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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STILL MY FAVORITE!,, August 19, 2003
I have all four Lacuna Coil albums and In a Reverie is the most consistent. Their are outstanding songs in each of Lacuna Coils four albums but in my opinion this album has all quality songs with no filler. This is Lacuna Coils first full length album and it's still my overall favorite. Don't get me wrong, subsequent releases Unleashed Memories and Comalies are both super releases but I rate - In a Reverie - just slightly higher, on the basis of having the most songs I really like, such as Falling Again, Circle, Stately Lover, Cold and the incredible To Myself I Turned. These are all 5 star songs and the rest are at least 4 star. Unlike most other Italian bands, like Rhapsody, which concentrated on epic power metal, Lacuna Coil devoted themselves to melodic gothic, hence heroic, folkloric influences are missing. Female singer Cristina Scabbia and singer Andrea Ferro share the mic and do a very good job at it. They supplement each other perfectly and give each song a special PUNCH. Cristina's voice, while not quite on a par with other European divas such as Floor Jensen, is quite pleasant to listen to. It is deeper than most and a quality that fits Lacuna Coil's music(which is somewhat progressive)perfectly. Needless to say Lacuna Coil would not be where they are today without Christina. It seems to me that of all the wonderful goth-metal bands of Europe, Lacuna Coil has the best chance of making an impact in America. They have many songs that would not be out of place on an alternative, heavy metal or even top 40 radio format and they have a small but growing following in the states. This summer they are touring the states as the opening act for Danzig. It seems that Lacuna Coil is bigger than Danzig but I guess not in the states. Comparisons to other bands seem useless but I will try. Within Temptation, Delight, Artrosis, Entwine, L'ame Imortelle, Dreams of Sanity and Flowing tears are all in the same sub-genre but are not that similar. I'm not saying Lacuna coil is better, they're just different. Maybe the closest group would be Greek goth band On Thorns I Lay but you're probably more likely to have heard Lacuna than Thorns This album is a winner and if you don't already have it, you should get it or one of the others.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark and brooding, February 20, 2005
In a reverie is by far the darkest recording ever produced by Lacuna Coil. From the seeping overtones of despair to the depressed, ethereal ambience conjured by the overall asthetic, the listener is throughly engulfed in torrents of melancholy.
Every riff holds a dark, entrancing quality that will contrast occasionaly with a more upbeat part to enhance it's effect. Cristana Scabbia's depressed, doomed vocal delivery could not fit this album more. Her voice flows along with the music like it's a part of it rather than a separate element. The drums, unlike a lot of doom/gothic bands, are also fairly well done. Of course there are limitations to what you can do on drums when your band is moody and slow paced, but beside that point this is a superb exhibition. Lacuna Coil is one of those bands that have no weak link in their instrumental sound. Unfortunatly that can't be said about the two vocalists, which brings me to why I must give this otherwise exceptional release four stars.
Andrea Ferro is a terrible singer, there just isn't any way around it. On their latter two releases, Comalies and Unleashed Memories he's tolerable, if a bit obnoxious. On the first two releases, this album and the Lacuna Coil EP he's downright awful. It's a rare moment when he's ever on tune or in the correct key. Lacuna Coil would truly be better off without him.
Overall, In A Reverie is an almost top tier doom/gothic album held back some by one member's lack of talent. Fans of Anathema, Tiamat, Paradise Lost, The Gathering, Alas, November's Doom, Rapture, Katatonia, Midnatasol, Leave's Eyes, Dreams Of Sanity, etc... will most likely enjoy this album. Converesly, fans of Lacuna Coil would probably enjoy the bands above as well. So if you haven't already, check them out if you have the time.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Destined for classic status., May 10, 2004
Lacuna Coil, In a Reverie (Century Media, 1999)For over a year now, I've been trying to decide which is better: Lacuna Coil's most recent slab of melodic metal, Comalies (reviewed a few weeks back), or their debut full-length, In a Reverie. I still can't figure it out. In Comalies' defense, it's a more musically coherent album, with a decided direction to it. Everything fits together very well, without that coherence sacrificing the incredible hookworthiness of the songs therein. In a Reverie, on the other hand, is a more exuberant album, produced by a band who seemed, at the time, more willing to take chances. The sound here is more polished than on their first release, a five-song EP (the only real detraction of In a Reverie being a remake of one of the songs on that EP, as unnecessary as Evanescence's recent redoing of their own "My Immortal," and for exactly the same reason; overorchestration kills the spare, desolate beauty of the original), there's not a track that isn't catchy enough to stay in your head for days, and the whole thing has a raw power. It's also not of the same brand of metal as Comalies, which has the band moving towards a more accessible sound; on In a Reverie, they just don't seem to care if anyone likes it but they. However, a whole lot of people liked it anyway, which is why they're still around (and finally, six years later, gaining the audience in America they should have had from the opening note of that first EP). Everyone's introduction to Lacuna Coil should be "My Wings." Probably the least "conventional metal" song on the disc, with the majority of the guitar work done acoustically underneath the mayhem and a laid-back rhythm section, the song is more than anything a showcase of the band's vocalists, Cristina Scabbia, and Andrea Ferro, doing what they do best. Scabbia's soaring voice gives real muscle to her parts of the lyrics, and Ferro's thrash/death upbringing is perfectly suited to his bit. (Ferro is much better when screaming than singing, though his voice does tend to grow on you after about a hundred listens.) Once you have been utterly captivated by "My Wings," head on to some of the more conventionally metallic songs here, such as "Circle," "Veins of Glass," and the hysterical "Honeymoon Suite" (best when seen live in concert, with Scabbia and Ferro acting the song out in a routine that's more Laurel and Hardy than Bogey and Bacall). You can't help but notice that these folks may like to fish, but they sure know how to cut bait when they need to. From there, onto the power ballads. "To Myself I Turned" is a thing of perfect beauty (despite lyricist Scabbia's stumbling a bit over the English language in some places; listen to this and you'll know exactly where Evanescence got the inspiration for the finest song they've done yet, "Imaginary"). "Falling Again" is the albums' only real throwaway track, though if you've never heard the original version you probably won't notice the deficiency. (So go out and get the five-song self-title EP as well and hear this song in all its true glory; "Falling" is one of the mighty Coil's best songs to date.) Last, but not least, let yourself get lost in their Readers' Digest Condensed version of the obligatory metal epic, "Reverie." It clocks in shy of seven minutes, but still has that sweeping, grandiloquent feel found on albums by, say, Iron Maiden during the mid-eighties. (This comes, no doubt, from their affinity with such bands as Opeth, for whom they have opened numerous times in their career.) Okay, so you've probably noticed the continuing cropping up of the word Evanescence here. I have been describing Lacuna Coil as "the band Evanescence want to be when they grow up" ever since I first heard "Bring Me to Life." (Come on. Tell me the male vocal break in "Bring Me to Life" wasn't written to be sung by Andrea Ferro. You'll be lying.) While Lacuna Coil do certainly owe something to Evanescence-were it not for the American band's popularity, Lacuna Coil would still be known and loved by maybe ten people on this side of the Atlantic-Evanscence owe their sound entire to Lacuna Coil. If you like Amy Lee, you're going to go bats over Cristina Scabbia. Usually I try to point to a particular album as the best intro to any given band, but with Lacuna Coil, pick up anything at random, it's all fantastic. In a Reverie, along with Comalies, may stand a forehead or so above their other releases, but it's all fantastic stuff. (And to complicate the equation, their best song, "Stars," is on yet another album.) So the final answer is... buy them all! ****
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