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Track Listings
| 1. Trip The Darkness |
| 2. Give Me Something More |
| 3. The Army Inside |
| 4. Kill The Light |
| 5. Losing My Religion |
| 6. Against You |
| 7. Upside Down |
| 8. My Spirit |
| 9. I Don't Believe In Tomorrow |
| 10. Intoxicated |
| 11. End Of Time |
| 12. Fire |
Editorial Reviews
2012 album from Italy's greatest musical export. The album was recorded with acclaimed producer Don Gilmore (Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park, Pearl Jam) at the famed NRG Studios in Los Angeles. Dark Adrenaline is another huge step forward in the band's continuous evolution and marks their first full-length since 2008's Shallow Life and promises to be well worth the wait.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By M. Pofahl
Format:Audio CD
2009's Shallow Life, Lacuna Coil's first album with producer Don Gilmore at the helm, was widely criticized for its pop-rock oriented sound. The band was seemingly bent on shedding their Gothic roots in favor of a more generic, radio friendly modern-rock vibe that only vaguely echoed the best of their previous work. These criticisms were very much warranted, as Shallow Life was by far the blandest record released by the band up to that point.
Lacuna Coil supposedly heard those criticisms, and during the production of their follow up, Dark Adrenaline, they weren't coy about their intent to release a darker, heavier album. Were they successful?
Eh... not really.
The only difference with regard to heaviness might be somewhat thicker sounding guitars, but that only serves to make the album sound even more dense, not heavier. Otherwise, the album is Shallow Life Part II. Don Gilmore was the producer at the helm once again, and as such, little has changed sound-wise.
Is the album darker? Again, not really. The music is too bland to create a truly dark atmosphere. The lyrics are every bit as empty as they were on Shallow Life, if not more so. What are they really singing about on "Trip the Darkness"? Songs like "Against You" and "Army Inside" seem to recycle the confrontation/self-empowerment theme that was done to death on the previous album.
Of course, lyrics have never been the band's strongest area. All of their albums have had their cringe-worthy moments, mostly due to their tenuous grasp of the English language. They've gotten a pass from most fans (including myself) over the years partly because they are Italian and partly because the ethereal beauty of their uniquely Mediterranean brand of Gothic metal rendered the actual lyrical content moot.
However, on the last two albums, that transcendent beauty is basically gone. Gilmore seems to have sucked all of the space out of their sound. The intricate layers of clean and distorted guitars has been mostly replaced with an indecipherable wall of down-tuned power chords, making what layers are there fade into sonic mush.
Gilmore isn't entirely at fault here, as the band creates few, if any memorable progressions or riffs. There's almost no palm muting or any other flourishes to make the guitars rhythmically or melodically interesting. They try to resurrect their layered sound at times on songs like "Kill the Light", but it comes off as a pale & lifeless imitation of their old sound.
Don't get me started on the cover of "Losing My Religion" - it's absolutely terrible (which is a shame; I really liked their cover of "Enjoy the Silence" off of Karmacode).
The problem here is that the band ran with the flawed premise that heaviness and darkness = old Lacuna Coil. What really made Lacuna Coil special was their balance of of darkness & light, where aggressive & chunky riffs and pretty gothic arpeggios & synths could not just co-exist but together create a sound that rose above the sum of its parts.
Waldemar Sorchyta (their previous producer) seemed to understand this. Even when Lacuna Coil's guitar duo made the somewhat foolish choice to embrace seven-string instruments full-time on Karmacode, Sorchyta found a way to balance the increasingly sludgy distorted guitars with the other elements of their sound. Andrea & Cristina's voices (while mixed perhaps a tad low on Karmacode) continued to soar effortlessly as they had in the past. Perhaps it's just the aging of their voices, but under Gilmore, the duo to me sound almost labored at times on Dark Adrenaline as they strive to stand out from the overly dense production.
The packaging for Dark Adrenaline is every bit as generic as the sound. Once again, the color pallet is basically two-toned. A clear glass ampule replaces the crystalline hand grenade of Shallow Life as the focal point of the cover. The back cover photo is once again a shot of the band either trying to look hot (Cristina) or bad-ass (everybody else). It looks like it could have come from the same photo shoot that produced the back cover shot on Shallow Life.
Dark Adrenaline is almost a carbon copy of Shallow Life in my opinion - dense, uninspired, bland. Neither album is offensively bad, they simply have lost the magic that made their first three albums and two EPs so incredible, at least to my ears. Those five CDs hold a special place in my collection (I'm a long-time fan going back to early 2001). My copies of the last two albums are bound for the used CD bin at my local record store. There is simply no redeeming reason for me to hang on to them.
Lacuna Coil supposedly heard those criticisms, and during the production of their follow up, Dark Adrenaline, they weren't coy about their intent to release a darker, heavier album. Were they successful?
Eh... not really.
The only difference with regard to heaviness might be somewhat thicker sounding guitars, but that only serves to make the album sound even more dense, not heavier. Otherwise, the album is Shallow Life Part II. Don Gilmore was the producer at the helm once again, and as such, little has changed sound-wise.
Is the album darker? Again, not really. The music is too bland to create a truly dark atmosphere. The lyrics are every bit as empty as they were on Shallow Life, if not more so. What are they really singing about on "Trip the Darkness"? Songs like "Against You" and "Army Inside" seem to recycle the confrontation/self-empowerment theme that was done to death on the previous album.
Of course, lyrics have never been the band's strongest area. All of their albums have had their cringe-worthy moments, mostly due to their tenuous grasp of the English language. They've gotten a pass from most fans (including myself) over the years partly because they are Italian and partly because the ethereal beauty of their uniquely Mediterranean brand of Gothic metal rendered the actual lyrical content moot.
However, on the last two albums, that transcendent beauty is basically gone. Gilmore seems to have sucked all of the space out of their sound. The intricate layers of clean and distorted guitars has been mostly replaced with an indecipherable wall of down-tuned power chords, making what layers are there fade into sonic mush.
Gilmore isn't entirely at fault here, as the band creates few, if any memorable progressions or riffs. There's almost no palm muting or any other flourishes to make the guitars rhythmically or melodically interesting. They try to resurrect their layered sound at times on songs like "Kill the Light", but it comes off as a pale & lifeless imitation of their old sound.
Don't get me started on the cover of "Losing My Religion" - it's absolutely terrible (which is a shame; I really liked their cover of "Enjoy the Silence" off of Karmacode).
The problem here is that the band ran with the flawed premise that heaviness and darkness = old Lacuna Coil. What really made Lacuna Coil special was their balance of of darkness & light, where aggressive & chunky riffs and pretty gothic arpeggios & synths could not just co-exist but together create a sound that rose above the sum of its parts.
Waldemar Sorchyta (their previous producer) seemed to understand this. Even when Lacuna Coil's guitar duo made the somewhat foolish choice to embrace seven-string instruments full-time on Karmacode, Sorchyta found a way to balance the increasingly sludgy distorted guitars with the other elements of their sound. Andrea & Cristina's voices (while mixed perhaps a tad low on Karmacode) continued to soar effortlessly as they had in the past. Perhaps it's just the aging of their voices, but under Gilmore, the duo to me sound almost labored at times on Dark Adrenaline as they strive to stand out from the overly dense production.
The packaging for Dark Adrenaline is every bit as generic as the sound. Once again, the color pallet is basically two-toned. A clear glass ampule replaces the crystalline hand grenade of Shallow Life as the focal point of the cover. The back cover photo is once again a shot of the band either trying to look hot (Cristina) or bad-ass (everybody else). It looks like it could have come from the same photo shoot that produced the back cover shot on Shallow Life.
Dark Adrenaline is almost a carbon copy of Shallow Life in my opinion - dense, uninspired, bland. Neither album is offensively bad, they simply have lost the magic that made their first three albums and two EPs so incredible, at least to my ears. Those five CDs hold a special place in my collection (I'm a long-time fan going back to early 2001). My copies of the last two albums are bound for the used CD bin at my local record store. There is simply no redeeming reason for me to hang on to them.
59 of 80 people found the following review helpful
By Jack
Format:Audio CD
Really Century Media?! As with my review for Roadrunner Record's very flawed physical "deluxe edition" of The Unforgiving (Special Edition CD+DVD) by Within Temptation, this latest release by Lacuna Coil continues the insanely disgusting practice where the record labels do anything and everything to get us to buy their music, EXCEPT give us the bonus tracks! There are no less than eight different physical versions of this album being released today, all featuring ridiculous bells and whistles; everything from dvds to posters, medical kits, etc., and yet not a single one of these different physical versions features 'Soul Inmate' as a bonus track (nor any of the other b-sides). Do you want to know who gets it? The Itunes MP3 customers because they must be rewarded for making the record label's job easier by being so willing to settle for far less than a physical product, while us physical release fans are being punished for still holding onto "the old ways". No amount of added posters, dvds, syringes, medical kits, photos, etc. will EVER be better than getting a complete release of the album where there are NO missing songs.
I am a huge fan of Lacuna Coil, as they were my first exposure into the world of female fronted rock, so it greatly pains me to not buy this album. But I must stand by my belief to not buy something that I know I am getting screwed over on. Century Media re-released Shallow Life (Bonus CD) (Dlx) a year after the album's initial release with all three b-sides (and it was well worth buying then), so I am going to hold out hope that they will come to their senses again and re-release this album with all the cut bonus b-side tracks. However, as I am still waiting on a physical release of Karmacode with both 'Without A Reason' and 'Virtual Environment' included on it to be released, I also know to not hold my breath.
Record labels need to wake up and realize that the game has completely changed with the introduction of the internet. People can now download albums rather easily, and while I prefer just to go without entirely (as I do not wish to hurt the bands who made the music by stealing their material, just because their idiot record labels can not get it through their thick skulls that we want ALL the songs), a lot of other fans do not. Record labels need to adjust their outdated marketing ploys and start giving fans COMPLETE products that we are proud to pluck our money down for. Stop with the shiny boxsets, posters, dvds, etc. and just give us ALL the songs! If a record label can afford to produce this many versions of one album, then SURELY they can afford to produce a TRUE "deluxe" edition for us completists to where we get all the songs. Until they learn this, my purchasing of cds will halt. Even though the latest release from Evanescence Evanescence (Deluxe CD/DVD) was not their strongest effort, I give mad props to Wind-Up Records for giving us the type of cd release I desire from every band (where we are given a choice between purchasing the standard 12 track album or the complete "deluxe edition" with all the b-sides included) and that I am more than happy to pay money for.
And what makes it even worse is the fact that this new album sounds like it would be very good. Perhaps a bit too much of Andrea's vocals (and I do miss the gothic/doom atmosphere of Unleashed Memories), but the few songs I have heard are quite solid and I would be more than happy to add this release to my cd collection after it is given a worthy physical release with 'Soul Inmate' and all the other songs the band recorded for this album included in the package, like it deserves.
I am a huge fan of Lacuna Coil, as they were my first exposure into the world of female fronted rock, so it greatly pains me to not buy this album. But I must stand by my belief to not buy something that I know I am getting screwed over on. Century Media re-released Shallow Life (Bonus CD) (Dlx) a year after the album's initial release with all three b-sides (and it was well worth buying then), so I am going to hold out hope that they will come to their senses again and re-release this album with all the cut bonus b-side tracks. However, as I am still waiting on a physical release of Karmacode with both 'Without A Reason' and 'Virtual Environment' included on it to be released, I also know to not hold my breath.
Record labels need to wake up and realize that the game has completely changed with the introduction of the internet. People can now download albums rather easily, and while I prefer just to go without entirely (as I do not wish to hurt the bands who made the music by stealing their material, just because their idiot record labels can not get it through their thick skulls that we want ALL the songs), a lot of other fans do not. Record labels need to adjust their outdated marketing ploys and start giving fans COMPLETE products that we are proud to pluck our money down for. Stop with the shiny boxsets, posters, dvds, etc. and just give us ALL the songs! If a record label can afford to produce this many versions of one album, then SURELY they can afford to produce a TRUE "deluxe" edition for us completists to where we get all the songs. Until they learn this, my purchasing of cds will halt. Even though the latest release from Evanescence Evanescence (Deluxe CD/DVD) was not their strongest effort, I give mad props to Wind-Up Records for giving us the type of cd release I desire from every band (where we are given a choice between purchasing the standard 12 track album or the complete "deluxe edition" with all the b-sides included) and that I am more than happy to pay money for.
And what makes it even worse is the fact that this new album sounds like it would be very good. Perhaps a bit too much of Andrea's vocals (and I do miss the gothic/doom atmosphere of Unleashed Memories), but the few songs I have heard are quite solid and I would be more than happy to add this release to my cd collection after it is given a worthy physical release with 'Soul Inmate' and all the other songs the band recorded for this album included in the package, like it deserves.
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By nin/ja77
Format:Audio CD
Lacuna Coil return with album number 6 "Dark Adrenaline" which see's the band return to their heavier root's after their last album the mellower "Shallow Life" which was met with luke warm reviews from both fans and critics. Many long time fans missed the heavier sound the band had developed especially on albums such as "Comalies" and "Unleashed Memories". There is no lack of heavy riffs on "Dark Adrenaline".
The signs were good when the first single "Trip The Darkness" was released as it contains some heavy guitars and great vocal interplay between vocalists Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro. On the track "Kill The Light" which starts out slow before giving away to a heavy riff, it's a song full of hooks. Elesewhere there is "Give Me Something More" which is a song full of melody. Any doubt that Lacuna Coil weren't going to break out heavy riffs are put to bed by the time you reach the 7th song the brilliant "I Don't believe In Tomorrow" which has Lacuna Coil almost sounding like Korn with downtuned guitars it's both dark and a heavy song, it also features a great breakdown at the 2.40 mark that has Scabbia singing "I Avenge You" over and over.
The songs "Against You", "Upside Down" and "The Army Inside" are all songs that will have Lacuna Coil fan's rejoicing that the band have embraced their heavier side once again, there's even few guitar solos thrown in for good measure. There is also the epic album closer "My Spirit" which at nearly six minutes long closes out the album in style. Not everything works such as the cover version of REM's "Losing My Religion" which just sounds out of place on the album and is a far cry from the cover version of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" from "Karmacode".
With "Dark Adrenaline" lacuna Coil have embraced their dark side again with an album full of dark melodies and heavy sounding riffs, the linkup between Scabbia and Ferro hasn't sounded this good in a while, with both vocalists playing to their strengths. Lacuna Coil has hit their stride again with "Dark Adrenaline".
The signs were good when the first single "Trip The Darkness" was released as it contains some heavy guitars and great vocal interplay between vocalists Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro. On the track "Kill The Light" which starts out slow before giving away to a heavy riff, it's a song full of hooks. Elesewhere there is "Give Me Something More" which is a song full of melody. Any doubt that Lacuna Coil weren't going to break out heavy riffs are put to bed by the time you reach the 7th song the brilliant "I Don't believe In Tomorrow" which has Lacuna Coil almost sounding like Korn with downtuned guitars it's both dark and a heavy song, it also features a great breakdown at the 2.40 mark that has Scabbia singing "I Avenge You" over and over.
The songs "Against You", "Upside Down" and "The Army Inside" are all songs that will have Lacuna Coil fan's rejoicing that the band have embraced their heavier side once again, there's even few guitar solos thrown in for good measure. There is also the epic album closer "My Spirit" which at nearly six minutes long closes out the album in style. Not everything works such as the cover version of REM's "Losing My Religion" which just sounds out of place on the album and is a far cry from the cover version of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" from "Karmacode".
With "Dark Adrenaline" lacuna Coil have embraced their dark side again with an album full of dark melodies and heavy sounding riffs, the linkup between Scabbia and Ferro hasn't sounded this good in a while, with both vocalists playing to their strengths. Lacuna Coil has hit their stride again with "Dark Adrenaline".
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not their best release.
If you're feeling nostalgic for Linkin Park or Evanescence, then this is a great CD for you. It's about as dark, about as heavy, and about as catchy. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Rachel James
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lacuna Coil
I like this one album better than Unleashed Memories.There is just something about it that keeps you listening and listening for more.
Published 28 days ago by gloriabigley
5.0 out of 5 stars
good song
I bought this song for my boyfriend. He is a big fan of Lacuna Coil and would recommend the song to his friends
Published 1 month ago by owen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent disk.
Excellent disk and very good presentation.
The pack its good but the vynil disk its really the best of the package...
The pack its good but the vynil disk its really the best of the package...
Published 1 month ago by FabianX
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lacuna Coil via 2012
I have been a fan of LC since Karmacode. I then slowly found their older works and fell into love with the sound. Read more
Published 2 months ago by santa's little helper 5
5.0 out of 5 stars
LOVE LACUNA COIL
Lacuna Coil is amazing. This album does not disappoint. If you have never heard these people play. Check them out.
Published 3 months ago by Tara H Snow
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love Lacuna Coil!
I have a lot of this bands music, but the way they've been going the last few albums reaches its peak in this one to me! Read more
Published 3 months ago by Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars
great cd
great cd. I received it quickly. I recommend and plan to purchase more in the future. thanks a lots. smiles
Published 3 months ago by adam
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lacuna Coil can do better
This item arrived timely and did meet the item description. My daughter liked their Karmacode cd better, their cover of Losing my Religion here is good though.
Published 4 months ago by marianne johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a great album!
Lacuna Coil does it again, it's fabulous and quite dark too. I can't go into individual songs, they are all great!
Published 4 months ago by M. Terhune
