German goth band Lacrimosa was founded a decade ago by Tilo Wolff. To celebrate this, “Fassade” is released instead of some greatest hits résumé like so many bands do. After their previous release “Elodia” and the subsequent tour, Lacrimosa started to work on “Fassade”. Compositions were written for a symphony orchestra, choirs and rock instruments. This combination leads to a unique mix of varying music styles, for instance rock and classic. Despite of this variation the music never looses the true typical sound that Lacrimosa is known for. Tilo’s typical voice remains loaded with emotions throughout all eight tracks of the album. Of course female vocalist Anne Nurmi stands by his side in this new musical chapter of the band. Most of the lyrics are in German, which can take some time to get used to. But when you’ve gotten used to that, the entire emotional world of Tilo opens before you. To shed some light on that world, we’ve done an interview with him. Read the interview section! With or without that light, this is and remains a great CD to drift away on during these gray and rainy Fall days. Main theme is the superficiality of our current-day society, the selfishness of people and Tilo’s opinion that everybody cares more for a person’s outward appearance than for his/her inner self.

This main theme can be found in a trilogy: ‘Fassade - 1. Satz’, ‘Fassade - 2. Satz’ and logically ‘Fassade - 3. Satz’. This trilogy may deal with the same theme, they do sound quite different. ‘Fassade - 1. Satz’, the opener of the CD, is quite dramatic and has quite a grandeur. The second part can be characterized by the choir parts and the soundtrack-like atmosphere. There are both stronger parts in the song that present themselves clearly to the listener and quieter parts that slowly float somewhere in the background. Last part of the trilogy (and of the album) is ‘Fassade - 3. Satz’; a bombastic rock final ending in choir singing. In between the trilogy are 5 more songs. ‘Der morgen danach’ is a somewhat calm rock song. Anne Nurmi quite faintly sings the beautiful ballad ‘Senses’ in English. She’s followed by Tilo’s depressing quest for darker emotions. In ‘Warum so tief’ he deals with mother fear and father pain (mutter angst und vater schmerz). “Liebesspiel” is definitely the hardest and fastest rock song on the album, featuring the vocals of both Tilo and Anne. “Stumme Worte”, a beautiful ballad, is based on a violin, a piano and Tilo’s vocals. Hearing this album left me wondering why they’re not all that successful over here…