We’ve got your a comprehensive guide to the new album from Lacuna Coil right here! You can still check out our track-by-track guide to Heaven & Hell’s new album here.

Lacuna Coil are to release their new album ‘Shallow Life’ may not have the correct, finalized track-listing.

Spellbound
Chances are you’ve heard this already on Lacuna Coil’s MySpace page, and it’s a useful bridge to the new album ahead, full of classic glinting guitar lines and confidently huge choruses. Amidst billowing riffs, Andrea Ferro’s determined yet wistful vocals hand over to Cristina Scabbia for some multi-tracked game-raising. The song soars to the band’s typical opulent, super-catchy state, repeating verse/chorus until it siphons off a brief, burning guitar lead and gathers itself up for the barnstorming finale.
“Spellbound“ (standard version)
“Spellbound“ (performance only version)

Not Enough
We’d had advance notice of new ‘poppier’ direction for ‘Shallow Life’, but this is still… unexpected. The breezy vocals and house-y, piano-led groove will have you dancing around your handbags or, failing that, all your old Lacuna Coil CDs, along with a can of paraffin and a box of matches. The song suddenly drops into Andrea’s accented vocals, leading up to another huge, Cristina-led chorus that briefly restores some lost co-ordinates until a string-swathed interlude recalls Madonna before leading out on plonking piano and an ominous, very late, gravitas-introducing guitar drone.

I Won’t Tell You
The pendulum swings back to the classic Lacuna Coil sound, with subtle electonic undertones and stroboscopic guitars building up into an everybody-jump chorus. Cristina’s vocals have a new, sassy edge, even if there are moments when you swear they’ve been treated though a vocoder.

Wide Awake
The first of Shallow Life’s two big, stage-y ballads, and this one’s led by piano and strings as Cristina, not for the last time on the album, shows her newfound range by unleashing a series of airy, rippling incantations. Amidst circulating acoustic guitar, her rich, heavy-hearted, I’m-coming-of-age vocals should get the lighters out en masse. Best listened to with a communal tub of ice cream, a DVD of Steel Magnolias and the full complement of X chromosomes.

I’m Not Afraid
Leading on a cinematic, time-ticking-down piano riff, ‘I’m Not Afraid’ ignites into massive, climbing riffs, while Cristina’s ballsy delivery – a seductress on a mission of retribution – is one of the album’s highlights, the line, “Shivers down your spine” proving instantly prophetic. Then Andrea comes in and everything goes a bit Linkin Park. As usual there are fluttering interludes – more vocal yelps from Cristina – before the song picks up on the chorus again for a final, rousing (if you like Linkin Park) outing.

Unchained
Another song about self-transformation, a recurring theme throughout Shallow Life. Cristina’s sex-tigress invocation of the song title offer a counterpoint to Andrea’s wistful, searching vocals amidst bustling guitars, that as ever, scale up to anthemic size. After more chants a dusky guitar lead starts drizzling itself over the riffs, much like those M&S ads – “This is not just a lead break, this is a Lacuna Coil lead break…”

I Like It
Time again to decide between your dancing or running shoes. Still guitar-based for the most part, this still opens up on a disco-style break as Cristina opts for a higher register before the momentum of the groove sharpens her vocals into a wicked, whiplash tone, even if it’s far more pop diva than anything approaching metal or even ‘gothic’. The ‘motivational’ , assertive chorus (“Today I’m going to fly”) sounds like it should be an anthem for fifteen-year-old girls on that cusp between becoming a woman and getting grounded by their parents, and there’s a brief chant (“I’m free to be what I like/I’m celebrating my life”) that’s sure to provoke a stampede from metal fans to the Nike store.

The Maze
More chanting from Cristina, which Hammer believes to be an Inuit mating call, but this song’s led by Andrea, his by-stealth vocals borne by rustling riffs until they’re ambushed by the lady with a huge tune than strays deep into Sheryl Crow territory. Aptly, given the song title, Andrea does start to sound a little lost amidst the interlude until the guitars and low-end groove return and lead him back to the chorus again.

Shallow Life
Ballad number two. Andrea’s treated vocals hover in the background, before Cristina croons over a slightly industrialised, metronomic groove, swathed in strings and atmosphere. It this doesn’t end up on a movie soundtrack, then directors just aren’t writing wandering-alone-at-night scenes any more.

Survive
Various sound effects, including backward riffs summon up playground chants that become the song’s returning motif, bursting into pounded grooves, and traces of Korn’s throttled bass tone amidst lattice-work guitar and tag-team vocals intertwining into harmonies.

Underdog
Lacuna Coil are arguably on auto-pilot, but its you-won’t-knock-me-down sentiments seep up through some relatively weighty riffage, searchlight guitar leads, and a trace of post-grunge that recalls Stone Temple Pilots.

The Pain
A song about weariness that does its best not to suffer the same fate. It draws itself on as though it’s on an assembly line as strings, distorted guitar tones and flickering, neon riffs are bolted on, creating a few sparks in the process. Again, an anthem for alienated youth, but offering a mature, take-my-hand sense of empathy rather than adolescent angst, and it’s sorrowful but epic scope makes you wonder if Lacuna Coil have been listening to Porcupine Tree’s ‘Fear Of A Blank Planet’.

Lacuna Coil are also set to be part of this year’s Download festival.

Download will take place on June 12th – 14th at Donington and will feature sets from Faith No More, Slipknot, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, The Prodigy, Limp Bizkit, Motley Crue, Marilyn Manson, Korn, ZZ Top, Down, Journey and many, many more.

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