Since they emerged from Milan within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, Lacuna Coil have turn into bona fide gothic metal royalty. Their angular riffs, these irresistible hooks and, in fact, the interaction between front-duo Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro have powered 9 albums of gracefully darkish melody-making. However which of those Italian maestros’ hours is their most interesting? Under, Hammer has ranked each Lacuna Coil studio album from worst to greatest.
9. Shallow Life (2009)
Lacuna Coil’s fifth album was meant to be a critique on superficiality, nevertheless it fell flat musically. Lacking the nu metal crunch of predecessor Karmacode and stripped of the opulence that characterised the band’s earlier materials, Shallow Life meanders. Although it’s not a whole automotive crash (Spellbound is an apparent standout), it’s slim pickings.
8. Darkish Adrenaline (2012)
Darkish Adrenaline isn’t a horrible album; it’s simply an unremarkable one. Meaty opener Journey The Darkness and a cinematic Intoxicated present the highpoints amongst extra generic, forgettable fare. There’s nonetheless little right here we haven’t heard from the band earlier than, nevertheless – plus that actually horrible cowl of R.E.M.’s Shedding My Faith misses the mark in each method.
7. Damaged Crown Halo (2014)
By the point Lacuna Coil launched their seventh album, it felt like they’d made the identical assertion at the very least thrice in a row. The final launch to function the long-term members Cristiano “Pizza” Migliore (guitars) and Cristiano “Criz” Mozzati (drums), Broken Crown Halo packs extra grit and punch than predecessor Darkish Adrenaline (Cybersleep and frequent set-closer Nothing Stands In Our Means are the highlights). But, there’s nonetheless little question by this level: the band had been treading water.
6. In A Reverie (1999)
Dreamy, doomy and gothic, Lacuna Coil’s debut has aged very nicely. Circle, To Myself I Turned and Glass Veins have misplaced none of their majesty and, whereas the Italians’ method at this level is clearly indebted to Paradise Lost and The Gathering’s 1995 album Mandylion, Cristina and Andrea’s serene/uncooked vocal assault set this bunch aside proper from the beginning. A promising starting.
5. Karmacode (2006)
By the mid-2000s, Lacuna Coil had nailed their ethereal goth methods. So, it was a shock after they modified gears with fourth album Karmacode, introducing a extra mainstream, chunky, nu metal-flavoured sound with concentrate on melody. The transfer sacrificed a lot of their splendour and atmospherics, and tracks like The Sport and Nearer really feel a tad too simplistic, however elsewhere, the band proved they’d mastered a hook. Their wonderful cowl of Depeche Mode’s Take pleasure in The Silence broke them to a good greater viewers, too.
4. Unleashed Recollections (2001)
Lacuna Coil’s second album is a sublime, slow-burning gem. You have to work a bit tougher to get beneath the floor of those songs, however when you do, there’s an abundance of beautiful charms to find. From the luxurious and dignified Inheritor Of A Dying Day to a towering To Reside Is To Conceal, the nonetheless very Paradise Misplaced-influenced When A Lifeless Man Walks to the ornate Chilly Heritage, the band had been evolving at tempo.
3. Delirium (2016)
Of their post-Karmacode interval, Lacuna Coil had settled right into a secure, predictable groove. Then, with eighth album Delirium, they modified their methodology as soon as once more. On its launch, tracks like Damaged Issues and Blood, Tears, Mud had been darkish and dripping with claustrophobic pressure. They had been startlingly heavy as nicely, helped in no small half by vocalist Andrea Ferro placing in a few of his greatest guttural vocals to this point. Foreboding, haunted and chilly, it was the sound of a band renewed.
2. Black Anima (2019)
Lacuna Coil’s most recent album finds them in incredible kind. Choosing up the place Delirium left off, the band have solely continued to get heavier, leaving the generic, featherlight melodies of their mid-career hunch far behind. Filled with ambiance and highlights in Sword Of Anger and Layers Of Time, it’s not as stark as its predecessor, whereas the Exorcist vibes of Veneficium are undoubtedly one thing they need to lean into sooner or later. Whereas Cristina’s piercing vocals are dependably nice, pushing her voice to new peak on Reckless, the largest shock is Andrea,: unrecognisable from the band’s early days, his bowel-rattling vocals takes the band’s stylings to an ever extra twisted realm.
1. Comalies (2002)
Comalies is the second the whole lot got here collectively for Lacuna Coil by way of aesthetics and sound, but additionally songwriting, which took the whole lot up a notch. It was led by two wonderful singles: the celestial Swamped and Heaven’s A Lie – which marries an earworm refrain with shiny, apocalyptic grandeur – and broke the band on MTV.
The opus can also be a trove of emotionally-charged gems, with Daylight Dancer, Humane, Tight Rope and Entwined all deserving a spot on a countdown of the band’s greatest songs. In 2022, Lacuna Coil celebrated the album’s twentieth anniversary by rearranging and re-recording it for a retrospective, Comalies XX, including a heavier, extra ferocious slant to the tracklist. It couldn’t maintain a candle to the unique, although, which stays a goth metallic traditional – to not point out the band’s undisputed masterpiece.