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I'll cut the nonsense here and get straight to the point. Oh Lacuna Coil, what have you become? A band that was once a driving force in the metal scene, who offered up a fairly unique sound and made catchy, atmospheric music...has succumb to a sound that is incredibly dull and lifeless. Surely, they never had an incredible amount of talent musically, but they put together well-arranged songs with a great atmosphere and great intwertwining vocals. They created enjoyable music. But now, it seems they have slowly degressed with each album. <i>In A Reverie</i> was spot on, <i>Unleashed Memories</i> was probably their best album to date, <i>Comalies</i> was ok, but could've been much better, and now we have <i>Karmacode</i>, a complete mess of an album that never should've been released into the maintstream.
The main problem that lies within this album is the over-production and the downright inexcusable change in sound. What we have here is no longer even closely resembling metal. It's degressed into a lower form...of dare I say...Nu-metal. Yes, a truly saddening thing to hear from such a prominent band, but the truth is here for everyone to read. The guitar riffs are uninspired, recycled, and completely unoriginal. Even the bass now sounds murky like the bass on a Korn album, and sticks out like a sore thumb.
If a band is going to take that path towards maintstream success and make radio-friendly rock songs, which Lacauna Coil is attempting to do, they should at least do it all the while trying to keep their core sound in check. But they fail to do this miserably. Every song resorts to a quick verse chorus verse set-up. Christina's vocals still add a beautiful touch to the music, but she alone cannot make up for this lackluster effort. Even at times her lovely voice is too far drowned out by the mediocre male vocals and that annoying murky guitar and bass. It feels that the four years spent in between <i>Comalies</i> and this album was a complete waste of a time. They spent four years coming up with this? It makes me wonder what their true intentions were, and what they spent all that time doing. Spending four years just to degrade their sound doesn't quite seem to make sense to me, and I am sure many die hard Lacuna Coil fans are going to be turned off by this sound. Upon listening to the album's first single, entitled "Our Truth", that is where the skepticism began...it's a decent song, but it's not such a great Lacuna Coil song. It sounds like they are trying hard to be something they are not, and that is a sad sad thing to see in a band like this.
Now, with all bad things to be said, are there any strengths to this album? Sure, there are a few momentarily decent points. Case in point are the middle-eastern arabian type vocal styles present throughout many songs sung by Christina. They add an interesting flare, but they are overrused and tend to make some of the songs sound too alike. "To the Edge" is a decent and catchy song with a somewhat interesting guitar riff, at least better than most of them on the album. It actually brings out a more metallish sound. "Our Truth" provides the listener with some catchy hooks and a singable chorus, and "Closer" is actually a very well put together and listenable track. Also, very an interesting listen, the Depeche Mode cover of "Enjoy the Silence" surprisingly isn't butchered here...amazing.
But once again, overall... a dire dissappointment. Hopefully this album was just a taste of the mainstream to them and they will resort back to creating great music. Perhaps they should stop trying to appeal to the rock-radio crowds, and bring back the metal. Hopefully, all is not lost.
| other reviews of this album |
kintups (3.5)
Despite it's mainstream shortcomings, Lacuna Coil has found where it belongs....
Malen (2.5)
The Dark Times of Gothic/Symphonic Metal, Part 19...
Starblind (1)
As if we needed another reason to say "Comalies" is a masterpiece....
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Wow. They did a cover of Enjoy The Silence?
I'll have to hear that.
Hopefully it'll be better than that crappy metalcore cover some random band did. *shudders*
Anywho...
So are you mad they changed their sound or that they are starting to sound like Korn? And are we talking Self-titled Korn or TALINTM Korn?
Anyways, I heard "Our Truth" and while it's nothing compared to say... "Veins of Glass" It is a descent song as you said. I still want to pick this up, being a huge Lacuna Coil fan, but I think you may have convinced me to get it burned. But if my taste likes it enough, I'll buy it.
Pretty good review, too. I was almost affraid you weren't going to say anything good about it. XD
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Come now, this album wasn't THAT bad...granted, it's a far cry from earlier LC, but
this album had its strengths.
I think the best and worst thing about this album is its accessability. It's irresistably
catchy, and you'll find yourself humming some of the melodies on here over and
over, but its also completely generic, like you said. You're not going to find anything
original on here, save some of the ethnic things. It is like you said...it's a nu-metal
album. Which there's nothing wrong with.
In short, if you don't like Lacuna Coil, you won't like this. If you do, you'll find some
stuff on here to keep you satisfied. While a good portion of the album isn't that
good, there's some moments on here that are as good as you'll find on any LC
album.
Good review as well. Even though I wanted to do this and don't really agree with
you, your arguments were thought out and you made some extremely valid points.This Message Edited On 04.07.06
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I have yet to hear the album, and i'm somewhat skeptical on buying it. I've only heard "Our Truth" and didn't like the repetitive guitars and the boring bridge in taht song, can someone tell me if the rest of the album is like that?
I also think Unleashed Memories was their best album (besides Karmacode becuase I've yet to hear it), it just had this really dreamy atmosphere to it.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Generally, the album follows the path of that song...there isn't much variety in the songs.
You could download a copy first, to see if you liked it, and then buy it.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I really didn't like this album.
NOTHING stuck out to me at all, which was quite sad because I was hoping this would have been a lot more interesting. Oh well, can't get an classic release with every album I buy.
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Ok I listened to it and i totally agree with the review. A lot of the songs seem to follow a pattern, start with some distorted chugging riff, which goes through most of the songs then the outro is another chugging guitar riff. Cristina's vocals can't save this album. Needless to say, I'm disappointed. Not a lot of variety at all.
Good Review.
Only songs that I kinda like are "Without Fear" and "Enjoy the Silence", those songs are more along the lines of their older stuff, not as much chugging. They sound quite beautiful. This Message Edited On 04.07.06
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
This has to be the only review I've ever agreed with 100%.
The guitars and bass which are lackluster in the first place, dominate the music. I feel like I'm listening to Korn. At least their bassist was decent. haha.
Christinas vocals take a beat seat as do the vocal harmonies.
Our Truth is a great song, as are the first three tracks to the album. Once you get past those, I feel like going emo. ouch.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
I have been listening to it more, because I think I just really WANT to like it, but yeah, my opinion stands firm. A huge dissappointment.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Comalies?
I personally don't think so. This has better vocals, but Comalies has better music.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Granted, if you don't like Lacuna Coil, this release won't change your mind about them.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I find this all very intriguing. I'm getting used to Comalies, and after hearing Unleashed Memories for the first time, I was blown away. I'll be getting this soon and I still have high hopes.
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Our Truth was a really boring song.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I have to say that I like the band a lot, but I haven't heard the CD yet. Is it a waste of time?
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I liked Comalies and Unleashed Memories much better, but this is still alright.
It was a shock though when To The Edge kicked in...I honestly thought of Korn at that moment.
Damn.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
It's deffinitly diffrent. It's not really bad, but not super good either. They relayy changed as a band, but I like dthe old sound more. It's still decent enough.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
i say next album they should do kc's vocals and cl's music
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i preffered "in a reverie" to this album
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Decent review, although I don't entirely agree with it. It's weird...this album has everything in it that SHOULD make me dislike it, but for some reason I've found myself enjoying it since the first time I gave it a spin. The band has said in interviews that any "Americanization" of their sound was probably a natural result of their massive amounts of touring the US (Ozzfest in particular). Does it sound like Korn in parts? Sure. The band has been fans of Korn for a long time now. Does it detract from the listening experience for me, personally? Oddly enough, no. Maybe Jonathan Davis' obnoxious vocals are really what turned me away from Korn. It kinda cracks me up that alot of people are simultaneously complaining about the kornification of LC's sound while praising "To the Edge" as one of the better tracks. That track sounds the most like Korn to me!
Oh, as for the points about Lacuna Coil's technical abilities: they're actually all pretty damn good musicians. Some of the solos on "Unleashed Memories" and even on this record are nice, and LC always have some point in their albums where I'm like "wow, they can do THAT?" The "In a Reverie" album featured tons of odd time signatures and tricky passages. It's not that the band isn't capable of writing more complex music, they simply choose not to.
Anyways, I bought this album at the same time as Ihsahn's "The Adversary," so it may get a little bit overshadowed by that mammoth of an album, but I'm definitely not unhappy with my purchase.
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The single is pretty okay.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Expanding on Ted's point a bit, the amount of freaking synths in the album is immense as well. It takes skill to blend that much stuff together and still get a great sound out of it.
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