Lacuna Coil - Delirium (2016)

In my review of Lacuna Coil's last album, "Broken Crown Halo", I stated that the band was satisfied with their current status, not willing to change too much about their music, which to me meant that they did not have the will to expand their music. So naturally, I expected their new album "Delirium" to be a true continuation in the band's discography, so you would imagine that I got quite a shock when the first song of the album started up. While "The House of Shame" does have typical Lacuna Coil elements in it, it comes off as one of the heavier songs the band has created. In short, it almost sounds like a light version of The Project Hate MCMXCIX, which definitely got me excited.

After that though, it is back to the same old tricks, simple hard rock with some gothic elements in it, and a healthy mix of both male and female vocals. Here they go opening up the album with a heavy and innovative songs, just to go back to the safe sally attitude, which seriously pisses me off more than it should. I actually got my hopes up during that opener, just to see it shatter once the second song started.

In the digipak version, there are a total of 14 songs in this album, spanning a total play time of 57 minutes, which is quite a lot for this band. Personally, I would have liked the band to cut out two or three songs, because there are so many mediocre fillers in this album that just takes up unnecessary space. It is just one long exhausting jungle of slow tempo, bland riffing, and over exposure for the male vocalist Andrea Ferro. Yes, he is once again stealing a lot of the spotlight from Cristina Scabbia for no apparent reason. While Ferro does a great job in several tracks, I still think that Scabbia is under used to almost a criminal level. You have a fantastic female vocalists, so use her!

While most of the Lacuna Coil albums do sound the same, there has always been some variation to the music, something that makes the albums more dynamic. This is unfortunately a trait that "Delirium" is missing, because everything sounds more or less the same. Same structure, same tempo, same strategy on about 85% of the songs. I am starting to feel like Stanley Ipkis in that one episode in the animated show "The Mask" where he is forced to relive the same hour over and over and over again, because there simply is no progression when you listen to "Delirium".

So are there any positive notes over this album? Well, some ideas are mildly intriguing, and the album is one of the heavier Lacuna Coil albums I have heard, but besides from the opening track, there really is not much too cheer about in this album, it is just the same mediocre alternative rock that we have gotten used to with this band. I can take the fact that they have been through some line-up changes (they don't even have a guitarist at this moment), and when all of that is sorted out, I hope that a lot of new inspiration gets injected into the band, because it is badly needed.

"Delirium" is a disappointment in many ways, mostly because it lacks steam, feeling sluggish and bland. Besides from the opening song and a couple of small ideas here and there, there is not much to take from this album that is worth your while. Lacuna Coil has done several other albums that are better, cooler, and fresher, so go bother with them instead, because "Delirium" is not worthy of filling your free time.

Songs worthy of recognition: The House of Shame, "Blood, Tears, Dust", My Demons

Rating: 4/10 Downfalls

Lacuna Coil - Broken Crown Halo (2014)

The Italian band Lacuna Coil came out during the late 90's as one of many gothic metal bands with a female lead vocalist, and it is safe to assume that they now a days are one of the more successful bands from that era. But the band has become more and more mainstream rock for every album and leaving their gothic heritage behind them. That trend continues on "Broken Crown Halo", the band's 7th album. So if you expected a album that took the band back to its roots, then you are sadly mistaken.

There are definitely some dark elements in Lacuna Coil's music that shows where they are originally from, but it is the simplistic song structures and the catchy melodies that dominates "Broken Crown Halo". And unfortunately, this album is not a step forward for the band. I highly enjoyed the predecessor, "Dark Adrenaline", for its good variety and its personality, and even if "Broken Crown Halo" is technically a darker album, it miss some attraction to make me really excited over it. The only song that really stuck to my mind was "Infection". The song has an interesting flow and it is one of few songs where the male singer Andrea Ferro does not feel either useless or in the way for the female singer Cristina Scabbia.

There are some other songs that persuades me to liking them after some time. "Hostage To The Light" , "Victims" and "I Forgive (But I Won't Forget Your Name)" are all examples of songs that grows inside one's mind. And that is one of "Broken Crown Halo"'s biggest strength, it has a good life length which makes it not feel boring after a short time. Sure, the catchiness is not as great as it was on other Lacuna Coil albums, but it is still pretty easy to remember most of the songs.

The only thing that is missing in "Broken Crown Halo" is some kind of a punch. Most of the songs in the record have been done before by the band, but in a better way. I think that the album would have gotten a bigger impact if it had one very heavy song or one faster song, so the variety would not feel so left out in this album. And also, even if Andrea Ferro probably does some of his best work here in "Broken Crown Halo", I still think he takes too much of the attention. For instance, he tries to imitate Rob Zombie in "In The End I Feel Alive", which makes you focus on that instead of Scabbia's impressive work on the chorus. He will probably never leave the band, but I would appreciate it more if he stepped back and let Scabbia do more of the work.

"Broken Crown Halo" is far from broken, but it is obvious that the band has followed the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The album is a mix of already used up ideas and some dark layers that gives the illusion of that the band is still gothic. There are still some intentions that are interesting and the band definitely know what they are doing, but they do not evolve very much and something tells me that they are satisfied with their current state, so the next album will probably sound a lot like this one. So if you did not like Lacuna Coil before, do not bother with "Broken Crown Halo", let the fans enjoy it instead.

Songs worthy of recognition: Infection, Hostage To The Light, I Forgive (But I Won't Forget Your Name)

Rating: 6/10 Zombies