Lacuna Coil
Karmacode

THE REVIEW

The anticipation for the new full-length from the Milanese Lacuna Coil was moderate. The band now thrives on the undisputed success built over 10 years of career, grown through the approval of the audience (especially European) and critics, despite their discography being objectively short (two EPs and 4 full-lengths). The group's latest effort is not actually an effort.

The sounds are solidified, the voices embedded in the stereotype of both the genre and the band itself, and slowly Andrea Ferro seems to accompany Cristina in backing vocals more than in duets (finally, I would add, considering the singer's lack of expressiveness from '96 to today). Therefore, it’s not shocking to admit that few truly felt the need for this album, and if the frontwoman enjoys the most varied and grotesque titles one can append to a career woman, most of which now deviate from musical abilities, here the picture becomes clearer.

"Karmacode" was introduced to the public through the single "Our Truth", played on radio and television with the same frequency as an Avril Lavigne video. I won't spend time talking about the video; if you haven't seen it yet, never mind, you’ll survive like you survive a mosquito bite. The single, I was saying. The synth intro, the advancing guitars, the structure, too immediately recall various tracks from the previous album. As often happens, the single does not represent the album, and the trend also in this case is respected. But when you move on to a comprehensive listen, something just seems to not work.
The first three tracks hurriedly chase each other, Cristina's vocalizations in "Fragile" appear increasingly superfluous, the cohesion of the pieces remains without particular creative solutions and the capacities of the individuals mutually obscure. From this point onwards, it will be clear that Lacuna Coil does not want to take risks, and they do wrong, precisely because the rhythm section is capable of decidedly greater performances, Waldemar Sorychta's production would be a guarantee, and the mix is entrusted to Ronald Prent, already Iron Maiden and Rammstein.

So all of a sudden, the acoustic guitars in "Within Me" rekindle a pleasant interest in the listen, and the subsequent "Devoted" captures, but unfortunately the attitude is the same as the songs that precede and those that follow, banal and lacking in punch. Almost unlistenable are the duo "You Create/What I See", sparse and poorly arranged, like the questionable "Fragments Of Faith". At the end of the album, "Without Fear", a further demonstration of how the Italian language is not easy to insert into a certain type of music, not for the limits of the language, but for the superficiality with which it is treated, and the cover of "Enjoy The Silence", by the timeless Depeche Mode, spot on, pleasant, balanced.

Decidedly too little for an album that the composers themselves describe with palpable enthusiasm: "it took us a long time to put together these songs and I can say they are the best we have ever written!"