Many of L'âme Immortelle's songs feature melancholy or lovelorn lyrics in German or English, and juxtaposed harsh male and emotional female vocals. Current work has moved away from the band's electronic roots into the neue deutsche härte (New German hardness) genre.
L'âme Immortelle was formed in 1996 in Vienna, Austria by friends Thomas Rainer and Hannes Medwenitsch. Soon vocalist Sonja Kraushofer, a former classmate of Rainer, joined and the band sought a record contract. They released their first album, "Lieder die wie Wunden bluten" in 1997 on MOS Records in Lichtenstein, which became popular in the underground German Goth subculture. In 1999, L'âme Immortelle switched to Trisol Records. From 1998 through 2001, L'âme Immortelle released another LP yearly, each bringing the band greater popularity. In 2002, Medwenitsch left the band. Kraushofer and Rainer recruited Ashley Dayour as a guitarist and the re-formed L'âme Immortelle released a new single, "Tiefster Winter" in November 2002. In 2003, L'âme Immortelle released "Als die Liebe starb", as well as "Seelensturm", a collection of re-issued and re-mixed early material.
In 2004, the band switched labels again, this time to major label Supersonic, a subsidiary of Sony BMG Music Entertainment. The first issue following the switch was a collaboration with OOMPH! on the non-album single "Brennende Liebe" (released as OOMPH! feat. L'âme Immortelle); they also appeared in the video. Following that, L'âme Immortelle released a new album, "Gezeiten", which includes some of their most popular songs like "5 Jahre", "Stumme Schreie" and "Fallen Angel". A significant change in L'âme Immortelle's style is evident now that the band is on a major label; notably the electronic instrumentation of earlier work was less prominent in "Gezeiten".
Their latest album "Auf deinen Schwingen" has been released on August 2006 along with "Phönix" single. The record also includes songs like "Wohin" which contains text from another famous LAI song called "Aus den Ruinen", and "Nur Du" — a song which totally differs from older L'âme Immortelle work. The music video for this song is a cartoon, an unusual thing for the band.
official site
Love Is Lost
L'Âme Immortelle Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Never to rise again
When comes the death of the starlit fountains
Never to shine again
Then the gardens show withered flowers
Never to bloom again
And the crops will enjoy their last harvest
The harvest of souls it has begun
The dark clouds from above come down
Satan came to claim his crown
Hear the weeping of a thousand widows
In this time of war
Where powermongers expand their wealth
Fall victim to the evil lore
Hear the mourners come and pray
To bury their beloved
Who lost their lives in senseless wars
Will somone understand
It's not the evil from down below
Which creeps and lurks under the snow
It's not of Satan's will we fall
It's due to the evil in us
The lyrics of L'ÂME IMMORTELLE's song "Love Is Lost" carry a message about the end of times and the eternal cycle of life and death. The first stanza is referring to the natural order of things, where the end of one cycle initiates the beginning of another. The sun sets behind the mountains, symbolizing the end of a day and the beginning of a new one. The starlit fountains refer to the cycle of stars being born and dying, while the withered flowers in the garden represent the end of the life cycle of plants. The last harvest of crops signals the end of the growing season, and the beginning of a new one in due time.
The second stanza highlights the current state of society, where love is lost, and the harvest of souls has begun. The dark clouds coming down from above signify the chaos and destruction that society is experiencing, where those in power are expanding their wealth, and the common people are suffering. The mention of Satan claiming his crown is symbolic of evil being prevalent in the world, and taking over the good. In times of war, thousands of widows weep for their lost loved ones, and the mourners come to bury them. The reference to senseless wars is a commentary on the destruction of innocent lives, and questioning whether anyone will ever understand the true cost of war.
The final stanza is a poignant commentary on the nature of evil. The evil we face is not from external forces or Satan himself, but from within us. The evil nature of humanity drives us to make poor decisions and commit harmful acts. The message may be that in order to attain a peaceful society, we need to examine our own actions and motives, and work towards improving ourselves.
Line by Line Meaning
When the sun drops behind the mountains
As the daylight ends
Never to rise again
It would never return
When comes the death of the starlit fountains
When the stars stop shining brightly
Never to shine again
It would never come back
Then the gardens show withered flowers
The flowers in the garden start to wilt
Never to bloom again
They would never blossom again
And the crops will enjoy their last harvest
The crops would be harvested for the last time
In our time where love is gone
In a world where love is lost
The harvest of souls it has begun
The gathering of souls has commenced
The dark clouds from above come down
The dark clouds descend from the sky
Satan came to claim his crown
The devil came to take over
Hear the weeping of a thousand widows
Listen to the cries of countless widows
In this time of war
During the period of conflict
Where powermongers expand their wealth
Where influential people try to enrich themselves
Fall victim to the evil lore
They became prey to wicked teachings
Hear the mourners come and pray
Hear the mourners coming to offer prayers
To bury their beloved
To lay their loved ones to rest
Who lost their lives in senseless wars
Those who perished in unnecessary battles
Will somone understand
Would anyone comprehend?
It's not the evil from down below
The wickedness is not emanating from beneath
Which creeps and lurks under the snow
Hiding underneath the snow
It's not of Satan's will we fall
We are not falling due to the devil's intentions
It's due to the evil in us
It's a result of malice residing inside us
Contributed by Peyton A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Gilles Susant
A classic! Too bad they turned to metal music afterwards. "In einer Zukunft aus Tränen uns Stahl" is probably the best album they ever made.
Dávid
Outstanding and atmospheric!
Daniel Redlich
Danke dir für den Upload .,,,Lang nicht mehr gehört da kommen Erinnerungen auf :-)
AtmaGyan
@Eroldir They didn't turn to metal ;) Several songs in a couple of albums were "kind of" metal, but they're still playing their usual style of music. Check out the 2 last albums, Namenlos and Momente!
m4550kihst
Music is organic plain ans simple. I don't buy the whole "goth" (blah) music derived from punk. It may have melted into each other. It actually started at the same time in the late 70's unless you call The Stooges punk then maybe it derived from there :P. Bands like Joy Division then Throbbing Gristle who coined the term "industrial" were out at the EXACT same time as the Ramones and Sex Pistols.
AtmaGyan
@Eroldir Okay, one big change is the absence of brutal vocals like in this song, but the electronics are still there. The last two albums are not metal at all...
Gilles Susant
@jothakape Gothic music originally comes from Punk music, with bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees (who did play punk at the beginning) or first batcave and death rock acts more into the punk rythm. Electronic music came after, first with darkwave before dark electro and EBM. Metal never was a part of gothic music. And for the vocals, transformed agressive vocals are not black metal like. Listen to Suicide Commando, Agonoize or Hocico, for instance. That is gothic, metal is not.
Gilles Susant
@AtmaGyan There's no such thing as "kind of" metal, for metal is not gothic. So, indeed, it seems they have come back from that period, but no gothic band should ever make metal pieces ever (and yes, mainstream softened metal is still metal), and I shall never forgive the to have corrupted themselves into making metal tracks.
Ivø Fernandez
Art📽📽