Lacuna Coil - Karmacode

[Liu]

Lacuna Coil - Karmacode
Century Media

Undoubtedly one of this year's most anticipated albums has been Lacuna Coil's Karmacode. Thanks to Century Media's promotional clout, the band has been touring the last few years with a slew of metalcore and mallcore bands. The question that was ultimately on everyone's mind was if on the next album they would take influence from all these bands they've toured with and incorporate the sound they were constantly surrounded with. As it turns out, that's pretty much what happened.

Now I'm not one to completely discount a band for having modern mainstream aspirations. If they actually have good songs to back it up, then I see no problem in appealling to a wider fanbase. With that in mind, I must say that most of the songs on Karmacode simply aren't memorable. The first trio of songs on Karmacode are mostly Korn-ish mallcore affairs, complete with that bouncy bass sound made popular by them. Within Me is the first song in the typical Lacuna Coil artsy vein, no doubt one of the better tracks to be found. Devoted is another mallcore-ish song but at least the chorus salvages it.

Actually, I'd like these songs more if Andrea Ferro would shut the fuck up. I never cared for his vocals in the past, but they would always somehow fit. On Karmacode, however, he's adopted a very uninteresting straight forward singing tone. The star of the show should be Cristina Scabbia but this guy is always around taking the attention away from her and it pisses me off. On some songs the guy is almost rapping, making me want to strangle him even more. Whats more is that Cristina isn't as focal in the mix as previous albums, draining the band of its biggest asset.

The rest of the album borders between good and forgettable. Fragments Of Faith is good when Andrea isn't opening his yap. Closer is another album hightlight, mostly because Andrea is relegated to backing vocals, allowing Cristina to finally bask in her glory. The only other notable song is the Depeche Mode cover, Enjoy The Silence. Now when the best song on an album is a cover, then you know something is very awry.

In the end, its pretty easy to call Karmacode a colossal disappointment. There are some good bits, but for each of those you get something equally as bad. I'm done talking about this, just skip it.


01. Fragile
02. To The Edge
03. Our Truth
04. Within Me
05. Devoted
06. You Create
07. What I See
08. Fragments Of Faith
09. Closer
10. In Visible Light
11. The Game
12. Without Fear
13. Enjoy The Silence

Score: 5/10

[Adremelech]

I actually like this album, despite the fact that the way that they deliver the music is exactly the same on almost all of the album (it has the same groove). I guess I don't mind too much since it is a good groove. I personally think that the Depeche Mode cover is terrible though. My personal favorite song on the disc is "To the Edge".

On another note, I completely agree with everything that you said about their male singer. He seriously takes away from the songs a lot more than he adds.