Regular readers of Sea of Tranquility will know that I have a large photo of The Gathering tattooed on my chest; it is my humble opinion that they are simply the best rock band working today. Therefore, any band that sounds like them stands a good chance of either winning me over or pissing me off.
Lacuna Coil has won me over. Their short (less than 30 minutes) debut on Century Media is a brilliant example of the power that results when solid hard rock songwriting is complemented with savagely beautiful female vocals. "The Secret...", a song whose chorus uses question-and-answer alternation between male and female singers, is sweeping and majestic, and once again makes my point that the ladies have a gift for finding emotion in compositions that we men would never have dug up.
Some people would say that Lacuna Coil borrows too heavily from The Gathering, right down to some of Anneke's vocal inflections. Those critics are probably technically correct, but I'm too happy to care, for there simply aren't enough good bands like this one.
Highly recommended
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