Lost Area - Memoria

"Memoria", quite frankly, is one of the best words in the English language. Immediate thumbs up to Lost Area. It's nice to review a band I've been a follower of for longer than the time it took me to get their CD - 2008's "Manmachine" was a good Darkwave album (Lost Area previously had more of a Synthpop vein), and "Painbringer" and Phoenix" (from the Extreme Sundenfall comps 2 and 5 respectively) were among the top tracks on the albums.

On receiving this CD, my first thoughts were "Wow! - this artwork is beautiful" - both typically Gothic and beautiful, with a sad Sepia colour scheme - more bands need to do this. With an inlay that shows beautiful pictures of desolate buildings (I didn't know the band were into Urban Explanation), and a terrifying picture next to the lyrics to "Icarus", the Hype is pumped up before I even press play. Let's see how Lost Area sound in 2010...

Starting with "Memoria" - and if I wasn't a miserable goth, I'd be dancing. Synth is at a level where i'm neither willing or qualified to criticise it. Markus' and Andi's vocals are at the top of their game, although at times they are acquired enough to maybe dissuade people looking to fall in love with Lost Area. Jan's programming has always been the thing that captivated me, and over the years it's just got better and better.

I'd classify this as somewhere between Blutengel and the Cruxshadows - borrowing from the former vocally, and the latter in ideas, with music on a par of the more Synthpop style Diary of Dreams work.

Most of the tracks on here have lyrics contributed by a friend of the band, or guest musician. "Mirror" for example, features the well known Jan Moser of a Harsher sounding project (I don't know if Jan would want me to name it, so I'm leaving it a mystery), and "I live your Dream" is a cover of Project Pitchfork.

Each track on here has an intro that makes me get "my body beat" - as the saying goes, before slowing into the tried and tested Lost Area recipe.

That's pretty much the gist of the album - I won't bore you by listing stand out sections of each track, the album as a whole is best listened to as an album, and from beginning to end, it's like looking into a black and white mirror and touching your face, looking miserable (Only the best goth stereotypes will do, of course).

Also, I can't stop listening to "Blood Rain". Excellent. May 28 2011