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Mors voluntaria
venerabilis es dea
me suaviari cum labris frigorum
tu obscurissima omnes deorum...
No, this is not the intro of some typical black metal band. Rather, this is how Todeswunsch, one of the masterpieces of Sopor Aeternus' brilliant mind, begins. Pure despair.
It sends shivers down your spine, Flesh Crucifix. It brings a sadness that only the other tracks can delve into even more deeply. A black march, a dark litany. Who knows what Anna Varney was thinking about. Her past, perhaps. Between the beatings received at home and her adolescent years… or maybe she was thinking about suicide attempts. Perhaps again, the darkest, most desolate moments, when she would close herself in her room for days, for months, away from the light but also away from people, so wicked and merciless…
The tones become more gothic in Die Bruderschaft Des Schmerzes, where Anna's pained voice dominates, punctuated by simple background music.
With Shadowsphere the route changes slightly in favor of a kind of “dark folk”, if it can be called that. Beautiful Saltatio Crudelitatis, whose sweet intro is followed by a more “measured” voice of Anna that crowns this dark lullaby in the best possible way. A small interlude that precedes the very wicked Soror Sui Excidium, where Anna's voice becomes at times shrill to instill even more fear. After the pleasing Le Théâtre De La Blessure Sacrée, we have one of the most beautiful songs of the album, The Devil’s Instrument, which has the cadence of a neoclassical ballad. But only apparently. It is indeed one of the most desperate tracks on the album: “Desperately buried in my chest/ A rose for myself and one for the one who dies/ A serenade of tears, lifeless/ We feel the rhythm, but there’s no orchestra to see…”
Even stranger is the title track, whose lyrics further highlight the album's sensations: “Suicidio, dolce suicidio/ L’oscurità più profonda avvolge i miei occhi…/ Suicidio, dolce suicidio/ L’oscurità emette getti neri che rannuvolano la mia mente…/ Suicidio, dolce suicidio/ L’oscurità più profonda nel mio cuore…/ Suicidio, dolce suicidio/ La mia torbida anima non conosce la luce…”
The short Drama Der Geschlechtslosigkeit is merely a prelude to the tragedy of Freitod-Phantasien and even more deeply into the subsequent Drama Der Geschlechtslosigkeit Part 2, which seems almost romantic compared to the rest.
The other of the “short tracks” instead complements Somnambulist Secret Bardo-Life, where it is almost hope (offered by death) that takes over the listener: “No light or darkness is here to know my way/ There will be no more sorrow nor pain./ I can fly, yes, I can fly and I am no longer here/ May this old flesh remain down there forever/ I will not throw away a dream./ No, I do not care…”
Beautiful also is Only The Dead In The Mist, whose brief lyrics are repeated several times until the end. Here, too, Anna's thought makes its way: “Restless dead souls, the graves are lonely and cold./ But the promised peace I fear we will never find/ and this place remains distant/ beyond the cruelest night…”
Almost a “song” instead is This Profane Finality, absolutely interesting even if more experimental compared to the album (in some parts it sounds like Rondò Veneziano!), because it breaks the previously tackled molds. The fitting closure is entrusted to another “short one,” namely Cage Within A Cage.
What can I say? I'm sorry I prolonged, but I assure you this album can't fail to affect those with a sensitive soul. That’s also why I wanted to include snippets of lyrics that encapsulate so much suffering in a few words. Light years away from the clichés of any genre (dark, gothic, black folk, one cannot say) and particularly from those artificial groups that “play” with feelings of sadness, that “use” despair and “sell” bewilderment. Here, folks, it’s ALL REAL. This truth, this profound solitude also discernible from the aura of darkness that envelops the character. But trust me, nothing Anna does is pretentious. I really conclude now, but with a snippet from one of the very few interviews given (where, incidentally, Anna said she does not know the number of her fans…I am sorry, I do not really know these things…””):
"Would you like to leave any final words for your Italian fans?"
"Well: BE HONEST, because every lie kills a part of the world just as it kills a part of yourself.”
Let's be honest. This is a masterpiece. Delve into your souls. Meditate, because not everything will always be alright. Because every day has its anxieties. Oh, existence…
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Die Bruderschaft des Schmerzes (Die Unbegreiflichkeit des Dunklen Pfades, den die Kinder Saturns gehen...) (05:52)
09 The Devil's Instrument (05:20)
Thoughts are spinning their inescapable threads
transforming us cruelly into marionettes.
Everything I feel is pain
and the Devil holds us in his hands.
Buried desperately in my chest
a rose for myself and a rose for the dead.
A serenade of tears, lifelessly
we feel the beat, though no orchestra is there to be seen...
I am you, I am you - you are me,
what I am, what are you - who are we ?
What is truth and what is lie,
who are you and what am I?
In a cradle of mercy we are sleeping
the half-sleep of oblivion.
No holy water could wash away our faults
nor do benediction purify our unclean souls.
The gates remain locked
for the wingless children of wrath,
so long ago splintered and trodden down
us children of glass...
Please, my Lord, extinguish the light,
the illumination hurts my eyes.
My choice was wrong, so wrong:
truly everything is pain...
We are crying with wolves
like stone we are sleeping with the dead;
soon we'll be gone and you're left
the instrument...
12 Freitod-Phantasien (03:25)
Two half figures stand ashore
the darkest lake embraced by cold
veils of mist and icy breath
blows the leaves away...
And the old black trees spread their long dead arms.
As the souls of the dead call across the water
they both step down into the coldest depth...
14 Saturn-Impressionen (02:47)
Der kalte See liegt schweigend im Nebel
und ewig wird er sein.
Sie alle hat er bereits empfangen,
und auch ich tauche bald in seine Fluten ein.
Die Zeit, sie liegt schon weit zurìck,
als das Erste von uns sank in die Tief hier.
Die blauen Leiber einsam faulend,
nur ihre Stimmen rufen nach mir.
Dies ist mein Schicksal und mein Verlangen,
sein kaltes Grab ist mein Pflicht.
Ich bin ein Letztes meines Geschlechts,
und ich weiŸ er warted schon auf mich...
15 Somnambulist's Secret Bardo-Life (Does the Increase of Pain Invites the Absence of Time?) (04:17)
16 Not Dead but Dying (05:15)
Take my hand in the old 'Theatre Of Seven Hells',
a ferry that bowed its wings,
we call Her: 'Moon by Day'.
Life - a book of painful tongue that hurts our ears.
Flowers of the end, their seed shall grow.
Your breath shall be my coat,
the underworld is, oh, so cold.
The dead don't feel chill,
but please, hold me warm.
The aweful night has gone; what lay before...
we can't remember.
Even Morpheus has drowned in the lament
of his own weeping shadow...
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