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Lacuna Coil - Shallow Life
| Sputnikmusic |
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For the past few years Lacuna Coil has been a band in transition. The first signs of this transition were displayed on Comalies, but it wasn’t until Karamcode that it became blatantly obvious. Karmacode presented a band struggling to move beyond minor league success even if it meant losing their own individuality. It was an album that blatantly stole from nu metal and discarded much of what had made them previously appealing. Apparently the band didn’t achieve their desired results because Shallow Life continues their search for a more profitable identity but this time they’ve gone in a different, more logical, direction. Shallow Life finds the band dropping the nu metal of Karmacode and moving towards mainstream metal similar to Linkin Park’s current sound - only instead of a rapper Lacuna Coil have Cristina Scabbia and instead of a whiney emo-boy they have a tone-deaf Italian. All jokes aside, it would be easy to focus on how the band continue to be too reliant on other bands’ techniques but to do so would be to sell this album short. Suffice it to say that they have definitely moved in a more mainstream direction, but that they have finally found their niche as well. A look at the band’s past should remind that they’ve never really had great riffs, powerful vocals (male vocals, anyway), or engaging atmospheres; they’ve only ever succeeded on the strength of Cristina’s voice (and looks) and a penchant for writing moderately catchy tunes, and those are the qualities emphasized on this album. That’s not to say that the band has totally moved away from heavier sections (as the opening to “I Survive” proves); it’s just that they’re now intermingled with melodic, unobtrusive riffs that take a back seat to strong choruses....full text |
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| Popmatters |
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When an established metal band attempts to broaden its sound to reach a much wider audience, the decision is always met with derision from many of those who supported the band in the early days. However, when a European band with an already very solid worldwide fanbase decides five albums into its career to Americanize their sound more, well, that’s when the accusations of, “Sellout!” truly start to fly. Such is the case with Lacuna Coil, who for the past five years has been gradually moving away from the goth-infused metal sound that it helped popularize in the late-1990s and early this decade, the atmospheric beauty of Unleashed Memories ultimately giving way to a more direct approach on 2004’s Comalies and 2006’s Karmacode. With their last album’s simple, downtuned guitars and highly compressed sound, it was clear to some that subtlety had been tossed out the window in favor of pandering to the Disturbed crowd. But one thing the Milan, Italy sextet has never lost is their knack for very contagious melodies, and despite its inconsistencies, Karmacode turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable, its hooks greatly making up for its rather straightforward nu-metal riffery....full text |
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| Heavymetal |
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Lacuna Coil is a metal band ripe for mainstream success, and their latest CD Shallow Life may be the one to push them over the top. They enlisted producer Don Gilmore, who has worked with pop artists like Avril Lavigne and Good Charlotte, and recorded the album in Los Angeles. Shallow Life is packed with hooks and instantly memorable melodies. There's still plenty of bombast and guitars, but it's also a move toward the mainstream. Songs like "Not Enough" and "I Like It" are mass appeal, catchy, and would sound right at home on Top 40 radio. "Underdog" and "The Maze" are more in the vein of previous Lacuna Coil albums, with a little more intensity and a darker vibe. There are only a couple like that, with the majority of the songs more accessible and rock/pop oriented....full text |
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