Review by Xephyr for Lacuna Coil - Black Anima (2019)

A Harsh Duet

Lacuna Coil have turned into one of those bands from my early music listening that I've come to regret somewhat. It's not that I was ever a massive fan or anything, it's just that their 2002 album Comalies gave me a bit of false hope that persisted for much too long. Comalies still holds up to me as an interesting and dreamy set of Gothic tinged Metal that has a very unique feel and atmosphere to it that, while not superb, hasn't been replicated too often. From then on, however, Lacuna Coil have wandered down the straight and narrow Alternative Metal path which is filled with straightforward songwriting and generic djenty chugs that have been done a million times over. Starting with Dark Adrenaline in 2012 they've found their formula and stuck with it to a ton of commercial success, but I can't say it does much for a seasoned listener who still insists on checking to see if this band decided to go back to their original, more unique sound. 

Despite frontwoman Cristina Scabbia being the main draw for most, Black Anima is much more of a duet between her and bassist Andrea Ferro as they trade back and forth much more often than in previous albums. Ferro's vocals are also much more harsh centric, with his growls not sounding half bad with Lacuna Coil's heavier and more chug-centric approach this time around. While he's known for his awkward and divisive crooning, Black Anima has sidelined it to a few short moments in "Sword of Anger" and "Veneficium", replacing it with surprisingly inoffensive growls and fried cleans that compliment the heavier riffing style much better than his old standard. Scabbia proves to still be a Swiss army knife in the vocal department, swapping between forceful Power Metal like leads on "Sword of Anger", a more classic and gothic delivery on "Black Anima", and even tries her hand at a more screamy angle on the chuggy "Now or Never". Lacuna Coil were definitely going for a heavier album this time around so the bouncing between harsh and clean works in its favor, something I'm all too familiar with from other female fronted bands. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the two work together given how rough Ferro's vocals have been in the past, so that shows some massive growth for the band, especially this late in their career. Despite the generic nature of the harshes, the interplay between the two is easily the highlight of the album as they do a great job of carrying the energy of each track. 

Sadly that's about the only positive thing I have to say about this album, as the rest of the package falls in some sort of gray area between acceptably generic and downright boring. I can respect Lacuna Coil for trying to dial up the heaviness by incorporating djent-y chugs and even some Metalcore sounding snippets in tracks like "Now or Never" and the beginning of "Layers of Time", but most of the riffs end up falling flat due to being simple and unremarkable or just buried behind the wildly mixed drums and bass. It's just a guess, but it seems like they wanted to have a super punchy and rhythmic mix, but the unison chugs are about the only thing that sound cohesive on the album. The kick drum and bass are blown out to the point where they overtake pretty much every riff, with the bass being scratchy and overpowering in more sweeping sections like on "Now Or Never". Don't get me wrong, I'm a bass enjoyer, but even I was a bit taken aback when the djent chug was completely taken over by the bass throughout most of the album. I can commend Lacuna Coil for taking their style to the more extreme end as I don't think this album is entirely bad, but it leaves much to be desired apart from the admittedly interesting vocals. I'm glad that Ferro stepped up his game in order to be a worthy duet to Scabbia, but it feels like the rest of the band didn't catch the memo as the entire album consists of tracks that are varying degrees of fine and somewhat interesting for a few sections.