Behind Your Fear
Blue-Marbled Vinyl
Gothic-Rock/Metal

Is this still Flowing Tears or is it already Behind Your Fear? Anyone like me who still listens to Flowing Tears with great enthusiasm (whether with Stefanie Duchêne or later with Helen Vogt) might hope that there is still a lot of FT in ByF. Or maybe not. So let's not get confused and try to remain "neutral".

Without a doubt, Stefanie's voice is the strongest memory of FT. Let's agree that neither FT nor ByF do or have done anything other than gothic rock/metal. The first song, "One Day," starts off well and sounds unique. And then comes "The Mask." And that's FT. It sounds mean, but it's true. The song is good, no doubt about it, but not unique. "New Ways" is a real gut-wrenching song and is a highlight for me, even though it could have been written by FT. Enough of that, the song is simply strong. "Bandaged Eyes" starts off like gothic pop and stays that way. From the middle on, however, the song gets much better. "Little While" has a lovely melody, but is it too smooth for me? Not bad, because it also has strong moments. "Heartbeats" with piano is carried by Stefanie's beautiful voice.

“Weakness”, at 5:43 the longest song, and for me also the most atmospheric. A clear highlight and the strongest song for me. “Hollow” clearly lives from Stefanie's singing. I like it. “Schattered Mirrors”. I can't really do much with that one. But it doesn't throw me out and somehow always catches me again. “DNR” is another highlight. Starts with piano. Sometimes I see myself sitting in a jazz bar with a gin and tonic, at the end of the apocalypse and the song is playing. Morbid, I know. With morbid thoughts, we move on to the symphonic throw-off “Lullaby”. Unfortunately too short, because it is good.

There are albums that I like to listen to all the way through. That's a positive thing, because Anthropocene is one of them. I like this kind of music. The musicians are good, the singer is good. Of course, nothing new has been invented here, and it doesn't have to be. The album is good. And Flowing Tears? It shines through and I think it's good. But it's still Behind Your Fear and not Flowing Tears, and I think that's good too. If you like Gothic, you should get it.

Anthropocene, 2022.

Stefanie -Vocals, Piano.
Scorpius – Bass.
Michael – Drums.
Moritz – Guitar.
David – Keyboards
T. – Guitar, Keyboards.

Unfortunately, the limited blue marbled vinyl I have is still full of crackling noises, despite thorough cleaning. Much better than at the beginning, but still annoying in the quiet passages. Of course, that can only be due to my copy. Music is good, unfortunately my vinyl not so much.

The photos are all from my LP. The rights to all motifs, logos, texts and fonts that can be seen in the photos are of course owned by the copyright holder.