After I heard Echoes (the album preceeding this one) I wasn't that impressed. For a gothic album, it was extremely uplifting. A lot of the tracks sounded more like background music than anything else. The classical aspects often overwhelmed the metal qualities. While I still loved Lacrimosa, I thought that album was not exactly their greatest creation.
Lichtgestalt is unimaginably better. Like a number of the band's songs, this album focuses on love. It is actually a story of finding love, experiencing it, losing love, and then suicide. Now THAT is more like the gothic band Lacrimosa is! The lyrics don't always rhyme, so they seem more like free form poetry put to a beat. All the lyrics and all the musical scores were created by Tilo Wolff (the lead vocals), as well as the concept for the cover. His talent still amazes me.
Also, another note: I found the cover art very appealing, as well as many of the images that were inside the booklet. Both the audio and visual parts of Lichtgestalt are extremely well done.