Hell Hath No Fury...

           I had a hard time coming up with a good album to use for this week’s Wildcard.  Most of the ones I was encountering were studies in self-pity and/or idolization of the loved one.  I know I didn’t HAVE to like what I was writing on, but that is no fun.  Then it occurred to me that one of the albums in my eclectic collection was fit the bill in a slightly different way.  Shallow Life, the fifth studio album from the Italian metal band Lacuna Coil has a definite lyrical sequence concerning love, or rather a lack there of.

            Though the band says that the album is about the shallow aspects of modern society and how we have to be wary of them, but not afraid of them (the lead singer talks about how she knows she doesn’t need to buy anymore cloths, but every once in a while shopping with her friends is just fun), something else bleeds through in the songs.  I would be willing to be that a little research might reveal a nasty break up between lead singer Cristina Scabbia and a boyfriend (who is clearly insane, the woman is gorgeous and has some set of pipes).  Every song seems like a letter to this former significant other.

            The overall tone reflects someone who is moving on from a broken heart.  She seems to be living by the belief that if she acts happy on the outside, she will begin to feel happy on the inside.  The loss can be felt in every song as you progress through the album.

            So far two singles have been released “I Like It” and “Spellbound”.  “Spellbound” feels like it would have taken place directly after the split where as “I Like It” feels more like a song that is meant to make her look stronger than she is feeling.  Lines such as “I am getting ready to move on/But you don’t like it/You can kiss your fairy tale away/I like it, like it/How do you like it?” as well as the first verse of “Spellbound” have the air of someone still feeling the keen sting of love.

            There is one song (featured on the deluxe copy of the album) that I find pretty interesting, “The Last Goodbye”.  It feels like a catharsis, a point at which the two former lovers have come to a point where they no longer mourn their relationship, but are instead ready to truly move on.  It is the one point where the tone of the album really shifts.

(Above: a fan made video for The Last Goodbye)

            Two interesting notes.  One, shortly before this CD came out, Scabbia did a song with a band called Apocalyptica called “S.O.S. (Anything But Love)”.  It is a heart-wrenching story of an emotionally and physically battered girlfriend.  This theme of heartbreak seems to start here and filtered into Lacuna Coil’s album.  (I can’t seem to find the video right now so I will past in the lyrics so you guys have some idea, honestly I think she deserves a Grammy just for rhyming "nothing" with "mind-f*cking", but maybe that’s just me).

Bound to your side and trapped in silence
Just a possession
Is this sex or only violence
That feeds your obsession

You send me to a broken state
Where I can take the pain just long enough
Then I am numb -t hen I just disappear

So go on fight me
Go on and scare me to death
Tell me I asked for it
Tell me I'll never forget
You could give me anything but love
Anything but love

Does it feel good to deny
Hurt me with nothing
Some sort of sick satisfaction
You Get from mindfucking

Stripped down to my naked core
The darkest corners of my mind are yours
That's where you live
That's where you breathe

So go on fight me
Go on and scare me to death
Dare me to leave you
Tell me I'll never forget
You could give me anything but love
Anything but love

Without any faith
Without any light
Condemn me to live
Condemn me to lie
Inside I am dead

So go on fight me
Go on and scare me to death
I'll be the victim
You'll be the voice in my head
You could give me anything but love
Anything but love

Secondly, this albums sound is quite drastically different from the bands previous ones.  It has more of a mainstream, even (dare I say it) pop-rock vibe, where as their past work was darker and more concerned with matters of loss of faith, with songs like “Heaven’s a Lie” and “Our Truth”.  I feel this is also representative of Scabbia’s emotions during the time they where writing the lyrics.

Or I could be completely off the mark and it could have nothing to do with a break-up, but it feels like it to me.