Album Review: Lacuna Coil – Black Anima (Century Media Records)

Italian alt metal superstars Lacuna Coil are shifting the paradigm yet again with new album, Black Anima. Just as Comalies (2002), Shallow Life (2009), and chart-smashing Delirium (2016) upped the ante and rocketed the Milan-based outfit into the upper echelons of metaldom, Black Anima is a level beyond all that.

It’s both a hard look at the past and a brave sprint into the future. Two years in the making, Lacuna Coil’s ninth album arrives after the group published their first book, Nothing Stands in Our Way, in 2018 and celebrated in auspicious fashion their 20th Anniversary with an ultra-exclusive, all-out insane live show in London, dubbed The 119 Show: Live in London. Lacuna Coil have never shied away from hard work. Nor, have they restrained their creative impulses to push things to the absolute limit.

Black Anima will be released on October 11th 2019 via Century Media Records.

It’s been a while since I could confidently say that I really loved a Lacuna Coil album. In fact, it’s probably as far back as Comalies in 2002 which is a hell of a long time. I’ve personally been off their train for some time but their general popularity hasn’t seemed to wane.

For good reason too as the alternative metal band have wide crossover appeal. It’s what shot them into stardom back in the early part of the millennium and few could blame them for taking it easy on their ninth release. However, that’s not the case and it’s interesting to see them push themselves on Black Anima.

Although it doesn’t start off brilliantly as the opener/intro ‘Anima Nera’ has some weird sounding effect on the vocals that begins to grate. Get through this start though as what follows is pretty damn good.

Sword of Anger is an absolute beast of a track, very heavy and very fast. The two vocalists Andrea Ferro and Cristina Scabbia are on incredible form here. This is the kind of Lacuna Coil I can listen too and happily it’s not a one-off.

Reckless is marginally lighter on the ears and Layers of Time showcases some of their more ‘epic’ sounds albeit one where Ferro absolutely destroys his vocal chords through the sheer power he exudes.

Apocalypse is this albums’ Heaven is A Lie, super-catchy and with mass appeal, Now or Never has a hellfire of a latter half that will make even non fans sit up and take notice and Under the Surface is up there as the heaviest track on the album.

It’s something of a surprise to then get a little bit more of an operatic style with Veneficium, although not an unwelcome one as Lacuna Coil deliver a bombastic track. The most lacking track on the album comes next in the form of the melodramatic The End is All I Can See before Save Me really takes us back in Lacuna Coil time and the title track pushes one last intense epic out the door to be seen and heard.

It’s an on form return for Lacuna Coil, an album likely to please all areas of their fanbase.

Lacuna Coil – Black Anima Full Track Listing:

1. Anima Nera
2. Sword of Anger
3. Reckless
4. Layers of Time
5. Apocalypse
6. Now or Never
7. Under the Surface
8. Veneficium
9. The End Is All I Can See
10. Save Me
11. Black Anima

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