Far removed from the band that recorded Comalies in 2002, the Lacuna Coil of 2025 is a much heavier prospect. Continuing on the journey they embarked upon with 2014’s Broken Crown Halo, the transition from clean to harsh vocals from co-lead vocalist Andrea Ferro in conjunction with the powerful cleans of Cristina Scabbia has meant their past few records are much more modern in their approach, adding djent riffs, groove metal breakdowns and nods to death metal too. It has resulted in a new audience discovering the band, making them probably more popular than they were back in the mid 2000’s.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Comalies, they re-recorded it in 2021/2022 in the style they favour now, the gothic metal influences replaced by extreme metal, while recording the anniversary record they had the spark to continue to create and thus set about writing and recording Sleepless Empire. The majority of the writing, most of the playing and the production again is helmed by Marco Coti Zelati (bass, guitar, synth), the band rounded out by Richard Meiz on drums, so what is Sleepless Empire like?
Well it’s not too unlike their last few albums, aggressive metal put with anthemic choruses, blending modern heaviness with their alternative/gothic metal beginnings. If anything Sleepless Empire draws more from Comalies since these songs would have been freshly re-recorded, so on tracks such as Gravity you can trace a link back to that record and with I Wish You Were Dead, Karmacode too. The themes behind the record are about being trapped in a digital world, shackled to social media, and trying to rebel and become human again. To link to the themes of this record they will release a special edition board game and to further play through stories of the album.
For me Lacuna Coil’s recent history is much more attractive than their early years, I’ve talked before about how Andrea changing his style has made for a much more intriguing style, it also has meant Cristina’s vocals are the best they’ve been as she’s the only clean vocalist. Though both get some help on Sleepless Empire as Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God grunts through Hosting The Shadow while Ash Costello of New Years Day drops in on In The Mean Time. On their tenth album and in their 30th year, Lacuna Coil sit in their own niche in the metal world, this Sleepless Empire shows no signs of falling yet! 8/10
Marko Hietala - Roses From The Deep (Nuclear Blast)
With his solo albums former Nightwish man Marko Hietala moves toward a more progressive, classic rock sound. His 2019 debut was released in English in 2020, as Pyre Of The Black Heart but Roses From The Deep is his first since leaving the Finnish symphonic metal band he is so associated with, though many still consider him to be a member of Tarot first.
Marko’s bass and his powerful vocals were ideal counterpoint’s to all three singers of Nightwish, as well as being a major part of Northern Kings and Sinergy, but for anyone who wants to relive those early days may want to just skip ahead to the excellent Left On Mars which is a previously released duet beside Tarja Turunen, these two voices in tandem as if it’s 2002 again. To hear them both perform together will delight older school fans but there’s much more to discover on this second album.
Hietala has always said he’s inspired by the likes of Glenn Hughes and Ronnie James Dio and these classic rock heroes can be heard on this record, it’s got huge progressive moments, some Finnish fireside folk, throwbacks to his symphonic metal beginnings and a dark introspection that draws me to an artist such as Alice Cooper who can set very ugly, socially documenting lyrics against catchy hard rock and make you sing along.
Hietala has always said he’s inspired by the likes of Glenn Hughes and Ronnie James Dio and these classic rock heroes can be heard on this record, it’s got huge progressive moments, some Finnish fireside folk, throwbacks to his symphonic metal beginnings and a dark introspection that draws me to an artist such as Alice Cooper who can set very ugly, socially documenting lyrics against catchy hard rock and make you sing along.
It’s beauty is in the eclecticism, Hietala surrounding himself as the anchor of the band with some high level musicians that can easily handle the frequent changes in tone and style. Marko left Nightwish due to exhaustion and depression and these feelings and thoughts are expressed through the music here, be it on Proud Whore or Impatient Zero, there’s personal element to these songs some obvious but others hidden on the epic tracks like The Dragon Must Die or the title track.
The album apparently is about finding light in shadow and with Roses From The Deep, Marko Hietala has made sure to find a lot of light and some excellent songs from his darkest days. A brilliant vocalist and songwriter, on this second solo album he becomes an indelible part of the Finnish metal scene in his own right rather than just a band member. 8/10
Spiders - Sharp Objects (Wild Kingdom)
Spiders are a hard rock band from Sweden. Formed in 2012, they have had three albums before this and he a established themselves on the worldwide scene with a sound that takes its cue from glam, power pop, new wave and some bluesy hard rock. So there's some Blondie to the snotty What's Your Game (Miss Insane), while Fun In The Sun and Schizoid both have a Rolling Stones strut, the latter with some loose open chords, slide guitar and shaker percussion.
John Hoyles' guitar gets to go wild, with twin harmonies, the slide, the power rock chords, it's based in blues but adds much more as the boiler room of drummer Ricard Harryson and bassist Olle Griphammar adds a glam stomp of Bowie or Sweet on Mess With My Emotions, while singer Ann-Sofie Hoyles lets loose on Too Hard For You, her voice often compared to Debbie Harry and you can hear that for sure on Life Mission. Taking it's cues from various era's without veering away from them too much, is Sharp Object essential? Well no, but it's great fun if you're a retro rock n roll lover. 7/10
Demolyn - Slay The Godhead (Self Released)
The album apparently is about finding light in shadow and with Roses From The Deep, Marko Hietala has made sure to find a lot of light and some excellent songs from his darkest days. A brilliant vocalist and songwriter, on this second solo album he becomes an indelible part of the Finnish metal scene in his own right rather than just a band member. 8/10
Spiders - Sharp Objects (Wild Kingdom)
Spiders are a hard rock band from Sweden. Formed in 2012, they have had three albums before this and he a established themselves on the worldwide scene with a sound that takes its cue from glam, power pop, new wave and some bluesy hard rock. So there's some Blondie to the snotty What's Your Game (Miss Insane), while Fun In The Sun and Schizoid both have a Rolling Stones strut, the latter with some loose open chords, slide guitar and shaker percussion.
John Hoyles' guitar gets to go wild, with twin harmonies, the slide, the power rock chords, it's based in blues but adds much more as the boiler room of drummer Ricard Harryson and bassist Olle Griphammar adds a glam stomp of Bowie or Sweet on Mess With My Emotions, while singer Ann-Sofie Hoyles lets loose on Too Hard For You, her voice often compared to Debbie Harry and you can hear that for sure on Life Mission. Taking it's cues from various era's without veering away from them too much, is Sharp Object essential? Well no, but it's great fun if you're a retro rock n roll lover. 7/10
Demolyn - Slay The Godhead (Self Released)
Oscar Medblom is Demolyn, he plays everything here making it the definition of a solo project. Now he's already released a debut album in 2022 but has now followed it up with this new five track EP called Slay The Godhead. It features Fabio Alessandrini (Annihilator/Enforcer) on drums and his power adds to the extreme metal textures Demolyn has.
The debut was black metal, raw and aggressive, Oscar building on this with Slay The Godhead as he brings some death metal styles too, a track such as Warwhores for instance has black metal tremolo picking but is driven at the speed of thrash or early death metal, imagine Celtic Frost or Venom. I Shall Transcend is the first track that has that death metal grunt to it, every song creating it's own individual world to explore.
Medblom describes these song as a "self-contained tale" the most progressive of these being Misery, Rain Over Me, where the pace shifts a number of times, evolving into a melodic middle section before the speed returns. If you like you black metal ferocity with death metal muscle then Demolyn will have you sharpening that massive sword ready to do some slaying. 7/10
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