Lacrimosa’s ‘Fassade’ turns 25 on 1 October
Lacrimosa released their seventh studio album, “Fassade,” through Hall of Sermon and Nuclear Blast on 1 October 2001. The gothic metal record turns 25 this year.
The Swiss duo, Tilo Wolff and Anne Nurmi, recorded and mixed “Fassade” between January and June 2001 at Impuls Musicproductions in Hamburg, with orchestral parts performed by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg recorded in March 2001 at the Scoring Stage in Berlin. JP Genkel recorded and mixed the album, and Helge Halvé handled mastering in July 2001. Wolff arranged, produced and sang on the record; Nurmi wrote and sang the album’s English-language track, “Senses,” while Wolff wrote the remaining seven songs. The eight-track album is built around the title piece “Fassade,” a three-part composition split across tracks one, five and eight, with the remaining songs, “Der Morgen danach,” “Senses,” “Warum so tief?,” “Liebesspiel” and “Stumme Worte,” filling out a 52-minute run time. “Fassade” reached number 20 on the German Albums Chart and number 31 in Switzerland, following 1999’s “Elodia,” which had marked the band’s commercial breakthrough with the London Symphony Orchestra. “Fassade” streams on Spotify.
About Lacrimosa
Tilo Wolff founded Lacrimosa in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1990, recording a demo tape titled “Clamor” before launching his own label, Hall of Sermon, in 1991 to release the debut album “Angst.” A harlequin has appeared on every Lacrimosa album cover since, becoming the band’s logo. Wolff released “Einsamkeit” (1992) and “Satura” (1993) as the project’s sole member before Finnish musician Anne Nurmi, formerly of the gothic rock band Two Witches, joined as a permanent second member in 1994. Nurmi has contributed her own compositions in Finnish and English on every album since “Inferno” (1995), which became the band’s first charting release in Germany. “Stille” (1997) introduced the heavier, symphonic metal direction that defined the band’s sound going forward. “Elodia” (1999) became Lacrimosa’s commercial breakthrough, reaching number 12 in Germany with orchestral parts recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. “Fassade” followed on 1 October 2001, continuing the orchestral approach with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, an arrangement repeated on “Echos” (2003). In 2008, Hall of Sermon reclaimed the rights to the band’s back catalogue from Nuclear Blast, restoring full independence over the discography. Lacrimosa continued to release albums through the 2000s and 2010s, including “Lichtgestalt” (2005), “Sehnsucht” (2009), “Revolution” (2012), “Hoffnung” (2015) and “Testimonium” (2017), the latter a requiem in four acts dedicated to musicians who died in 2016. Side-Line marked the band’s 25th anniversary in 2015 with the announcement of a new studio album, and reported on the band’s 2021 return with “Leidenschaft,” delayed at the time by a worldwide paper shortage. Side-Line also covered the 2023 release of the double live CD “Nachts” on Hall of Sermon. “Lament,” released in 2025, completed a stylistic trilogy begun with “Testimonium” and debuted at number 7 in Germany, the band’s highest chart position since “Elodia.” Lacrimosa remains one of the longest-running self-released acts in the gothic metal scene, operating continuously through Wolff’s own label since 1991. “Fassade” turns 25 this year, marking a quarter century since the band’s most explicit engagement with themes of individuality and societal conformity.
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