Like a Corpse standing in Desperation

Infobox Album | Name = Like a Corpse standing in Desperation
Type = Box set
Artist = Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows


Released = 2005
Recorded = 1989-2004
Genre = Darkwave
Length = 199:26
Label = Apocalyptic Vision
Producer = Anna-Varney, John A. Rivers
Reviews =
Last album = "The Goat / The Bells have stopped ringing"
(2005)
This album = "Like a Corpse standing in Desperation"
(2005)
Next album = "Les Fleurs du Mal"
(2007|

"Like a Corpse standing in Desperation" is the title of Darkwave band Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows' first box set. It was released in 2005. The recordings span fifteen years of "original demos, rarities & documented failures." Re-released for the first time are the out-of-print EP "Ehjeh Ascher Ehjeh" and album ""Voyager" - The Jugglers of Jusa", along with the extensively bootlegged "Flowers in Formaldehyde" and the never before heard demo tape, "Es reiten die Toten so schnell...". These recordings were chosen to be re-released because of the high prices fans would have to pay on eBay for what would turn out to be bootlegs. Also included are rare tracks from compilations and some unreleased songs. Appended onto Disc 2 are the tracks from the limited 12" vinyl "The Goat / The Bells have stopped ringing", released at the same time. The CDs are packaged in a hardcover booklet with repackaged artwork, lyrics, new liner notes and what Anna-Varney states is "the only interview/publication that I have kept over the years."

Also included in the box set is a working facsimile of the original demo tape "Es reiten die Toten so schnell...", complete with both original and re-packaged artwork (on both sides), two DVDs containing five Sopor videos (one in NTSC format, the other in PAL), a T-shirt, a poster, a sticker, patches, buttons, a decorative attachment for a funeral wreath and a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.

Of interest to some listeners are the different mixes of the demo tape material; the CD version contains more treble and sounds spacier. Curiously, there are two different versions of the video for "Deep the eternal Forest"; one, with Anna-Varney in black robes, is found on the NTSC DVD, while the other, with Anna-Varney in white robes, is found on the PAL DVD.

Track listing

Disc 1: "Original DEMO Recordings"

# "Omen Sinistrum (original demo)" – 2:15
# "Dead Souls (original demo)" – 6:41
# "Stake of my Soul (original demo)" – 1:14
# "Beautiful Thorn (original demo)" – 5:09
# "Baptisma (original demo)" – 5:01
# "The Feast of Blood (original demo)" – 4:07
# "Sopor fratrem Mortis Est (original demo)" – 4:55
# "Reprise (original demo)" – 0:16
# "White Body (previously unreleased demo, 1992)" – 3:13
# "Diô N'árap (The unability within Time)" – 3:10
# "Tabor C'alan O'itana (My Womb is barren, but I can conceive)" – 7:10
# "Deep the eternal Forest" – 1:46
# "Watch your Step (previously unreleased demo, 1994)" – 3:37
# "Introduction - The Termite People" – 6:45
# "Anima I" – 0:50
# "Shadowsphere II" – 2:31
# "Saltatio Crudelitatis" – 5:37
# "Freitod-Phantasien" – 3:33
# "Anima II" – 3:05
# "Tanz der Grausamkeit (recorded on the 28th of October 1993)" – 5:27
# "As Fire kissed the Echo Twins (previously unreleased demo, 1994)" – 1:49

*1-8 are from "Es reiten die Toten so schnell...".
*10-12 and 14 are from the compilation "Jekura - Deep the Eternal Forest".
*15-20 are from "Ehjeh Ascher Ehjeh".
*"Diô N'arap" and "Tabor C'alan O'itana" are covers of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and "A National Acrobat", respectively.

Disc 2: "Voyager" - The Jugglers of Jusa"

# "The inexperienced Spiral Traveller *a fragment* II" – 5:07
# "Ein freundliches Wort... (...hat meine Seele berührt.) (defined and fragile)" – 5:10
# "Memalon II" – 7:25
# "The Innocence of Devils: "Alone" (E. A. Poe)" – 6:27
# "Modela est" – 4:35
# "Birth (instr.)" – 2:49
# "Feralia Genitalia (Arrival of the Jugglers)" – 6:30
# "Menuetto" – 1:26
# "Saturn-Impressionen (Jusa, Jusa)" – 2:48
# "May I kiss your Wound? (Saturn:Orion)" – 6:05
# "Alone II" – 6:55
# "The inexperienced Spiral Traveller *a fragment* II (instr.)" – 5:07
# "The Widow's Dream - fragment (previously unreleased demo, 1999)" – 1:48
# "The Goat (previously unreleased Outtake, 2000)" – 4:11
# "The Bells have stopped ringing (previously unreleased, 2000) – 5:05

*14-15 are from "The Goat / The Bells have stopped ringing".
*"Modela est" is a cover of Kraftwerk's song "Das Modell" ("The Model"), sung in Latin.

Disc 3: "Flowers in Formaldehyde"

# "In an Hour darkly" – 4:58
# "The Conqueror Worm (by Edgar Allan Poe)" – 3:28
# "Minnesang" – 3:36
# "Von der Einfalt" – 1:40
# "Hearse-shaped Basins of darkest Matter (instrumental)" – 3:39
# "Leeches & Deception (instrumental)" – 6:59
# "Extract from: The Voices of the Dead" – 0:58
# "Do you know my Name? / What has happened while we slept?" – 5:06
# ""La Chambre D'Echo" album trailer (enhanced track)" – 0:42

Cassette: "Es reiten die Toten so schnell..."

# "Omen Sinistum" – 2:15
# "Dead Souls" – 6:41
# "Stake of my Soul" – 1:14
# "Beautiful Thorn" – 5:09
# "Baptisma" – 5:01
# "The Feast of Blood" – 4:07
# "Sopor fratrem Mortis Est" – 4:55
# "Reprise" – 0:16

*Both sides contain the same material.

DVD: "SOPOR"

# "The Goat" – 4:11
# "And Bringer of Sadness" – 6:45
# "Deep the eternal Forest - 1" – 1:46 (NTSC DVD only)
# "Deep the eternal Forest - 2" – 1:46 (PAL DVD only)
# "The Dog Burial" – 1:15
# "The Bells have stopped ringing" – 5:05