Diamonds in the Rough 05.10.09: Lacuna Coil

Posted by Leo Rivera on 05.10.2009

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming, but first.....

Before I go back to the regular format of this column this week, I have something I have to get off my chest, in regards to all of the comments that this column received in the past two weeks. About 60% of you disagreed with what I think modern rock is and that's fine, because frankly I disagree with you! But then again that is the beauty of having your own opinion right? Now just like many criticize the bands that are focused in the column week after week, I personally don't see any redeeming qualities in bands like The Strokes, The Hives, Jet and any of those other retro rock bands. Heck even Radiohead is boring as hell in my opinion (just like many of you think korn is irrelevant).

When I first took on this gig back in November of last year I spoke with Ben and Mitch and I told them that I wanted to fill a void that I saw missing in the 411 music zone, and that was the lack of coverage on the type of bands featured on my list. You can call these bands "post nu-metal" if you would like, and fact of the matter is, yes, they are post nu-metal bands. In my opinion, that genre got the rug swept out from under them way too prematurely by a fickle corporate music industry that felt it was necessary to go "back to the future" with all bands starting with "THE." In my opinion that was a failed experiment, if you don't believe tell me how many of those "The" bands are still around today (with the exception of Jack White from The White Strips and his new band "Dead Weather") and secondly how many of those record labels that ditched nu-metal and indorsed these sissy bands are around today? The answer to both questions is: NOT MANY!

Now everybody comes down hard on the mainstream rock of the late 1990's and early 2000's, but let me ask you this, when was the last time you could ask a regular joe (meaning someone who was exclusively a hip hop fan or some other genre not rock related) if they knew a song like "Last Resort" or "Crawling" or "Fade" and they knew who played the song! As far as I can recall their where only three era's where rock bands transcended the genre and became known to even the most jaded music listener and that was during 80's Heavy Metal (everybody knew Gun's n' Roses and Metallica), early 90's grunge era (who doesn't know Nirvana and Pearl Jam?) and late 1990's into early 2000's Nu-Metal (EVERYBODY knows who Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Creed and Korn is, rock fan or not). Heck I even remember in 1999 and 2000 MTV putting out two compilations CD's titled MTV Return of The Rock, and rock videos were everywhere.

Like it or not, it was the last time that Hard Rock was a legitimate part of pop-culture. It was about attitude, and that attitude re-defined rock music (just look at Woodstock '99 to see my point) and more important than that it was lucrative. All those bands sold but loads of records, yet some corporate "Genius" decided that it would be better to reverse that cultural impact and break out the skinny jeans and purple shirts and thus the metro-sexual crap that is emo/retro rock was born, bands like The Darkness replaced bands like Sevendust on the radio. Now let me ask you something fast forward six years later and who's still standing? Where the hell are the pansties that "Believe in a Thing Called Love" o that's right back in obscrutie where they should have always been, that tounge and cheek crap was an insult to all true rock fans. Like it or not the bands that get less media attention these days (aka post nu-metal bands) still have the most loyal fan base, because they have always kept it real and people appreciate it. As for all those "The " bands, well they tried to ride a wave of corniness for hipsters but at the end of the day the joke is on them.

Ok now lets get on with it. This week I zoom in on an extremely talented international metal band that come to us from Milan, Italy I am talking about Lacuna Coil.



Formed by vocalist Andrea Ferro and bassist Marco Coti Zelati in 1994 in Milan, Italy in its original inception Lacuna Coil was known as Sleep of Right. between 1994-1997 the band went through several lineup changes, with the most high profile change being the addition of Christina Scabbia as co-vocalist which led to Sleep of Right changing their name to Ethereal. They eventually signed with Century Media Records at the end of 1997.

The name Ethereal wound up being short lived (when they found out a greek band had already taken the name)and thus changed their name to Lacuna Coil, which stands for empty spiral.

Lacuna Coil released a self-titled EP in 1998. During this time Rafffael Zagaria, Claudio Leo, and Leonardo Forti left the band and were replaced by guitarist Cristiano Miglore and drummer Cristano Mozzatio. For the next two years, the band toured through Europe developing quite the reputation as future stars of the European metal scene. They finally released their debut album In a Reveire, the album cover featured the two co-vocalists sitting side by side in the nude (save for some strategically placed flowers). In a Revire while not exactly a breakthrough record, was considred to be a solid debut for a band that showed a lot of promise and good things were predicted for their future. The band followed up with Half Life a five song EP that was released in 2000, and Unleashed Memories in 2001, and again while good, the album failed to deliver any standout tracks. But the potential was still there as the Ferro and Scabbia were mastering the art of seemlessly blending femael and male vocals.

Lacuna Coil finally hit their stride in 2002 with Comalioes which was a breakthrough record in every sense of the word. Despite the fact that they had released two EP's and two full length albums out and were a big name in Europe, they were virtually unknown in the U.S. (with the exception of thise who followed the metal scene across the pond). To us here in America, we knew Lacuna Coil about as much as we knew a genuine canolie, but that was about to change. The song that broke Lacuna Coil into North America was the ethereal and gothic "Heavens a Lie." It was the catchy attention grabbing song that the band had been thriving for, "Heavens a Lie" received substantial radio play and the visdoe was played on occasion by Fuse network (god bless them!). the band wisely followed up with "Swamped" as the second single, the song got put into heavy radio rotation and was featured in the movie soundtrack for Resident Evil: The Apocalypse, the video also got heavy airplay on the revamped Headbangers Ball show on MTV 2.



With the success of Comalies, Lacuna Coil became a staple in the U.S. modern rock scene and proceeded to take their show on the road for nearly three years, taking turns touring in North America and Europe. In 2004, the band appeared on both the U.S. and European versions of Ozzfest, They were also invited to tour the U.S. for three months with P.O.D (who were still over like rover at the time). It was at one of the P.O.D. shows in NYC at the Roseland Ballroom that I first saw Lacuna Coil, I believe they were the first of four bands playing that night, well they compltetly blew out the other two opening acts (Hazen Street and Blindside), everyone thought they should have been direct support for POD. The Comalies tour finally came to an end in early 2005, then Lacuna Coils record label postponed their follow up by a year. The thing is Comalies wound up being Century Media Records' best selling album in its history, so they wanted to give Lacuna Coil all the time in the world.



The result of close to a year of recording was Karmacode which was released in April of 2006. The first single "Our Truth" was an instant hit on radio and was also featured in the soundtrack to Underworld: Evolution. The song was also featured in Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour (those two games have become the unofficial measuring stick for a bands success, if you made it to the video game then you must be good huh?). The Critically acclaimed Karmacode debuted at #28 in the Billboard top 200 (not bad for a band signed to an independent label). They then proceeded to fit like a hand in a glove when they were added to Rob Zombies world tour in early 2006. They also played Ozzfest 2006, Download Festival 2006 and rounded out the year with The Blackest of the Black Tour which was headlined by Danzig.
The band opened up 2007 on a roll, releasing a cover of the Depeche Mode classic "Enjoy the Silence." In March 2007 the band embarked on the Jagiermeister Music Tour with Shadows Fall and Stone Sour. Lacuna Coil toured a lot with Stone Sour that year, come to think of it, maybe it was because Chrinia Scabbia happens to be in a relationship with Stone Sour guitarist Jim Root. anyhow, Lacuna Coil continued touring around the world throughout 2007, including the Australian leg of Megadeths Gigantour. After a loaded two years, the band took a break in 2008 but did release their first ever DVD titled Visual Karma at the end of the year.

The band returned to the studio to record Shallow Life with accliamed producerrently Don Gilmor, the album was released this past April and landed on #16 of the Billboard top 200, not bad for a little band from Milan, Italy! Lacuna Coil is currently a part of the Music as a Weapon Tour with Disturbed and Killswitch Engage, you should check them out and count how many bands they blow out of the water this time.