Lacuna Coil

(Century Media)
by Scott Hefflon

Similar to The Gathering, yet incorporating emphatic male vocals like Sky Cries Mary, Lacuna Coil release a beautifully-produced (thanks again, Mr. Sorychta!), 30-minute debut brimming with lovely melancholy, dreamy textures, and occasional huge, distorted guitar riffs. More like thunder rolling mightily in the distance than shaggy-headed metalheads stomping and posing, the guitar is used as one of many instruments. With only six songs to go on, it’s difficult to project the future of Lacuna Coil (which, by the way, means “empty spiral”), yet with the talent to blend Tori Amos-istic heartfeltness, Goth “ballerina-with-black-nail-polish” etherealism, and a good ol’ wall-of-guitar, I don’t really see how they can go wrong. (The chick’s cute, too, which certainly doesn’t hurt.)