It feels like it’s been longer than two years since Lacuna Coil’s last release, Dark Adrenaline, but where that album fell a little short, Broken Crown Halo feels like a true return to form for the band and this is perhaps one of the band’s strongest releases to date.
Broken Crown Halo begins with Nothing Stands In Our Way, which slowly builds up into an absolute earworm of a tune and it’s no wonder that this was the track chosen to represent the album because it just has everything – fantastic vocal performances from both singers with a small hint of heaviness amongst the melody, and this wonderful heavy tone to the guitars atop of crushing drums.
It’s not just the opener that will get stuck in your head however; with this album it really does feel that Lacuna Coil have crafted a whole collection of wholly memorable tracks. There’s Zombie, which features one of the best vocal performances from Andrea to date, with him seamlessly blending harsh and clean vocals together, and then there’s Die And Rise which begins with an introduction so catchy it’ll be stuck in your head for days. In all honesty, there isn’t a single track on the album that stands out as being bad.
In essence, Broken Crown Halo is an exceedingly strong release from the band. It’s adventurous and fresh, whilst still retaining the classic Lacuna Coil ‘sound’ – and it’s excellent.
9/10
