‘KARMACODE’ – LACUNA COIL

Lacuna Coil have surfed the European underground metal scene in relative obscurity, with their warm, sunshine-tinged operatic goth. With the release of ‘Comalies’ in 2002, they not only took their first towards worldwide mainstream success with the likes of Nightwish (and the myriad others who were to shortly follow), but they did so with an album of exceptionally high musical and production quality – setting themselves a seemingly impossible goal to beat for any future records. Karmacode shares the same high production levels as Comalies and once again the music is technically brilliant. Andrea Ferro’s growling gives perfect contrast to Cristina Scabbia’s honeyed tones, and her sultry wailing gives the album a distinctive eastern flavour. The guitars provide a wonderfully mellow yet mildly spiced backdrop to this, and whilst Cristiano's drumming does little to mask the sluggish pace of the album it certainly adds a touch of inventiveness. And this is where Karmacode lets itself down. While songs like 'Fragile', 'Our Truth' and 'Closer' are clearly going to be great crowd-movers when played live, they do not really deviate from the same formula - and indeed from the same formula found on Comalies. They are all great songs on their own, but after a while they start to drone a bit. They are just too clean, too nice! At times you just want someone to let out a banshee scream and for the rest of them to erupt into something more energetic, more challenging, more exciting!!! But it never happens, and as the last notes of 'Enjoy The Silence' (which by the way is a fantastic cover) fade away you can't help but feel a little bit cheated. 5/7