Review Summary: The Dark Times of Gothic/Symphonic Metal, Part 19
Here comes another big one, that I had avoided talking about for some time due to my complicated feelings on it: Lacuna Coil’s Karmacode! The album that completely derailed Lacuna Coil’s career, the one where they went nu metal, one of the first sell-out moments from gothic metal bands, but also the one that introduced a new generation to Lacuna Coil. One hell of a legacy.
What do I think about this album? I know I’m supposed to hate it, but I didn’t, even though I didn’t exactly love it. I don’t like the idea of Lacuna Coil hopping on the nu metal trend (too late, might I add), but at the same time, some of its songs have remained at the back of my mind for a while. When I listened to the album in full, I found myself recognizing many songs, from which I’d heard some extracts in YouTube compilations. I remembered that heavy yet catchy first verse on “To the Edge”, the catchy synths of “Closer” and the more subtle but memorable chorus of “You Create”. And of course, I’ve always enjoyed “Our Truth”, with its amazing intro consisting of Cristina’s vocalizing and heavy riffs, and melody that remains stuck in your mind forever. I still don’t know what “we’re raising our truth” means, but it sounds cool.
“Our truth” has a very nu metal riff, clearly influenced by Korn, but that track does a pretty good job of mixing nu metal with LC’s usual sound. Deep down, it’s still a Lacuna Coil song, just mixed with the styles of the new generation. The same can be said for other tracks. Some are a good example of that peculiar fusion, such as the first one, “Fragile”, with its peculiar vocalizing and chugging riff that’s a lot heavier than the title would suggest. “You Create” starts as a ballad, with Cristina’s wonderful melismatic vocalizing, before exploding with the Korn-y distorted riffs of “What I See”, which actually work pretty well. By contrast, “Without Fear” is a wistful sort of ballad, sung in Italian.
However, the album still has a few obvious flaws. “Devoted” quickly becomes repetitive, especially with its over-simplistic riff. Even though the verses of “To the Edge” are great, probably my favorite from the album, the chorus just loses the intensity of what came before it. The songs tend to repeat a lot of the same riffs and melodies, and a lot of the repetitive tracks are not that memorable or interesting. Then there’s “Closer”, the odd one out, a sort of poppy symphonic metal that sounds like it was written to get you pumped up for the Olympics or whatever. Incredibly catchy, but completely out of place on the album.
“Within Me”, the other ballad, has some pretty awful nasal singing from Andrea, and awkward lines like “Something about you makes me feel bad”. I won’t go on too much Andrea’s vocals, so I’ll just say that he brings down a lot of good songs, like “You Create”, and absolutely ruins the choruses of “Fragile” or “Fragments of Faith”. And don’t get me started on the cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence”. This makes more sense than you’d think: Lacuna Coil always took some obvious inspiration from new wave, alternative rock and gothic rock, that’s why they’re called gothic metal. But Andrea and Cristina barking “All I wanted, all I needed, is here in my arms” was just as awful as I expected. It’s the last track, so you can enjoy the silence once it’s over.
Obviously, this awkward mixture of nu metal and Lacuna Coil’s usual sound can’t appeal to everyone. But that’s not the biggest problem on this album: that would be the repetition, the lack of creativity, and the huge gap in quality between tracks. I’d recommend a lot of these songs, if you don’t mind a nu metal-influenced Lacuna Coil, but your life is not really going to be improved by listening to “Invisible Light” and “The Game”. The real reason why Lacuna Coil’s nu metal experiment doesn’t work is because it was clearly done to copy a trend rather than out of genuine curiosity. It’s their first album where they tried to sound like someone else instead of keeping their own unique, inimitable sound. Unfortunately, it was influential, in both good and bad ways. It inspired other gothic/symphonic bands’s turn to a commercialized nu metal sound, so I hold it responsible for Nemesea’s “The Quiet Resistance” and maybe even “Tear the World Down”. But it definitely got a lot of younger listeners into Lacuna Coil, and still to this day, it has its fans. This, and the fact it does have some good songs, means I can’t really hate it, although I don’t love it.
