Negoba
Early Example of the Beauty and the Best Formula
Before Evanescence hit big, female fronted metal was already on the rise. Lots of goth-clad pretty faces singing over varying quality heavy music. Lacuna Coil was the first of these to get me to bite, and the album was Comalies.
This album featured the singles "Swamped" which very much follows the formula of the harsh male focals and the soaring female chorus. "Heaven's A Lie" allows Christina Scabbia to take a more central role, and both are solid alt metal singles. But the rest of the album is pretty much non-descript formula music. I rarely make it all the way through the album before getting bored and moving on.
Nothing here is particularly bad, it's just non-descript. The performances aren't particularly emotional, the voices really aren't that distinctive, and the guitars aren't that heavy. There are ballads, there are mid-tempo sorta-rockers, and precious few really heavy moment. To be frank, Epica (the ultimate goth candy band) does this so much better, though they admittedly followed the examples of earlier bands like this one.
Bottom Line: Don't get fooled by the Eye Candy