Lacuna Coil
Karmacode

THE REVIEW

A piece of crap.

And I apologize for starting this brief review of the latest "effort" by Lacuna Coil with such an inelegant epithet... but damn, it's the truth. And I repeat it. A piece of crap.

Lacuna Coil, for those who don't know (and after this album, they may as well not know), is a gothic metal band from Milan, active since the mid '90s, and so far, they had produced great work (to those who don't have them, I recommend "In A Reverie" and "Comalies"). And since the last one, namely "Comalies," was dated 2002, even a blind man would have been eager to lay hands on "Karmacode." Well: let the blind man continue his life, with no grudges and no problems, because this is A PIECE OF CRAP IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

Let me briefly analyze these damn songs... The horrific object opens with a song named "Fragile," which, despite its name, is a song entirely sung in English, and overall it isn't bad, although it's the usual gothic tune, without particular ideas or genius tricks, which had already distinguished "Comalies." Let's say this is a track that can be comfortably listened to by some crazy peer of mine who is into those Blue or Jesse McCartney fans... The second song, "To The Edge," is particularly disgusting, or disgusting as you prefer to call it. The prominent keyboards give the song the typical sound of a hospital stay, that is, someone who spends a day at home and a day in the hospital and is sick of hearing sirens and various noises. The first single extracted, "Our Truth," left me stunned, because here the six from the "Empty Spiral" imitate the pop-like group Evanescence by 250%: same riffs, Cristina Scabbia who in the song's opening even makes stadium chants (brrr) and an ending where I couldn't tell if they smashed a keyboard with a fart or if it's their manager bringing coconuts with a squeaky peddler cart. Sorry for the criticism, but seriously, works like this are unacceptable.

The fourth track called "Within Me" is a damn ballad, and just hearing it gives me chills: a classical guitar in the foreground and just for the sake of being original, a chorus with a gothic background. Damn. "Devoted": this is a decent song, nothing more, terribly similar to another twelve thousand Lacuna songs, but the beginning has a dark tone that is finally gothic which I liked quite a bit. Then there's an instrumental (just because we missed it) titled "You Create," seemingly oriental in flavor, but instead, I felt a great already-heard-and-sick-of-it taste. And here I started to laugh: "What I See" is a blatant copy of "You Create," only with the heavy guitar becoming "gothic" and this is really verrrrrrry trashy, and if they spend a nice pile of money to produce CDs like this, it's understandable that later in Italy they only sell twenty thousand copies out of the plenty million total. And damn.

The eighth song is "Fragments Of Faith." Some voices rumored it to be the second single extracted after "Our Truth," and finally the lovely Cristina & co. used the little brain left and left it where it was. At least a thing done right, because it is decidedly hideous as a track. And here, ladies and gentlemen, the album completes its devolution and plunges two hundred and fifty meters below the acceptable level. But why, I ask, if the damn previous albums you made were eight, nine, ten songs long, damn Buddha, have you run out of ideas? then just leave it alone, holy loving God! Already the album is terrible, do you really want to bury yourselves? Suit yourself... if you keep making such works, no one will pull you out anymore, also because you would be so bottomless... The quadrilateral "Closer", "In Visible Light", "The Game" and "Without Fear" is just a square, meaning it has all equal angles and sides, all precisely perfect, too bad it's not a song, there are four, and our Milanese folks’ mental health goes to hell.

Perfect, it's come to an end, and I, with my nice 30 GB Creative in hand, tears in my eyes for having just witnessed the decline of a band that still kept up the Italian honor in the world, listen resignedly to the icing on the cake which in reality isn't even their song, it’s a cover of "Enjoy The Silence" by Depeche Mode, and I must say, this time yes, it's a song reinterpreted quite well, with a solid gothic touch, and which I really liked.

DEAR LACUNA COIL, BUT I CAN'T LIKE ONE SONG OUT OF 13! DAMN! HEAL YOURSELVES! That's all for this... (hallelujah, now you can unleash yourselves on this my third review).