Dark Adrenaline

Heavy, melodic, and relentlessly melodramatic, Italian goth-metal outfit Lacuna Coil's follow-up to 2009's Shallow Life bristles with the kind of nervous energy and well-honed theatricality that can only come from a band whose name translates to "empty spiral." Like Leaves' Eyes, Nightwish, the Gathering, and Evanescence, the band knows how to set a tone, and Dark Adrenaline, once again produced by Don Gilmore (Bullet for My Valentine, Linkin Park), doesn't disappoint. Bigger and bolder than the more radio-friendly Shallow Life (a solid, yet calculated, mascara-drenched cover of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" notwithstanding), Dark Adrenaline boasts some of the group's most explosive work to date, with highlights arriving via "The Army Inside," "I Don't Believe in Tomorrow," and the brooding first single "Trip the Darkness." Melodic and mercurial, immaculate and overwrought, it's not for everybody, but six albums in, Lacuna Coil have proven themselves more than worthy of both the attention of commercial rock radio and the adoration of the progressive metal community. ~ James Christopher Monger