Customer Reviews

Lullacry 4

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Despite Lullacry's rocky past efforts, I highly anticipated this album. Tanja has a great rock voice and the band has gotten progressively better so I figured there'd be a considerable amount of maturation, but no. This is the same Lullacry of past efforts. Needless to say, this is undoubtedly Lullacry's best to date, but is that really saying much?

From the opening seconds of Perfect Tonight you can see growth, vocally and musically, but as the song progresses you can tell that Lullacry has changed very little. They don't experiment with their sound AT ALL. You can expect exactly the same thing as previous CDs, hard rocking songs with varying degrees of quality, and at least one ballad. What has changed though is the fact that they've thrown some male yelling into the mix. The yelling isn't extremely prominent though, so we got lucky with that.

I will admit that the songs are considerably better this time around. The lyrics are leaps and bounds better than Be My God and Crucify My Heart, and there are even some good guitar parts included. Vol. 4 incorporates their traditional sound but Tanja is the one who has stepped up her game and made this CD what it is, no song proves that better than Soul In Half. It's the typical 'power ballad' yet Tanja puts enough of her own twist on it to make it seem somewhat fresh. If you're a fan of Lullacry's harder songs then you'll no doubt rejoice in songs like Love, Lust, Desire and Killing Time. Both offer above average music and attitude driven vocals.

My favorite songs are Love, Lust, Desire, Heart Shaped Scars, Soul In Half, and Killing Time. If you are on the fence about getting this thinking it'll just be another retread of Be My God and Crucify My Heart, then you might just wanna turn away right now because Lullacry does little to further or alter their sound from those releases, which is a huge disappointment. However, if you did enjoy the other releases, then you'll love this CD. For those of us who like to see bands evolve and mature though, this is a big letdown.

I've heard Lullacry described as a gothic rock band, or as a pop rock band. Neither of these descriptions is quite right. Lullacry combines three guitars, one set of drums, and the powerful voice of Tanja Lainio to form a sound that is basically pure hard rock. Or perhaps power metal. There's no other way to describe this mix.

And Lullacry's mix works *very* well. Tanja Lainio has an excellent singing voice, and the careful listener will pick up on her range, her vibrato, and her overall vocal quality. However, she never comes across as an opera singer who's stumbled into the wrong studio. Tanja Lainio sings *rock*, and she sings it well, showing power and emotion and energy. Fill this in with some excellent guitar work by the rest of the Lullacry band, and you have an top-notch rock album on your hands.

The stand-out tracks on "Vol. 4" are "Fire Within", "Soul in Half", and "Killing Time". The rest of the album is worth a listen as well. *Highly* recommended for any fan of female-fronted rock.

This is the first album I've bought from this tallented Finnish music powerhouse, but I loved them from the first listen. So much in fact that I went out and got Crucify My Heart later (which also rocks!) High energy beats, sexy, powerful female vocals, cool lyrics...need I say more? A must for fans of goth metal, especially Lacuna Coil, (similar high energy to Karmacode), Switchblade Symphony, Kidneythieves, ect.