LACRIMOSA: FASSADE

SCORE: 69/100

'Fassade' starts off more like a classical work than a metal album before booming into something heavier - a striking example of some of the more orchestral influences taken by gothic metal. Once it finishes building up at the start it blooms into a beautifully dark symphony of both dark and blissful - a combination that mingles incredibly well.

The vocals on this album aren't the best, but the stunning nature of the instrumentals makes up for this to some degree. As the album progresses the vocals seem a lot less grating, and the sound of this album is a striking display of highly stylized and complex gothic metal that takes influences from countless other (similar) subgenres of metal and other genres to make one big boiling pot of different soundscapes.

Some moments on the album are more worthwhile than others - and it pales significantly due to how heavy it manages to drag. The songs seem to run on for what feels like forever, but they are arranged well enough to make this album good. It's very slow in a way that is sometimes more boring than it is entertaining, and the overall atmosphere of the album is overshadowed by how much the tracks drag on. The album felt like it had been going on for an hour only three tracks in - which is never a helpful factor in an album's quality.

There is a huge cloud of doom over this album that looms over every note in an almost haunting fashion. It's a stunning album that is broken up into different sections that come together into one central theme of loneliness and sorrow. The German vocal performances make this project more interesting than most as English is a commonly found language within the genre - and the different language makes the album feel even more full of depth and unique concepts. It adds a sense of mystique and uniqueness to the album that you won't find from any other goth bands - and although it isn't the best in the genre and it runs for what may seem like much too long, it's still worthwhile.

'Fassade' had a lot more potential than what ended up being shown in the final result, but there are some moments that keep the album afloat; making it somewhat worthwhile, but not entirely.

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