Lacuna Coil have always had a flair for the melodramatic. Following on from the darkly cinematic Broken Crown Halo, the Italian gothic metallers have drawn on their love of horror even more on their new album to drag the listener down into an oppressive, nightmarish landscape.
If Delirium were a season of American Horror Story, it’d be Asylum. The shift in gear is immediately apparent on opener The House Of Shame; the crystalline voice of Cristina Scabbia is ice-cold and piercing as she pushes her range higher than ever.
Meanwhile Andrea Ferro’s usual rasp has developed into a far deeper, more ferocious snarl, particularly on the outstanding title track, which also features, perhaps for the first time on a Lacuna Coil record, a genuinely pretty great guitar solo from new member and all-rounder Marco Coti-Zelati, who gives each song a heavier, fuller sound. The thin, twinkly melodies of yesteryear are nowhere to be found on the creepy Take Me Home, the powerful You Love Me Because I Hate You and especially the brutal assault of Blood, Tears, Dust. In short, Delirium might just be Lacuna Coil’s heaviest, strangest album yet. It’s a trip definitely worth taking.
