Lacuna Coil - In a Reverie

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Music reviews of In a Reverie

Music Review: Destined for classic status.
Rating: 4 Stars

For over a year now, I've been trying to decide which is better: Lacuna Coil's most recent slab of melodic metal, Comalies (reviewed a few weeks back), or their debut full-length, In a Reverie. I still can't figure it out.

In Comalies' defense, it's a more musically coherent album, with a decided direction to it. Everything fits together very well, without that coherence sacrificing the incredible hookworthiness of the songs therein. In a Reverie, on the other hand, is a more exuberant album, produced by a band who seemed, at the time, more willing to take chances. The sound here is more polished than on their first release, a five-song EP (the only real detraction of In a Reverie being a remake of one of the songs on that EP, as unnecessary as Evanescence's recent redoing of their own "My Immortal," and for exactly the same reason; overorchestration kills the spare, desolate beauty of the original), there's not a track that isn't catchy enough to stay in your head for days, and the whole thing has a raw power. It's also not of the same brand of metal as Comalies, which has the band moving towards a more accessible sound; on In a Reverie, they just don't seem to care if anyone likes it but they. However, a whole lot of people liked it anyway, which is why they're still around (and finally, six years later, gaining the audience in America they should have had from the opening note of that first EP).

Everyone's introduction to Lacuna Coil should be "My Wings." Probably the least "conventional metal" song on the disc, with the majority of the guitar work done acoustically underneath the mayhem and a laid-back rhythm section, the song is more than anything a showcase of the band's vocalists, Cristina Scabbia, and Andrea Ferro, doing what they do best. Scabbia's soaring voice gives real muscle to her parts of the lyrics, and Ferro's thrash/death upbringing is perfectly suited to his bit. (Ferro is much better when screaming than singing, though his voice does tend to grow on you after about a hundred listens.)

Once you have been utterly captivated by "My Wings," head on to some of the more conventionally metallic songs here, such as "Circle," "Veins of Glass," and the hysterical "Honeymoon Suite" (best when seen live in concert, with Scabbia and Ferro acting the song out in a routine that's more Laurel and Hardy than Bogey and Bacall). You can't help but notice that these folks may like to fish, but they sure know how to cut bait when they need to. From there, onto the power ballads. "To Myself I Turned" is a thing of perfect beauty (despite lyricist Scabbia's stumbling a bit over the English language in some places; listen to this and you'll know exactly where Evanescence got the inspiration for the finest song they've done yet, "Imaginary"). "Falling Again" is the albums' only real throwaway track, though if you've never heard the original version you probably won't notice the deficiency. (So go out and get the five-song self-title EP as well and hear this song in all its true glory; "Falling" is one of the mighty Coil's best songs to date.) Last, but not least, let yourself get lost in their Readers' Digest Condensed version of the obligatory metal epic, "Reverie." It clocks in shy of seven minutes, but still has that sweeping, grandiloquent feel found on albums by, say, Iron Maiden during the mid-eighties. (This comes, no doubt, from their affinity with such bands as Opeth, for whom they have opened numerous times in their career.)

Okay, so you've probably noticed the continuing cropping up of the word Evanescence here. I have been describing Lacuna Coil as "the band Evanescence want to be when they grow up" ever since I first heard "Bring Me to Life." (Come on. Tell me the male vocal break in "Bring Me to Life" wasn't written to be sung by Andrea Ferro. You'll be lying.) While Lacuna Coil do certainly owe something to Evanescence-were it not for the American band's popularity, Lacuna Coil would still be known and loved by maybe ten people on this side of the Atlantic-Evanscence owe their sound entire to Lacuna Coil. If you like Amy Lee, you're going to go bats over Cristina Scabbia.

Usually I try to point to a particular album as the best intro to any given band, but with Lacuna Coil, pick up anything at random, it's all fantastic. In a Reverie, along with Comalies, may stand a forehead or so above their other releases, but it's all fantastic stuff. (And to complicate the equation, their best song, "Stars," is on yet another album.) So the final answer is... buy them all! ****

Description of In a Reverie

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Hard Rock & Metal
• Pop
• Rock