{"id":18608,"date":"2014-03-31T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=18608"},"modified":"2014-05-18T21:01:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-18T21:01:00","slug":"album-review-lacuna-coil-broken-crown-halo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-lacuna-coil-broken-crown-halo\/","title":{"rendered":"LACUNA COIL – Broken Crown Halo (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LACUNA COIL
Broken Crown Halo<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nCentury Media (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Broken Crown Halo<\/em> is the latest from goth-tinged Italian hard rockers Lacuna Coil. The follow up to the highly successful Dark Adrenaline<\/em> (2012) and Shallow Life<\/em> (2009) albums, Broken Crown Halo<\/em> finds the band at a crossroads of sorts due to the departure of guitarist Cris Migliore and drummer Cristiano Mozzati after 16 years with the band (although both appear on this latest release).<\/p>\n

The album was produced by Jay Baumgardner, the go-to producer for mainstream rock artists in the last decade or so. As Baumgardner\u2019s history would suggest, the band continue their move away from the gothic, ethereal sound that they first made a name for themselves with.<\/p>\n

The radio-friendly aspect of the band is at its most prominent on this release and, while many diehard longtime fans may grumble about it, I really dig it. The sound here is far superior to any of the band\u2019s prior releases and the pristine polish really helps the guitar work shine through more and brings out the best in the dual vocalist set-up.<\/p>\n

\u2018Zombie\u2019 is a good example of what I\u2019m getting at. It\u2019s heavy during the verses and when the chorus rolls around and Cristina Scabbia takes over, it really soars. The guitars drive it, being enhanced by the rhythm section and the electronic tinges instead of buried by it like we heard on the last couple of albums. \u2018In The End I Feel Alive\u2019 has a similar feel to it, but the guitars bounce a little more and the chorus has more of an urgent sense about it than \u2018Zombie\u2019. <\/p>\n

Lacuna Coil offer a few tunes here that are much more straightforward than usual as well. \u2018I Forgive (But I Won\u2019t Forget Your Name)\u2019 for example is an even-keeled rocker with both vocalists singing completely clean. Scabbia really shines though, offering a ballsier oomph then she usually does. The album\u2019s final track, a six-minute plus tune entitled \u2018One Cold Day\u2019, even hearkens back ever so slightly to the band\u2019s first few albums. It\u2019s got that dark, victorious feel to it that reminds me how much I loved Comalies<\/em> (2002) back in the day, yet it doesn\u2019t go as far as to make me want to dig out my Comalies<\/em> CD either. <\/p>\n

Overall, if you haven\u2019t enjoyed the last few Lacuna Coil albums then Broken Crown Halo<\/em> isn\u2019t going to bring you back into the fold. As a matter of fact, it will probably create a further separation. Everything about this album is slick and polished and radio-friendly. For me, I love this side of Lacuna Coil and with Broken Crown Halo<\/em> they have nearly perfected this aspect of themselves. There are a few songs that sound fairly similar to each other, but other than that, it\u2019s an above average outing.<\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LACUNA COILBroken Crown Halo Century Media (2014)Rating: 8.5\/10 Broken Crown Halo is the latest from goth-tinged Italian hard rockers Lacuna Coil. The follow up to the highly successful Dark Adrenaline (2012) and Shallow Life (2009) albums, Broken Crown Halo finds the band at a crossroads of sorts due to the departure of guitarist Cris Migliore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-lacuna-coil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18612,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18608\/revisions\/18612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}