Lacrimosa – Angst review by Kanaan Minks

Released in 1991, Angst is the first release from Lacrimosa.  Unlike today, back in 1991, Lacrimosa was a one man band, a solo project by Tilo Wolff.

As the album’s name Angst suggests (Angst is a German word, meaning “a feeling of anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression”), this is Lacrimosa’s darkest albums.  Nowadays Lacrimosa are normally labeled as a metal / gothic band, but don’t expect to hear anything near ‘metal’ in this album.  The music is dark and gloomy, and contains a hint of darkwave.  As a matter of fact, the low quality sound in this album make it sound creepy and sometimes even scary.  Tt is very difficult tag this album with a specific genre.

Angst was recorded by Tilo Wolff himself, when he was 19 years old.  A big achievement for a 19 year old.  This was his first step towards success.  Using keyboards, guitars and drum machines, the production quality of this album is far from perfect.  It is in fact of amateurish and poor quality.  Though the dark music and lyrics in this album pay off well for the poor production quality.  If you are into those rare gothic and symphonic dark wave projects, this is the album for you.  Although some parts of the music can be quite repetitive and dragging, the dark melodies, hypnotic rhythms and Tilo’s deep voice classify this album as one of the best oldies dark projects.  You won’t listen to any other album which can be placed in the same category as Angst.

The lyrics tackle every day’s harsh life subjects such as solitude, fear, loneliness and as well religion.  In fact the harshest song in this album is Der Ketzer (The Heretic), which is about the Pope.  Although the music style promotes darkness, sadness and solitude, which typically is accompanied by screams, vocals are clean.

Lacrimosa superseded this album with better produced albums later on, though in my opinion Angst remains one of the most treasured Lacrimosa albums.  None of the newer Lacrimosa albums are as dark and experimental as this one, that delivers the same atmosphere.  Also, the first band project is always something unique which can never be repeated as the band evolves to discover other musical boundaries.  Every Lacrimosa fan should have this album in his collection since one cannot appreciate today’s Lacrimosa without feeling their history, where they are coming from and their musical roots.

The lyrics of Angst are in German and there is no translation in the album sleeve.  Click here for a translation of the lyrics.

by Kanaan Minks