Kev Rowland Lacuna Coil are back with their ninth studio album and I for one am very pleased indeed. There has been another change in line-up, in that drummer Ryan Folden has departed after four years in the seat to be replaced by Richard Meiz (Genus Ordinis Dei). His role, along with that of guitarist Diego "DD" Cavallotti and Marco "Maki" Coti-Zelati (guitars, bass, keyboards, synths) is to provide the musical backdrop and muscle for the two people at the front of the band, namely Christina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro. Along with songwriter Marco they have been there since the very beginning of the band in 1997, and they just seem to be getting better and better.

When there is a need for a song to become bombastic, epic and over the top, then it is there in spades, but there are also times when they are more reflective, but t often doesn’t last too long. The bottom end builds a foundation which would allow a double-height Burj Khalifa to be built on it, with guitar, bass and drums combining to create a solid wall of sound. The keyboards sometimes provide additional lightness and melody, but there are others when they too join in the fun to create a sold slab of metal which may only be lightened by the contrast of Christina. There again, it may just be a force for Andrea to show he is never going to play second fiddle and that it is the mix and combination of the two very different singers that makes this band what it is, combined with the epic songwriting and performance of Marco and the others.

They shift from maelstrom to beauty, back again, or off in a new direction, and all the listener can do is smile. The very first time I played this I started to think this may actually be their best release yet, even better than the first three albums (which are all classics in their own right). Scabbia says: “This record was really written around our live performances. The songs we enjoy playing live the most are the heavier ones. So, when we started writing, the songs naturally were heavier. We have more growls (for Andrea) and epic parts (for me), too.” Epic, awesome, totally essential.