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Band: Lullacry
Album title: Where Angels Fear
Release date: 16 April 2012
Label: Scarlet Records
Tracklisting:
01. Antidote To You
02. Still An Angel
03. Thousand Suns
04. Feel My Revenge
05. Bad Blood
06. All Behind
07. Gone Are The Days
08. I Am
09. Broken (Into Pieces)
10. Where Angels Fear
11. Stay
Seven years after their Vol.4 album here it comes the fifth studio instalment from Finnish Lullacry. Of course, the expectations were quite high and I believe that the band was aware of this fact, but have they reached those expectations? I can say at the same time yes and no.
Where Angels Fear starts in an impressive way with "Antidote To You", probably one of the best tracks up here. Lullacry haven't changed a lot since their last album, yes, their music has matured, the sound is darker, they don't stay trapped within one genre and Tanja Lainio hasn't lost anything about her charming and captivating voice. Their music is not kind of symphonic metal that someone could expect, but rather mix of some gothic elements with alternative and hard rock grips. You can find a lot of typical Finnish melancholic parts, similar to what Sentenced, Charon or even Poisonblack are/were doing, but also some moments, especially guitars that could remind of Katatonia and modern pop/goth rock elements reminiscent to Lacuna Coil or Evanescence. Before mentioned opener "Antidote To You", doomy semi ballad "Feel My Revenge"; where Tanja sings in a duet with Mikko Herranen (known for his short membership in Misery Inc.) , who appears to be also the producer of this album; then beautiful gothic "Gone Are The Days" and "Thousand Suns" with its almost doom metal drive, are the songs that rest in your head for a long time and are at least to say an example how to make great melancholic gothic rock/metal. But, yes there's always a but, Lullacry spoil the overall perception with kind of highly energetic, almost punkish "Bad Blood" and some fillers like "I Am". They should stay away from this, as it seems that they are not really capable of inserting in an interesting way more energetic and alternative pieces, yes, I understand that they've tried to experiment a little bit, but it feels like the songs are kind of misplaced. Also two ballads present here "Broken (Into Pieces)" and "Stay" could offer some more emotions, though they are not that bad. Still, there are a lot of other things that Lullacry performs in a marvelous way. Tanja's vocals are a nice refreshment, she could be delicate, energetic, romantic without losing the pace. Guitars are played well, they carry the song structures and with some leads shows the professionalism of both players Sami and Sauli. Lyrics are not something to be praised, yet, they fit nicelly with the music. Production is crystal clear, dynamic and modern as it should be for the enclosed style of music.
Lullacry could do great things, but after hearing this album many times in its entirety I can say that it has a lot of potential that went missing, as there are to many songs that don't reach the same level as the best ones. Beside that it's also sad that their music doesn't offer anything new for fans of melancholic metal or rock and stays in the same circles with many similar bands. Anyway, still a nice listen, although I would prefer that this album could be reduced into an EP with above mentioned highlights.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 7/10
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