LACUNA COIL COMALIES ALBUM CENTURY MEDIA RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 28, 2002 REVIEW: SEPTEMBER 23, 2002

Being that this is the third album by this Italian "gothic metal" act, it shows polish and quite a large dose of pop sensibility. I just find myself thinking, as I always do when I see photos of bands who drop the goth tag to describe themselves: how can you take them seriously? There is a large measure of camp which is prevalent in this genre and Lacuna Coil are no different. Don't get me wrong, the music is powerful and muscular and the lyrics not too terribly self-indulgent.
The vocals of Cristina Scabbia are very enchanting in an almost Julianne Regan sort of way but Andrea Ferro really doesn't do anything at all for me. I'd suggest the band allow him to fill the mysteriously unnoted keyboardist position (yes, there are keyboards a-plenty on this disc) and let Ms Scabbia get on with fronting the band. There is nothing remotely goth about how she sings and it is the one thing in this band which really stands out. Forget the re-cycled Nefilimesque riffs dominating this album and the Hetfield wannabe style that Ferro emotes.
The truly funny thing about this band is how right at home they would have been performing their power ballads and hard rock anthems on Headbanger's Ball on MTV back in the 80:s. Perhaps that is what goth truly deserves, to be sidelined as the new heavy metal. Buy this album if you don't have a very long musical memory and think spooky people in black vinyl aren't strip mining the hair metal genre's long list of cliches.

PETER MARKS