Awake

I had to go back to Crematory’s discography after the band’s recent appeal to all their fans to start supporting them by purchasing all the band-related paraphernalia including concert tickets and all the rest… cause otherwise there are very few occasions when I genuinely recall them. It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just that once I’ve gone through their repertoire several times I don’t find it really necessary to listen to them on very regular bases.

The guys by all means had their more than just 15-min of fame back in the 90’s when they headed the gothic metal wave in their homeland, and not only. It’s debatable whether their early, more doom/death metal-prone, works did not deliver the goods in a better way than their subsequent, more commercially viable “physiognomy” but, truth be told, the initial layout wasn’t that radically brutal or scary for one to start screaming “Betrayal!” the moment the sumptuous, keyboard-infused soundscapes of the self-titled opus reached the ears. The latter instalment quite nicely introduced the more laid-back approach that the band have been exercising for the past 20 years although the album reviewed here wasn’t content with just repeating the mellow, richly atmospheric formula; some of the earlier, more boisterous swagger was brought back, not in any overt deathy manner, but still decidedly more aggressive than its game-changing predecessor.

For one thing, Felix Stass’ vocals remain on the intimidating deathy side for at least half the time, with frequent mean-ish cleaner, both semi-declamatory and actually singing insertions creating the more appropriate setting for the musical escapades which at least on “Lord of Lies” are bouncy and dynamic regardless of the omnipresent keyboards. This cut’s formula, however, doesn’t set the tone for what follows as the guys are quick to mortify such boisterous attempts with atmospheric balladic/semi-balladic pieces (“Away”, “For Love”) where the cleaner vocals do a very good job to notch up the instilling romanticism although the operatic extravaganza “Crematory” speeds up nicely later, matching the more energetic layout of “Temple of Love”… yes, a Sisters of Mercy cover, also made about a decade earlier by the band’s compatriots Wotan, very well done here, leading a small pack of vigorous numbers which stride is ultimately obstructed by the poignant, overabundantly keyboard-guided “Mirror” that at least wins from the vocal department, one of Felix’s most inspired, most emotional performances.

Well, this is pretty much the model for gothic metal, its softer keyboard-dominated side as opposed to the edgier, more guitar-driven approach of Paradise Lost and Cemetary, and the heavier more doom-inclined feats of Theatre of Tragedy and The Gathering. The mentioned time and again keyboards may be deemed too big beautifiers as at times they plain stifle the guitars, the guys overdoing it perhaps here and there with these lush electronic soundscapes, but this was a new trajectory already initiated by the preceding opus, and there was no turning back. Apparently, it was also a fairly trendy gimmick as the band’s fanbase increased exponentially, and by the end of the decade there was hardly a more commercially successful outfit on the German gothic metal circuit, and not only.

20 years down the line the musical landscape has been altered quite a bit although it’s quite surprising that the band have reached such a state of desperation. Each of their subsequent works, from this one onward, has done nothing wrong except to consolidate their status as one of the leaders of the gothic metal movement. Neither can be considered a downright masterpiece, but there was hardly any effort coming close to being a deplorable flop either. If the title of their oncoming new album is a reflection of the current state of affairs then, I don’t know, maybe some change of course should be taken… it’s difficult to give a recipe for commercial success on the contemporary, very flippant music horizon. A rude awakening should befall the complacent, and not very caring audience… and why not by a bunch of once relevant and authoritative German gothic metallers?

You know you're desperate for attention when you use artwork that resembles an early Hypocrisy album cover and your band doesn't even fucking RESEMBLE Hypocrisy!

I remember seeing this album just stick out like a sore thumb in the old Spec's record store from back in the day. It just always fucking stood there looking at me whenever I would get a chance to visit there and buy a new CD if I saved up my allowance or whatever. I always remembered picking it up looking at it unsure of what I might hear and as always I put it back down because....I didn't know what the fuck to expect. Well that was then, and this is now, and I'm glad I never purchased this album because it's album cover and artwork deceives the listener. This is good and bad in my rule book. Good because if your album has good artwork, it can raise the value of the album and at least give the listener some decent eye candy, but bad in various trickery ways that will not really fit the music but make perfect sense at the same time.

Remember how I said the band used an album cover that resembles early Hypocrisy? Again, they sure as fuck don't sound like Hypocrisy...it's a cheesy mixture of Goth Rock mixed with simple metal riffs and Death metal vocals. There is NO Death Metal here at all. Imagine The Sisters of Mercy's Andrew Eldritch singing a doom/gothic metal song and then start growling. It's not as bad as it seems, it really isn't. It's cheesy-as-fuck but in a good way. It's a combo that sound good to mess around with, but in reality isn't going to gather much of a fan base. It's sure not going to start any scene what-so-ever. No, this is something only Europeans can come up with when they are bored. If you took away the obvious Goth influences, you could see this being put next to early Katatonia. Crematory is a bit more limp-wristed than say "Dance of December Souls" but the contrast of two different music genres is somewhat resembling. Sound production is squeaky clean mid-90's Nuclear Blast style...the lyrics are about doomed love and other traits that other cheesy fucking Goth Metal acts seem to obsess over.

The songs range from short pieces that leaves questions marks over your head(Maze) to good songs(Away) to crap that just bores you to fucking tears(For Love). The cover of TSOM's "Temple of Love" is so damn cheesy it makes me nauseated on my stomach. It's a mixed bag of simplistic music really. But there are some good stand-out tracks that make the album worth listening to such as "Lord of Lies", "Mirror", "Away" and gives a little bit of hope that's you'll find even better songs throughout the rest of the album, but that won't happen.

I would love to give this album a bad rating, I would trust me. I would have loved to ridicule the complete shit out of this band. There is nothing more hilarious to me than seeing a bunch of guys in cheesy Goth apparel trying to sound scary while trying to lure in fans. But, fortunately for these cheese balls they managed to right a few decent cuts on here that kept me from doing so. I guess you might want to pick it up....it's been 11 years since I started wondering if I would actually want to spend money on this album or just putting it back on the shelf!