By Greg Northrup

            Lacuna Coil is yet another addition to the growing ranks of female fronted metal bands, and probably among the best. Their debut EP features songs that are direct and catchy, yet heavy enough to sustain the interest of the average metal fan. Although the riffs are fairly dull and the music doesn't really stand up on it's own, it is the excellent female vocalist and her interaction with a 'clean' male vocalist that really carry the album.

            The first song, "No Need To Explain", is the best, and each song gets progressively less interesting from there. Ultimately, it is the first four songs out of the six on the album that constitute worthy listening material, as one of the last two is a boring instrumental and the other one is just boring, period. The obvious filler at the end is disturbing considering that this is just an EP. If they can't write enough solid material for something as short as this, how are they going to write a full album?

            Lacuna Coil seems like the most likely of the current crop of goth/doom bands with female vocalists to really achieve some success within the metal community. This is due to the fact that they do not utilize any 'death vocals' mixed in with the female vocals, (a la Theatre Of Tragedy) but they do use clean male vocals and relatively heavy music in order to appeal to the metal fan who found The Gathering a tad too light. Unfortunately, Lacuna Coil is neither as diverse and eclectic as Theatre Of Tragedy, nor as passionate and creative as The Gathering. However, if they can stay away from the instrumentals and the filler, I'll be the first in line when their album comes out.