Karmacode --- Lacuna Coil --- 2005 (Century Media)
Tell you what, those Italians sure know how to rock! This is Lacuna Coil's fourth album, with a mixture of European and Middle Eastern flavours, the latter immediately apparent from the opener, “Fragile”, which rocks along at a good pace with both a double-vocal (male and female) and a double guitar attack. Some nice synthy strings help the song along. Second track “To the edge” (is there a hidden allegiance to Yes here? Albums “Fragile” and “Close to the edge”... hmm) is another heavy track, with vocals initially by Cristina Scabbia, then joined by her vocal partner Andrea Ferro, while the two guys on guitar --- Marco Biazzi and Cristiano Migliore --- let rip. “Our truth” has the same sort of arabic chants that were in the opener, but sounds essentially similar to the previous track.
“Within me” at least breaks up the heavy, faster tracks with a nice mellow ballad, Cristina taking the lead on this one and the beat a nice, swaying sort of waltzy one. This track proves that the guitarists can take it down a few notches when required, that they're not just mad axemen, and the other Marco, Zelati, on bass and keyboards, adds some nice touches on the keys. Tall order that, to play both bass and keyboards, but he manages it well. Not so sure how he'd manage live though.
Back to the heavy tracks then for “Devoted”, this time Andrea taking vocals first, then joined by Cristina, and the guys are off hammering those guitars again. “You create”, meanwhile, is an interesting track, basically Cristina chanting behind an arabic-sounding guitar melody. It's a short track, just over one and a half minutes, with at the end a spoken part by Andrea, and the melody and chant continue into “What I see”, while “Closer” starts out with a funky bass line then pulls in some mad synthesisers, with a nice heavy beat and some great vocals by both the singers.
“Without fear” is a nice change, sort of mid-paced and very catchy with some nice vocals (in what I think is in her native Italian) from Cristina and lush keyboards from Marco Zelati. The album closes on a rather good cover of Depeche Mode's “Enjoy the silence”, which has become their biggest hit. Not too surprisingly I guess: everyone knows the song, just a pity Lacuna Coil are going to be known outside their own fanbase for just this one cover. Nice to hear a new-wave song get the heavy rock treatment, even so.
A lot of this album is very similar, which is a situation I'm finding more and more with bands of this genre. However there is a lot to recommend it, and if you like this sort of dramatic/progressive hard rock, then you're likely to enjoy “Karmacode”. Whether or not it's typical of their output I have to admit I don't know, as this is the first, and so far only one of their albums I've sampled to date.
TRACKLISTING
1. Fragile
2. To the edge
3. Our truth
4. Within me
5. Devoted
6. You create
7. What I see
8. Fragments of faith
9. Closer
10. In visible light
11. The game
12. Without fear
13. Enjoy the silence