Crimson Brûlée - Tragica

Crimson Brûlée is a five-piece darkwave project consisting of Gustavo Lapis Ahumada (vocals, lyrics, music, guitars), Billy Keith (drums, guitars), Nicole Eres (vocals, keyboards), Jaime Filomio (bass, music), and Oscar Arias (guitars). The project was formed when Keith and Ahumada were still with The Witch-Kings. They wanted to bring keys into the project, and brought on Nicole Eres who Ahumada knew from his first band, Bitter Grace. However, the trio didn’t think this new material fit The Witch-Kings and decided to depart and form their own band. Crimson Brûlée Jaime Filomio joined the project after the departure of their previous bassist Johan departed.  Arias joined shortly after as guitarist. With this new ensemble, Crimson Brûlée went on to record and release their debut album “Tragica”. 

True to their name, Crimson Brûlée is inspired by darkwave music and the respected genres that intertwine with it including goth, new wave, post-punk, etc. The hallmarks of the related genres are all present: gloomy and fuzzy guitars, deep vocals, melancholic dance synths, backing choral vocals, emotive drum pads, and so on and so forth. It had me for sure nodding that this was, in fact, a darkwave release. However, I often found myself thinking that something is lacking on “Tragica” that truly makes it stand out from the crowd. I do give major credit to Eres on keys, however, as that’s usually the element of the song that makes it so much more fun. For example, on ‘Nothing Dies Forever’ the backing synths that kick-in around the one-minute and thirty-second mark and onward are absolutely phenomenal. They gave me goosebumps whenever they came in. That being said, whenever the synths aren’t present in the forefront the song just goes back to being rather bland. 

The only song on the album that I could not listen to repeatedly would have to be ‘Why I Wear Black’. There’s a very feint, static-like sound present on the song. When I first heard it, I thought my studio headphones were going downhill and I would have to replace them. But after switching back and forth between this track and others on my normal rotation, I found out it was the song itself. As stated, it is a very feint effect but it’s one that drove me nuts time-and-time again and thus I found the song skippable.  

“Tragica” also comes with radio mixes of ‘I Came Back To You’, ‘Restrained’, ‘Where Tarantulas Roam’, and ‘Nothing Dies Forever’. I didn’t really catch much of a difference between these versions and the originals other than the shortened length for, as it states, radio play. The only song that I found some difference in is the radio mix of ‘I Came Back To You’; I found that this version had not necessarily a better mix, but a quieter one to say the very least. It’s an odd choice considering the rest of the radio mixes are equal to their original counterparts. 

Despite all my complaints, “Tragica” is not necessarily a bad album. It’s just, as I said earlier, a very generic one. If I were to dive into a darkwave / post-punk playlist, I could probably point out a lot of bands like this that have a similar, Sisters of Mercy’s like sound. What Crimson Brûlée needs, then, is just a revision in both sound and vision; rather than trying to mimic or be just another darkwave project they should be aiming to be a unique entity in their own right. “Tragica” is a solid foundation, that’s for sure, but it’s nothing more than that. A stepping stone to lead them to a higher path, I suppose. However, as it stands, I don’t find much reason to revisit “Tragica”. Six out of ten.