band: LACUNA COIL

album: UNLEASHED MEMORIES

just the take:

metal CD choked full of polished and over polished song - some exotic, some to the point, all with the dramatic sound of this passionate Latin band. Nothing else delivers such a zeal in this genre. Nothing could especially without the lead of singer Christina Scabbia - the fiery romantic - the youthful one - the breathless and tireless voice - a rapture of singing and at times too much singing - she gives life to staid melodies, unfamiliar and exotic melodies (to the Western ear), and then surprisingly: some nice melodies. The successful songs are the ones where there is at least one measure of non-singing to give rest to one’s senses. Other successful songs are the ballads, the adventurous song with beats, and the duets with gruff-man, Andrea Ferro. The denser, Everygrey-like, Carmina Burana’s of this album are thankfully few. Yet they are the chalkboard-screeching soap operas that tend to spoil it all by taking the listener to the brink of hitting the merciful stop button. A little more patience reveals a band working really hard for their sound but I think not quite at their peak as they would have thought.

by Alzn

score 3/5

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Review #2

Lacuna Coil are misunderstood. First there are the lonely metal boys who go ga-ga over earstwhile lead vocalist Cristina Scabbia, leaving the band no credit. And along with this they get mislabelled as just another gothic metal band such as and namely compared to, The Gathering (who are not gothic metal either). Perhaps they are confused with Andrea Ferro’s tandem duet of rough edges and occasionaly growls – the expected formula for gothic metal – you know, beauty and the beast. So with these misconceptions and distractions Lacuna Coil are paired up with the likes of the drab and dreary gothic shoegazers or the pretentious theater goths with their synthesizer operas and Viking Helga-falsettos of maudlin perversions. Lacuna Coil glows like the girl wearing white in a goth concert.

Unleashed Memories is the new direction of bright, hook heavy metal. With short songs and easily digestible choruses, this is like the marriage of pop and metal. But the band’s lavish layers and saddened lyrics distinguishes them from the top 40 bands if not the heavy guitars , heavy drum rolls, and Andrea’s beast chime. Think of them as Fleetwood Mac relived. There is a new wave of European metal that sings easily yet carries themselves in almost mainstream expressions of today’s pop culture angst. Anathema has changed, the previously mentioned The Gathering, Katatonia, Moonspell, and even Opeth. Though Chrisina is distinctive among the male fraternity, her voice is in itself quite extrordinary and shouldn’t be ignored. If she were in a pop band she would be mistaken for Natalie Merchant slash Cristina Aguilera.

In Unleashed Memories we get healthy doses of Scabbia in harmony and in volumes. At times the music is so lush, the multifaceted layers of Cristina’s voices carries too much as if she sings too much here. The successful songs are the few that have less ofCristina and more with trip hop elements. Trip hop did you say? Lacuna Coil are evolving while you are mis-categorizing. Also, stop staring at Cristina and listen to them.

Score 75/100