Lacrimosa – Schattenspiel (2010)

With such and impressive discography under their belts, Lacrimosa sets out to make some money and release a ‘compilation’ album in 2010 to summarize their career so far and show how much the band has evolved over time. With “Schattenspiel”, instead of taking the typical approach and cram in all their greatest songs, they put together 19 songs most of them have been unreleased in the past.

We are not huge fans of ‘best of’ or compilations releases that aim to make money and nothing else, but Lacrimosa tries a unique thing with their take on a compilation release. Documenting their evolution from the 90’s on the first CD, to the 2000’s on the second CD, this release is purely targeted to their core die-hard fans that will kill for anything new or rare of the band. And this release satisfies their craving with two new songs titled “Sellador” and “Ohne Dich Ist Alles Nichts”.

The first 4 songs in this release are from 1990, and all of them feature a very somber mood and a less-bombastic approach that the band had latter on in their career. These songs in particular are nice to showcase how everything started and how much Tilo and company have grown as musicians. “Schakal” shows the weirder side of Lacrimosa and how the orchestrations/arrangements started to be incorporated into the band’s sound. The excellent “Copycat” is presented in an extended version that will surely make you love this song even more.

The more melodic and symphonic side of Lacrimosa shines on the second CD of this release and with songs like “Morgen”, “Schönheit straft jedes Gefühl” and “Mantiquor”, the band presents their best side. With a nice combination of Gothic Rock/Metal and Symphonic elements, the band carved its name and with the songs on this CD, the full evolution of the band is well documented. Of the new songs, “Sellador” is a quite active piece that features lush orchestrations and a very catchy nature due to its electronic elements. “Ohne Dich ist alles nichts” is a very dramatic piece that nicely closes this release and hopefully shows what’s in store for all fans of the band in the future.

As far as a compilation/”best of” release, “Schattenspiel” is a very good double release that will have any fan of the band running to get it. It also shows very nicely how the band has evolved and would serve as a good starter for somebody that wants to get into the band’s sound. We enjoyed the progression of the songs in this album, and if it wasn’t for the weird remixes, we would have rated this release 90 or higher.

Release: April 9th, 2011

Country: Switzerland/Germany