To be released on December 18th is the newest Lacrimosa release “1990-2020 The Anniversary box” to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary.

This box was originally planned to be sold by the band through their mailorder only but now also sees a further distribution via other shops.

The set holds 3 CDs, with a total playing time of 3 hours and 40 minutes. The first disc holds the legendary 25th anniversary concert spread over 12 tracks. The second disc “Cover Up” holds 15 renditions of Lacrimosa songs by such bands as Lords Of The Lost, Black Moon Secret, Canterra, Atrocity, Mono Inc., ect..

The real gem in this set is disc 3, called “Versionen”. This CD holds Tilo Wolff’s piano demos from the very first days of the band.

1. Reissende Blicke (Piano Demo from March 2nd 1991)
2. Der Geschmack der Schmerzen (Piano Demo from January 15th 1992)
3. Versuchung (Demo Version from March 10th 1993)
4. Diener eines Geistes (Rehearsal Room from November 9th 1993)
5. Der letzte Hilfeschrei (Live in Hamburg from November 17th 1993)
6. Seele in Not (Live in Hamburg from November 17th 1993)
7. Schakal (Keyboard Demo from April 22nd 1994)
8. Alles Lüge (Live and Unplugged in Lübeck from January 13th 1996)
9. Mein zweites Herz (Club Mix from September 28th 1996)
10. Einsamkeit (Piano Version from May 15th 2020)
11. Schakal (Piano Version from June 18th 2020)
12. Weil Du Hilfe brauchst (Version for the Anniversary Concert on August 28th 2020)

The box also contains a flag modelled on those used at the band’s concerts. For the little ones amongst you, there is a memory game by Anne Nurmi and Tilo Wolff; a wall calendar for the year 2021 and a sticker made of chrome. All this comes packed in a high-quality, super deluxe hand-numbered box with special UV-printing.

There are no plans to release the content separately so the band says.

About Lacrimosa

Lacrimosa are a gothic duo led by German Tilo Wolff, the main composer, and Finn Anne Nurmi. The project started in 1990 when Tilo Wolff released a tape called “Clamor” using the band name of Lacrimosa. The year after he founds a new record company called Hall of Sermon, as an independent label to publish the Lacrimosa records. In 1993 Anne Nurmi joins the solo project to play keyboard, becoming a permanent member soon after.

They are currently based in Switzerland, but originally from Germany. Originally counted among the bands of the Neue Deutsche Todeskunst genre, Lacrimosa have developed their style more towards powerful metal, but gothic elements still remain.

Their current musical style mixes gothic rock and heavy metal, along with violin, trumpet, and more classical instruments, although their musical development throughout the years has also led to changes in instrumentation. Lacrimosa’s lyrics are written almost exclusively in German, although since the 1995 album Inferno every album has featured one or two songs in English, generally written by Anne Nurmi. Finnish has also appeared in the spoken intro to two songs (“Schakal” on Inferno and “The Turning Point” on Elodia) and on a bonus track in a limited edition release of Fassade called Vankina.

The band’s last studio album was the 2017 release “Testimonium”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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The biggest distributor for the industrial electro scene, Audioglobe, has announced its Top 10 in best selling industrial music labels. The numbers were already out there for the labels to look at it, but here they are also for the regular fans. Note that with 2018, Audioglobe also enters it’s 25th year of existance as the distributor set up shop on 6 December 1993. We will of course have a big extended interview and more with Sebastian Koch regarding this great achievement in a very tough market.

But now the numbers many of you have been waiting for!

The Top 3

First the Top 3. The number 1 label in sales is Trisol which has bands such as Clan of Xymox, Rome, Project Pitchfork, Sopor Aeternus, Nachtmahr, Rotersand, Asp, Mantus etc. under contract. The second label in the list is the Belgian based Alfa Matrix which nurtures the talent of Front 242, Underviewer, Daniel B Prothèse, Metroland, Alien Vampires, Ayria, Leatherstrip, Psy’Aviah, Kant Kino and so many other acts. Note that this label also has a very strong e-shop presence (direct sales are not included in this Top 10 list). The 3rd label is Out Of Line with Blutengel, Combichrist, Hocico, Solar Fake, Heimataerde, Unzucht, Solitary Experiments. Also this label has an own e-shop.

The rest of the Top 10

The 4th label is Fabrika/Dead Scarlet (She Past Away, Lebanon Hanover, Selofan, Kaelan Mikla, M!R!M, Doric…) followed by ArtOfFact (Legend, Frontline Assembly, Haujobb, Psyche, Noise Unit, Dead When I found her, Pankow…) and Metropolis (Birthday Massacre, Aesthetic Perfection, God Module, Lords of Acid, Skinny Puppy, Delerium…). The 7th place is occupied by Rustblade (Morricone, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, Leaether Strip, Lydia Lunch, Legendary Pink Dots, Merzbow…). Also Dependent is still in the Top 10, namely on spot 8 with their label roster (Covenant, Mesh, Pride & Fall, Beborn Beton, Seabound, Encephalon, Frontline Assembly, Clicks..). Place 9 and 10 finally are for Manic Depression (Winter Severity Index, Ash Code, Schonwald, Box and the Twins, Sjoblom, Dear Deer…) and Undo (Marsheaux, Girl One and the Grease Guns, Mesh, Fotonovela, OMD, Nikonn, Mikro, Vienna, Liebe…).

And on spot 11 and 12…

2 labels didn’t make the Top 10, namely Hall Of Sermon (Lacrimosa, Snakeskin, Black Moon Secret, Eyes Shut Tight) and Infacted (NamNamBulu, Grendel, Torul, Reaper, Frozen Plasma, Ruined Conflict, Orange Sector, Syntec…). Both labels ended on place 11 and 12.

Here’s the complete list again. The bands next to the label are listed in order of sales results/total turnover per band in 2017 via Audioglobe.

01 TRISOL (Clan of Xymox, Rome, Project Pitchfork, Sopor Aeternus, Nachtmahr, Rotersand, Asp, Mantus…)
02 ALFA MATRIX (Front 242, Underviewer, Daniel B Prothèse, Metroland, Alien Vampires, Ayria, Leatherstrip…)
03 OUT OF LINE (Blutengel, Combichrist, Hocico, Solar Fake, Heimataerde, Unzucht, Solitary Experiments …)
04 FABRIKA/DEAD SCARLET (She Past Away, Lebanon Hanover, Selofan, Kaelan Mikla, M!R!M, Doric…)
05 ARTOFFACT (Legend, Frontline Assembly, Haujobb, Psyche, Noise Unit, Dead When I found her, Pankow…)
06 METROPOLIS (Birthday Massacre, Aesthetic Perfection, God Module, Lords of Acid, Skinny Puppy, Delerium…)
07 RUSTBLADE (Morricone, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, Leaether Strip, Lydia Lunch, Legendary Pink Dots, Merzbow…)
08 DEPENDENT (Covenant, Mesh, Pride & Fall, Beborn Beton, Seabound, Encephalon, Frontline Assembly, Clicks..)
09 MANIC DEPRESSION (Winter Severity Index, Ash Code, Schonwald, Box and the Twins, Sjoblom, Dear Deer…)
10 UNDO (Marsheaux, Girl One and the Grease Guns, Mesh, Fotonovela, OMD, Nikonn, Mikro, Vienna, Liebe…)
11 HALL OF SERMON (Lacrimosa, Snakeskin, Black Moon Secret, Eyes Shut Tight)
12 INFACTED (NamNamBulu, Grendel, Torul, Reaper, Frozen Plasma, Ruined Conflict, Orange Sector, Syntec…)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Genre/Influences: Goth-rock, rock-metal, hard-rock.

Content: Behind this new band is hiding Lacrimosa’s guitarist JP Genkel. This artist has worked and produced some real famous names in the goth-metal scene while he was ‘secretly’ busy composing songs for his own project during the past few years.

With the input of extra artists featuring his Lacrimosa’s mates Manne Uhlig and Julien Schmidt plus Henrik Flyman and singer Olaf Senkbeil the album was finally achieved. I didn’t know what to expect, but for some reasons I was sure “Another World” would not sound like ‘another Lacrimosa’. Black Moon Secret sounds definitely different –although you here and then will possibly notice a little flavor of Lacrimosa.

This band sounds more inspired by a mix of metal- and rock music with an extra dark, gothic touch on top. Some of the songs sound a bit like the hybrid between The Scorpions and Pink Floyd. The impressive guitar solos will definitely please lovers of this instrument.

The tracks were accomplished by background electronic arrangements while other piano passages can be heard as well. I also notice different symphonic traces like at “See” and “Feel” which move more into electronic symphonic arrangements.

The debut part of the CD can’t fully convince, but right in the midst of the tracklist we get the attention grabbers “Eyes” and “Falling”. Both songs sound harder and are carried by solid guitar riffs. I personally prefer this tough side, which still reveal a real outburst at the chorus of “Falling” plus a great and symphonic apotheosis.

The tracklist finally moves towards some delicate passages (cf. “Fly”) while the last song (cf. “Pictures”) makes me think of the hard-rock style of Scorpions. So in the end I would say there’s a lot to experience on this album, which is mixing different genres.

Conclusion: Black Moon Secret clearly exorcized different musical ghosts, which become more convincing during the harder songs.

Best songs: “Falling”, “Eyes”.

Rate: (Elise Din:6½)Elise Din.

Band: www.blackmoonsecret.com / www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Moon-Secret/168641059834515

Label: http://www.lacrimosa.ch / www.facebook.com/LacrimosaOfficial

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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