Lacrimas Profundere

Burning: A Wish (Napalm)
by Scott Hefflon

While Lacrimas Profundere‘s last release, Memorandum, supposedly sold a reputable 30,000 copies, I kinda don’t see this German Goth metal band on par with the big boys. Touting members of Darkseed (who I also considered second-rate) just doesn’t justify the “in the vein of My Dying Bride, Katatonia, Anathema, and Type O Negative,” slogan, although the latter is a fun play on words. (Vein, type o negative, get it?) Hell, not even those bands are always able to make the heavy, morbid shuffle more than a dreary nod, so it’s no surprise that their opening bands often soothe you into an uneasy sleep, dark shapes dancing and beckoning faintly from imperfectly-crafted dreams. Some nice elements, granted, but it’s all, ya know, first-draft stuff. And after almost a decade, you’d think these guys could’ve dug a little deeper into their fears and the many ways of musically creating unease in the listener.
(PO Box 382 Bremerton, WA 98337)