ALBUM REVIEW: Requiem – Laudare
The sounds emanating from LAUDARE‘s dizzying second album Requiem are nothing short of a surprise. Released amidst a sea of post-metal albums, many featuring ethereal female vocals paired with dense, low-end guitar riffs and atmospheric synths, LAUDARE‘s black metal-inspired barrage of harsh, angular soundscapes is a jarring contrast. Almut, one of LAUDARE’s vocalists, is a powerhouse, unleashing a trilling, but intense vocal tranquillity over tracks like Dies Irae and Lacrimosa. These compositions resist simplistic labels like “progressive” or “gothic”—terms often applied to any metal band with a female singer—but fall well short of capturing the breadth of LAUDARE’s sonic palette.
Germany, with its often avant-garde musical tendencies, serves as the perfect breeding ground for such a bizarre aural concoction. The song structures on Requiem are a whirlwind of dense, chaotic complexity – Quid Sum Miser and Offertorium for example- regularly diving into contrasting dissonance and melody like Rex Tremendae and Agnus Dei, while also delivering unexpected, groove-driven tracks like Sanctus. All of this is performed with a staggering level of musicianship, full of mind-bending twists and unpredictable turns.
In truth, LAUDARE’s ambitious creativity, bordering on sheer madness, ensures that Requiem will likely resonate only with a select group of open-minded listeners. Yet, for those who appreciate the extreme metal intensity of BLUT AUS NORD, the bold experimentation of ANATHEMA, or the fearless invention of THERION, Requiem is bound to be a revelation.
LAUDARE’s self-described “violent poetry” encapsulates their avant-garde approach perfectly. They masterfully combine seemingly incompatible elements—cello, piano, Gregorian chanting, acoustic guitars, and black metal shrieks—blending them into a surprisingly digestible and cohesive whole. The Leipzig-based quartet manages to fuse these disparate sounds with a deftness that feels both artistic and defiant, a musical impudence that somehow works.
Requiem carries an eerie, otherworldly flow. Despite its strange and complex nature, it feels oddly comfortable, as if composed on the softest of surfaces but with a doom-laden feather. While comparisons could be drawn to bands within the various genres LAUDARE touches upon, these would be superficial at best. The band has carved out a niche all their own, with a sound that screams originality laced with melancholic beauty. The tracks on Requiem seem to embody life and, more accurately, death. There’s a delicate balance of compassion and foreboding, as if the listener is immersed in beauty while simultaneously pulled into the dark abyss. Emotions of bleakness and despair claw at your psyche, dragging you into a void of regression.
This blend of atmospheric isolation and tortured torment glides with a grace that speaks of endless sorrow and remorse. It’s an album that asks the listener to embrace the darkness, to sit with their blackened soul and drink deeply from the cup of death, for the end feels ever near.
Bottom Line: LAUDARE’s Requiem takes you on a visceral journey through a world of eternal struggle and consequence, yet paradoxically, it’s a place you might not want to leave. The intensity is delivered with a stark austerity, where hope seems lost, but in that loss, there’s a strange beauty that offers a glimmer of trust. The balance is delicate, but the reward is immense.
Rating: 10/10
Requiem is set for release on October 11th via Moment of Collapse Records.
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