My Halo Ground” or “Aramis”. The album is full of introspective, melancholic, well-composed ballads. It’s very slow-paced, but I don’t mind it at all. And no lies detected (only broken promises)!
Bleeding the Stars (2019)
With the sad departure of Vitacca, we gained an energetic Julian Larre on the vocals, and our trusty Christopher is back in the lyrics department (Larre got only one track to his name). The music is heavier while preserving the gothic melodies. Larre’s start with the group sounds much smoother than Vitacca’s was, it seems he found his place in the group. He fits right in. He’s in control of his voice and finally brought back those fine growls that were missing from the past 8 albums. The lyrics of “Like Screams in Empty Halls” reach beyond the hopeless romance we’re used to from Christopher, and gets more personal:
“I will scream alone
In those empty halls
And worship my echos
They mean everything
To my dusty heart
And I will follow them”
How to Shroud Yourself with Night (2022)
Julian got to write half of the lyrics this time around, and yay, there are screams and growls, there’s heavy music, and much much chemistry. “A Cloak Woven of Stars” is pure magic and the necRomancing lyrics from Chris work surprisingly well with Julian’s wild screams in “Nebula”. The style of “The Curtain of White Silence” reminds me of In This Moment – A LOT, which somewhat bothers me, but the lyrics are nice so I’ll get over it. “Unseen” is another of my favorites from this album, perfectly executed; and “To Disappear in You” builds up slowly but blows up hard! Glad the band finally found Christopher’s more than perfect echo.
So, that was it! These were some intense couple of days; I lived, died inside, and was reborn in the process, but I’m finally through it. The band had its ups and downs for sure, but what band doesn’t? I’ve created a Spotify playlist with the songs I liked the most from each album that’s available there (except Fall, I Will Follow – sorry, but I have my reasons), and will happily revisit them every once in a while.
If you have any thoughts to add, feel free to leave a comment below.
(PS: Sending my love to the band, and I wish them a very happy 30th anniversary!)
