640. Lacuna Coil / Dark Adrenaline. 2012. 2/5

Well, it's been a long time coming, but I have finally gotten around to checking out a Lacuna Coil album. I could (and maybe should) have checked out an earlier release of theirs to ease my way in, but when the opportunity came along to grab their new album I decided to take it. I had heard fair reports on their music, and was absolutely taken by Cristina Scabbia's guest vocal on Megadeth's "A Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)". Thus the time had arrived.

The album is catchy from the start, in a hard rock alternative kind, certainly not a metal kind of way. there are obvious similarities to draw between Lacuna Coil and Evanescence in their sound. "Trip the Darkness" and "Against You" kickstart the album at the right pace, while "Kill the Light" is another rocking song. I think the main thing these songs are missing is a bit of grunt, a real kick in the guitars, drums and vocals to really bring the maximum out of them. They're good rock songs, but they need a metal injection to increase their work load.
"Give Me Something More" is lacking something more, while "Upsidedown" has too much of Andrea on vocal in his monotonal chords. "End of Time" is the power ballad every band feels obliged to include on every album, while "I Don't Believe in Tomorrow" has the band trying to do a weak impression of a Therapy? inspired song - or so it sounds to my ears. It doesn't come off at all.
"Intoxicated" returns the album to a better standard, and this is supported by "The Army Inside", both a little faster paced with better riff work, and more of Cristina on vocals. The reworked R.E.M. cover "Losing My Religion" doesn't really work for me, but in reality it was a brave song to try and cover. "Fire" follows the improvement of the last few songs on the album, while "My Spirit" tries to be a bit too moody and soulful, and really just drags out the conclusion of the piece.

The one thing I can absolutely discern is that this band is a 70 to 80% better sounding band when Cristina is on vocals rather than when Andrea takes over. The duelling vocals style of the band is not one that I adverse to, but the exacting differences in their vocal approach and pitch is what really irritates me. It's not as if it is really terrible, but it is simply that the songs sound better and more in the correct pitch when Cristina is singing.

This isn't all bad, and does show potential in places. But in the end, it will probably not progress any further in my collection than something that can act as background music while I'm working.