Lacrimosa

Taking their name from the Latin word for weeping, Switzerland-based duo Lacrimosa employ an icy blend of darkwave, gothic rock, and symphonic metal that invokes names like Tristania, Lacuna Coil, Theater of Tragedy, Sisters of Mercy, and Epica. Formed in the early 1990s by German multi-instrumentalist and composer Tilo Wolff and Finnish vocalist, keyboard player, and composer Anne Marjanna Nurmi, the project was initially a Wolff-centric venture, with Nurmi joining in 1994 and making her first appearance on the group's fourth album, Inferno. 1997's powerful Stille found success on the German charts on the strength of the single "Stolzes Herz," while 1999's ambitious Elodia saw the group deliver their first rock opera, which was divided into three acts and featured the London Symphony Orchestra, Rosenberg Ensemble, and Hamburg State Opera. The band continued to move further away from the heavy goth-metal style that dominated earlier outings with the likes of 2001's Fassade and 2003's Echoes, but struck a balance between the two dispositions on 2005's symphonic metal-driven Lichtgestalt. The band's tenth studio long-player, Sehnsucht, arrived in 2009, and offered up a more varied, non-conceptual set of material that drew comparisons to Rammstein and Nightwish, as did subsequent offerings such as Revolution (2012), Hoffnung (2015), and Testimonium (2017). ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi