Review Summary: An enjoyable follow-up to Delirium, even if maybe a little too dramatic for its own good at times.
Lacuna Coil made a big return to form with their 2016 album Delirium, which shed most of the more mainstream rock sound that fans were divided on and went in a heavier direction. It also showcased the band making possibly the best decision of their career--using Andrea Ferro mostly for screaming/growling vocals rather than singing, which was never his strength. The result played heavily to the band's strengths as a whole. It may not have been exactly a return to the sound of Comalies, but that ship seems to have sailed a long time ago.
Black Anima, in a way, sticks to a similar formula. Like its predecessor, this album's sound is on the heavier side--occasionally even a tad heavier, and certainly with a darker atmosphere. It can also be said that this one's a little more loud; the music here could often be described as a colossal assault upon one's ears (in a good way, though). Lead single "Layers of Time" showcases this pretty well. Like the previous album, Cristina Scabbia does mostly all of the singing while Ferro sticks to the unclean vocals. The contrast does both of them a lot of favors.
Other songs that bring the heaviness include "Sword of Anger," "Reckless," "Now or Never," and "Under the Surface." All of these bring the heaviness that fans of Delirium were likely hoping for. One other highlight is "Veneficium," which is still heavy but a bit more of a relative slow-burner and is also a rare longer track for the band at just over 6 minutes--and the song earns every one of those minutes, never reaching the realm of boredom. While this album has some occasional problems with being a little too dramatic or theatrical for its own good (more on that later), "Veneficium" is one song where that style actually succeeds. Also of note is the creepy closer that is the title track, ending things on a memorable note.
Like Delirium, this one has some general encompassing themes of sorts--with that album the main theme was mental illness/asylums. Here it's a little more vague, but there are themes of "rise up" platitudes along along with a sort of destruction and rebirth of the world. While these themes don't get covered in necessarily all of the songs, it would certainly apply to songs like "Sword of Anger," "Reckless," "Apocalypse," and the title track.
It's unfortunately in some of these themes and the way they’re presented that is this one of this record’s flaws. While the darker and more complex sound is welcomed, that in combination with some of the lyrics leads to some of the album coming off as overly dramatic and over-the-top. It’s a vibe that filters throughout a fair portion of the album and occasionally it does actually work (as mentioned with “Veneficium”), but “Apocalypse” falls the most flat as a result of this.
The other primary problem with this album is how it almost whimpers its way to the finish line before the title track comes and saves it. “The End Is All I Can See” is probably the worst track on here, droning its way on without ever going anywhere. “Save Me” starts out solid enough, but is marred heavily by an extremely ill-advised spoken-word interlude in the bridge from Cristina. Something similar had been tried back in "Victims" off Broken Crown Halo, and it didn't work then either.
Despite these issues, Black Anima is still an enjoyable enough follow-up to Delirium, and it keeps the momentum going that said album gave them and thus continuing to play to their strengths. It’s a bit remarkable that this band has gone this direction this late into their career and put out arguably the two heaviest albums of their discography, but it is more than welcome. Hopefully they can keep this going with however long is left in their career.
Song Highlights: “Layers of Time,” “Veneficium,” “Now or Never,” “Black Anima”
