CREMATORY

First and foremost, it must be said that there is a CREMATORY before "Believe" -- perhaps including it -- and what we have after. Comparing these eras is futile; you'll only give yourself an ulcer. However, for us fans of the early-to-middle period of these charismatic Germans' work, I'm afraid we are not destined to enjoy shared feelings. I suspect that listeners who started following Felix and company from "Revolution" onward are in a much more advantageous position. For them, the band's evolution doesn't leave such a sense of hopelessness and constant questions of "Why?" And I cannot understand why, alongside the obvious trend toward a lighter sound (which in itself is not a crime), we get a parallel decline in material quality, utter predictability, and facelessness in the compositions. If the aforementioned "Revolution" only hinted at this trend, then "Pray" formalized it in its final form. I honestly tried not to compare the new album; I wanted to evaluate it in isolation from previous work -- to no avail. The compositions are utterly faceless, Katrin's keyboards have completely lost their magic, and Matthias's vocals no longer match the mantra of "in moderation and in the right places." Against this backdrop, even Felix's growling seems somehow lightened and weary. Moreover, if you compare it even to "Unspoken" from the Believe era, this is also fairly obvious. In short, this album is a complete disappointment for me personally. And if it weren't for the understanding that there are enough listeners who will enjoy it, I would have suggested the Germans make the title of the album's last song, "Say Goodbye," a telling one -- telling us that Crematory has died.