Having said that, I did take notice of a few numbers which stood out musically, with the catchy style of ‘What You Do To Me’ and the ferocious ‘Conversion’ impressing in particular, whilst Brown‘s break neck speed headbanging during the latter could have smashed a brick wall if needed.

Having toured the UK a number of times over each of the past few years, the fans came out in force yet again for one of the best professional and live bands around in the metal scene. And it’s no wonder really. LACUNA COIL, now on their Darkness Rising tour, for me have always been one of those bands that are better to see live than on record. Don’t get me wrong, I can listen to them on record easily, but when you see them live, they are a different beast altogether.

The darker and more gothic elements and riffs become a lot more prominent, and create a really sublime atmosphere, with opening numbers ‘Our Truth’ and ‘To The Edge’ being prime examples of how this transforms from record to live. The vocal problems that plagued STRAIGHT LINE STITCH‘s performance didn’t transfer to the headliners and the dual vocals of Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro sounded excellent, with the only minor gripe with the sound being that the bass was a bit too high and overpowered the guitars at times throughout the first half of the set.

The majority of the set was made up from their last two efforts, ‘Shallow Life’ and ‘Karmacode’, with the likes of ‘Fragile’, ‘Fragments of Faith’, ‘I Won’t Tell You’ and a great rendition of the melancholic ‘Wide Awake’, while it was great to hear classics in the form of ‘Heaven’s A Lie’, ‘Daylight Dancer’ and ‘Swamped’. With a new album out early next year, entitled ‘Dark Adrenaline’, it was nice to hear a taste of what is to come from it. ‘Kill The Light’ and ‘Trip The Darkness’ were on offer tonight and sounded extremely good. They had those familiar LACUNA COIL traits stamped all over them and if the rest of the album is in a similar vein, it will be one to look forward to.

Their cover of DEPECHE MODE‘s ‘Enjoy The Silence’ closed the main set, which was the cue for some audience participation on the chorus, and to say they were loud is probably an understatement. LACUNA COIL came back on as the intro to ‘Survive’ played and delivered a killer version of it, whilst the rest of the encore was made up of the aforementioned ‘Trip The Darkness’ before the superb ‘Spellbound’ closed proceedings for the evening. LACUNA COIL could have easily delivered an extra 15 minutes on top of the 75 we got tonight. They certainly have the material to warrant it, but I don’t think that was on anyone’s mind as they headed for the exit. LACUNA COIL are always going to be one of my favourite live bands, and I bet we won’t have to wait too long for another chance to see them in the new year, especially with a new album just around the corner too.

Ratings:

Photography By Alex Shaw (click here for Lacuna Coil gallery)

LACUNA COIL on the other hand proved to be a different proposition. I never really rated them much on CD; they always seemed a little tame and “nice” for my tastes. Well my previous closed-mindedness was well and truly exposed this night as they are a real revelation live. Opening with ‘Survive’ off their 2009 album Shallow Life they proved finally that they do have the balls that I haven’t previously heard on their recorded output. They followed with ‘Underdog’, ‘Closer’, an excellent ‘I Am Not Afraid’ and ‘Fragments of Faith’.

Next was ‘Tight Rope’ from the Comalies album with this first part of the show finishing with ‘Fragile’. The band takes a break at this point in what essentially turned out to be a very long set and re-emerge complete with a change of stage clothes (why?) to ‘Wide Awake’, ‘To the Edge’, ‘The Maze’ finishing with a good rendition of Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy The Silence’ complete with cheesy audience sing-along participation. They came out once more unto the breach for ‘Not Enough’, ‘Spellbound’ and ‘Our Truth’ with an enthusiastic crowd virtually prostrating themselves at their feet. Lacuna were one of the slickest and most professional bands I have seen, not loaded with catharsis or angst but taken on the level in which they operate they have at least made a semi-convert of me, live at least.

Rating:

Review by Lee Bullock and Photography by Alex Shaw (Lacuna Coil Photos)

Album opener ‘Survive’ is definitely classic LACUNA COIL but with a hint of evolution to make it more catchy and appealing to a wider crowd, and thus is a just opener for the album to ease the listeners in. Following on from that is ‘I Won’t Tell You’, which just shows the diversity on this album. It’s more upbeat, catchy, and goes into the more mainstream rock style (too much for my liking). However, it will more than likely get your head nodding to the beat, and you won’t be able to help it!

‘I’m Not Afraid’ sounds extremely similar to what you would get off a LINKIN PARK album. Something I would not have expected to hear on a LACUNA COIL album, whilst the likes of ‘Underdog’ has tinges of southern rock style intertwined with it, and it works well. The first single from the album, ‘Spellbound’, is something more akin to what you would associate with LACUNA COIL, only evolved a little again. The atmosphere is not as dark as before and the catchy riffs and tune is extremely good. It’s one of those tracks you can’t help but nod your head to, and will be stuck in your head for days on end after hearing it (something I can’t say I’ve experienced before with a LACUNA COIL track).

Cristina Scabbia’s vocals are superb as ever, but Andrea Ferro takes over too much for my liking on some of the tracks and that causes the downfall of some of them (an example of this is ‘The Maze’), although he sounds better on this album than in past efforts. Another thing I have to say concerning the vocals is that they do seem to be to overpowering for the tracks, so much so that guitars, bass and drums are less audible over vocal sections compared to other albums I have heard.

There is also a more melodic slower side to this album in the form of title track ‘Shallow Life’ and ‘Wide Awake’, where in the latter Scabbia is given a chance to perform by herself and it sounds so much better with her on her own, and there is definitely more of an emotional feeling to this just listening to her voice.

All in all, this is an average album with a couple of standout tracks (which coincidentally happen to be the two you would associate most with LACUNA COIL’s original style, i.e. ‘Survive’ and ‘Spellbound’), but with the radical change in style on offer here, I’m not sure how the fans will react to this. There are still elements of the old LACUNA COIL on this album, just few and far between. For me, I’ve always liked LACUNA COIL’s individuality and style, but their sound has changed too much on this album, and this just isn’t what LACUNA COIL was. They have changed their style drastically to search for a more commercial, radio friendly style album. They have lost their individuality and gothic style which won them their fans in the first place. They will definitely win more fans with this record, but the real question is how many will they lose because of it? That, we will have to wait and see, but I can’t see the original fans appreciating this as much as the teenage and early twenties crowd who think that EVANESCENCE and LINKIN PARK are ‘heavy’, ‘cool’ and ‘metal’.

Rating: 2.8/5.0

Review By Adam Fredericks