CoC : Lacrimas Profundere - Memorandum : Review

Lacrimas Profundere - _Memorandum_
(Napalm Records, 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo (9 out of 10)

As Autumn arrives and rain starts to pour from the grey skies outside, Lacrimas Profundere have released the right album for the season, both for those who are struck by melancholy at the coming of Autumn and those who feel Autumn inside all year long. _Memorandum_ was easily one of the best surprises I have had in a long time as far as the fulfilling of musical potential goes. _La Naissance d'un Reve_ was one of those albums that have several really interesting passages, but overall the band was still too inexperienced to make a consistently good album. _Memorandum_ turns out to have the consistency that _La Naissance d'un Reve_ lacked, while retaining and improving all the qualities of its predecessor. This is something that could be described as lovelorn doom. Both clean and death vox are very well used, as are some female vocals, acoustic guitars, violin, harp(!) and, of course, keyboard -- all this while still being very clearly metal-based. Anathema's masterpiece _The Silent Enigma_ occasionally comes to mind, as well as Sculpture's MCD _Like a Dead Flower_ [CoC #30], both essentially because of the guitar work and emotion, and _Memorandum_ manages to get very unusually close to the best. Beautiful, highly emotional, very well crafted; definitely one of the very best doom releases of 1999.

Contact: Oliver Schmid, Rosenstrasse 23, D-83329,

(article published 12/10/1999)

ALBUMS
20/7/2006	J Smit	5	Lacrimas Profundere - Filthy Notes for Frozen Hearts
12/8/2001	P Azevedo	7.5	Lacrimas Profundere - Burning: A Wish