The 2019 line-up of Lacuna Coil.
Lacuna Coil are a gothic metal/alternative rock band from Italy, starting in 1994. The band is one of the codifiers of the Soprano and Gravel style and blends modern rock and Mediterranean elements into distinct-sounding midtempo rockers.
The band was formed by vocalist Andrea Ferro and bassist Marco Coti Zelati. Second vocalist Cristina Scabbia joined the band after she was asked to provide session vocals for an early demo, because the band liked the contrasting sound of Cristina's vocals versus Andrea's. The word "lacuna" is Italian for "gap" or "blank," but the band's name is sometimes paraphrased as "Empty Spiral," which also functions as the name of their official fansite
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Lacuna Coil recorded a two-track demo in 1996 and signed to Century Media Records, and are still on the same label today. A self-titled EP was released in 1998, but shortly after the band's original guitarists and drummer — Raffaele Zagaria, Claudio Leo and Leonardo Forti, respectively — left due to creative differences. Drummer Cristiano "CriZ" Mozzati and guitarist Cristiano Migliore joined just in time to record In A Reverie, the band's full-length debut, and second guitarist Marco "Maus" Biazzi joined for their second EP, HALFlife.
Lacuna Coil continued to release one record a year until 2002's Comalies, a New Sound Album which also became their breakthrough thanks to their first-ever single, "Heaven's A Lie". From then on, the band began to spend much more time touring for each album and continued to release a few more singles and music videos to go with each album — three videos for "Heaven's A Lie" and one for "Swamped" from Comalies, followed by videos and singles for "Our Truth," "Enjoy The Silence," "Closer" and "Within Me" from Karmacode.
Their fifth album, Shallow Life, saw the band parting ways with their long-time producer, Waldemar Sorychta, and straying further into Alternative Rock territory with their new producer, Don Gilmore. The album saw the release of four singles — "Spellbound" worldwide, "I Like It" in Europe, "I Won't Tell You" in North America, and "Wide Awake" in Italy only — and all but the last came with music videos.
In January 2012, Lacuna Coil released their sixth album, titled "Dark Adrenaline," as a darker and heavier follow-up to Shallow Life. Two songs from the album, "Trip the Darkness" and "Kill the Light," have already been released, along with a music video for the former. A second video was released a year later for "End of Time".
2014 saw the band release their seventh album Broken Crown Halo, which would become the last album to feature the two Cristianos, who both retired from the band for personal reasons just prior to its release, as well as Marco Biazzi who retired at the beginning of 2016. Ryan Blake Folden and Diego Cavallotti joined the band on drums and guitars respectively in time for the release of their eighth album, Delirium, in May 2016. Inspired by a trip to a sanatorium the band did when in the United States, the album saw a full return to the band's Gothic Metal territory that started with Dark Adrenaline. After touring for the album, the band embarked on a 20-year anniversary tour in 2018. Known as the "1:19 Show", the band filmed the London performance for release on both CD and DVD.
The band's ninth album, Black Anima, was released in October 2019. In July 2019, Ryan revealed he was stepping down as the full-time drummer for the band (only touring with the band when in the USA). Richard Meiz has taken his place as the drummer accordingly.
Lineup:
Their current line-up is as follows:- Andrea Ferro - male vocals (1994-present)
- Marco Coti Zelati - bass, keyboards (1994-present)
- Cristina Scabbia - female vocals (1996-present)
- Richard Meiz - drums (2019-present)
- Diego Cavallotti - guitars (2016–present)
The band also has six former full-time members:
- Raffaele Zagaria - guitars (1994-1998)
- Claudio Leo - guitars (1994-1998, died 2013)
- Leonardo Forti - drums, percussion (1994-1998)
- Cristiano "Pizza" Migliore - rhythm guitar (1998-2014)
- Cristiano "CriZ" Mozzati - drums, percussion (1998-2014)
- Marco "Maus" Biazzi - lead guitar (1999-2016), rhythm guitar (2014-2015)
- Ryan Blake Folden - drums (2014-2019, live musician 2012-13, 2019-present)
Discography:
- Lacuna Coil EP (1998)
- In A Reverie (1999)
- HALFlife EP (2000)
- Unleashed Memories (2001)
- Comalies (2002)
- Comalies XX (2022)
- Karmacode (2006)
- Shallow Life (2009)
- Dark Adrenaline (2012)
- Broken Crown Halo (2014)
- Delirium (2016)
- Black Anima (2019)
Lacuna Coil and their music provide examples of:
- Album Title Drop: Shallow Life, Delirium.
- Black Anima subverts this. The word "anima" appears in a number of tracks on the album, including in the Italian translation of the phrase ("anima nera"), but the phrase "black anima" itself is not sung at all.
- Alternative Rock: The band started moving towards this with the release of Comalies, peaking around Shallow Life after they sought help with their English pronunciation and turned to an American producer well known for their work with such bands. They started to move away from this starting with Dark Adrenaline.
- Arc Words: "1:19"
- Auto-Tune: The bonus track "Dark Adrenaline" employs this as an effect, as does "Cybersleep" from Broken Crown Halo.
- Berserk Button: Do not misspell Cristina's name. Her Twitter handle was even called "NoDamnH".
- Bilingual Bonus: Italian is used by the band at some point on nearly every album:
- "Senzafine" (from HALFlife and later Unleashed Memories) is their only song wholly sung in Italian. It roughly translates to "Never-Ending"
- The title track to Comalies has its verses in Italian and the choruses in English. The word "Comalies" itself is a subversion — the band just wanted to use the word "coma" but needed an extra word to place at the end.
- "Without Fear" from Karmacode is sung in Italian save for the first half of the second chorus.
- "My Spirit" from Dark Adrenaline incorporates a short speech in Italian during the interlude. Translated into English, it means about the same thing as the first verse and chorus.
- "Die and Rise" from Broken Crown Halo features a Cristina-solo bridge sung in Italian.
- "Anima Nera" from Black Anima ends with the phrase "Cosa ne rimane della mia anima nera?" repeated three times. Translated it means "What remains of my black soul?".
- Black Blood: Used in "End of Time", with black blood dripping from Cristina's and Andrea's noses, hands and ears.
- Camera Fiend: Cristina has an Instagram account and uploads pictures multiple times on a daily basis. Notable for taking a number of self-portraits without makeup on.
- Careful with That Axe:
- Cristina ends up pushing into this territory during the bridge for "Now or Never".
- She also throws good belters on the songs "Delirium" and "Naughty Christmas".
- Christmas Songs: "Naughty Christmas", though the main focus of the song being The Krampus could pull this into Anti-Christmas Song territory as well.
- Chess Motifs: Used in the video for "I Forgive (But I Won't Forget Your Name)" with Cristina and Andrea playing a game of chess, which symbolizes the strained relationship of the couple the song is about.
- Cleavage Window: The entire front of Cristina's top in the video for "Reckless" is a wide, hourglass-shaped window, held together by just narrow strips of cloth. She is wearing just a bra underneath so not only her cleavage but most of her stomach is visible.
- Concept Album:
- Shallow Life is a loose example. The album talks about superficial lifestyles in most of the songs.
- Delirium was inspired after the band visited a sanatorium in the USA, with each song representing a patient's story.
- Other albums like Comalies play with this by having a few groups of songs directly connect to form single storylines.
- Concept Video: "Blood, Tears, Dust" depicts a young woman who was kidnapped and suffocated to death by her captors before being branded with a mysterious symbol. "You Love Me 'Cause I Hate You" then reveals that the body was tossed into a nearby stream and discovered by a passing Cristina Scabbia and a work colleague who try to track down the perpetrator. Unfortunately the work colleague has the same symbol on his chest, revealing him as the kidnapper in the preceding video, and she's about to be his next victim. She manages to break free and tell all to the cops, but afterwards she finds the same symbol on her bloodied wrist. In the previous video she was the one who had done the branding on the girl..
- Cover Version: The band covered Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" on Karmacode, R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" on Dark Adrenaline, and Madonna's "Live to Tell" as a bonus track on Delirium.
- Creepy Children Singing: used as a fade in and fade out on "Take Me Home"
- Darkest Hour: Discussed in "Save Me"I look in the mirror and hate what I seeAnd wonder where all of my dreams are goneI know I can't turn back timeI can't give up
- Determined Defeatist: "Survive", "Nothing Stands in Our Way", "Save Me".
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Cristina. Also gender-flipped with both Andrea and Cristiano Migliore.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Cristina reportedly attracts just as many crazed lesbian groupies as males.
- Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: "Virtual Environment", a B-side from the Karmacode era, features this.
- Fading into the Next Song: "Aeon" / "Tight Rope" from Comalies. See also Siamese Twin Songs.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out:
- "Our Truth" fades out over a repeating riff, only to fade back in and immediately end.
- "One Cold Day" also appears to quieten down after an extended bridge ("Cry in the rain, release the pain") only to pick back up for a final coda.
- Fan Disservice: The video for "Reckless" features several of the band members in skimpy clothing, Cristina getting her top torn open so her stomach and most of her breasts are exposed, and full frontal nudity (of a woman who is not a member of the band). The gory, nightmarish context makes this much more angst-inducing than sexy.
- Fanservice:
- The Comalies-era videos, filmed while the band was trying to break through, saw Cristina use Three Minutes of Writhing as well as wearing clothes that showed off her legs. This was averted once Karmacode was released and Cristina went to more conventional attire.
- The official video for "Closer" has a short sequence where Cristina changes shirts. First the camera focuses on her breasts under her tight tank top, and then there's a shot of her in a black bra before the video cuts to her wearing a different top.
- Christina shows a lot of cleavage in many videos and photos. The cleavage is often so deep that the top part of her bra shows, and occasionally much deeper than that.
- Finger-Snap Lighter: Cristina does this in the video for "I Won't Tell You."
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: A repeated church bell can be heard in the background in "Trip The Darkness."
- Gothic Metal: They started off as this for the their extended plays and In A Reverie before starting transitioning to Alternative Rock with Comalies. After reaching their alternative rock peak at Shallow Life the band have since transitioned back to Gothic Metal.
- Harsh Vocals:
- Andrea, on two or three songs from each of the early and latter albums (examples include "Stately Lover", "Angel's Punishment", "Fragments of Faith", "Zombies", "The House of Shame").
- "Blood, Tears, Dust" too.
- Instrumentals: Un Fantasma Tra Noi (A Ghost Between Us).
- Lead Bassist: Marco became this for Delirium by necessity, as the band hadn't had time to find a new guitarist so he wrote and recorded all guitar and bass parts on the album, with a few guest solos.
- Lingerie Scene: In the video for "Closer" we get some shots of Cristina in her black bra, as she takes off her top on camera and changes into what looks like a straight-jacket.
- Long-Runner Line-up: Type 2. The lineup did not change from when Maus joined as second guitarist in 1999 until 2014 when the two Cristianos announced their retirements.
- Longing for Fictionland: "To Myself I Turned."
- Lyrical Cold Open: "Reverie," "Swamped," "Within Me", "Fire," "Broken Things", "Veneficium"
- Male Band, Female Singer: Lacuna Coil was a male group only until the inclusion of Cristina Scabbia in 1996.
- Melismatic Vocals: Used in the choruses for "Intoxicated", "Swamped" and "To Live Is To Hide".
- Mind Screw: The bonus DVD for Dark Adrenaline.
- The "End of Time" and Delirium-era videos qualify as well. See Concept Video above.
- Navel-Deep Neckline:
- In a Halloween photo shoot◊ from 2017, Cristina poses as a Morticia Addams-like vamp, wearing a dress with cleavage that goes down to her navel and exposes most of her chest and stomach.
- In one of her many cover images from "Kerrang!", she wears a white dress shirt unbuttoned so far that you can not only see her black bra, but also part of her bare belly.
- In a Halloween photo shoot
- New Sound Album:
- Comalies. The sound was simplified, and Andrea's harsh vocals were almost completely gone.
- Then Karmacode came along, with a guitar and bass-heavier mix, Middle Eastern influences and a greater emphasis on every member of the band. Andrea even appears in every song, and has dropped the growls entirely.
- Shallow Life saw the band changing producers for the first time and going Lighter and Softer for a more straightforward alternative rock/metal sound. The lyrics were simplified, but the band sought more help with their English and it showed.
- Dark Adrenaline and Broken Crown Halo is Darker and Edgier again, at least instrumentally. The lyrics seem to float somewhere between the straightforward ones from Shallow Life and the deeper messages on the early albums. The latter album also reintroduced Andrea's Harsh Vocals.
- Delirium essentially undid the changes that Comalies and Karmacode made. Andrea's Harsh Vocals are very prominent on the record and the lyrical content is much darker, revolving around patients in a mental asylum.
- Black Anima is the bands heaviest album to date musically speaking while the lyrics now take on more of a
personal tone, dealing with topics such as growing up, the loss of friends and family, and acknowledging when you need help.
- Older Than They Look: Cristina was born in 1972 but looks much, much younger (even in some "natural" pictures with no makeup from 2020 she looks like she's in her late twenties rather than late forties).
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Used in "Veneficium"
- One-Steve Limit: This was completely averted with two guys named Cristiano and two named Marco until the lineup change in 2014. There are nicknames for some of them, but they aren't actually that widely used.
- One-Woman Wail: Karmacode and Dark Adrenaline are the only albums so far that don't have a "Cristina solo" song.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Before significant improvement in Shallow Life a number of mispronunciations occur in a few of their songs:
- "Fragile" has the lyrics "Wounds are bleeding in my hands" / "Wounds are healing in my hands". Wounds is pronounced the same way as "round". The pronunciation was fixed in "Veneficium".
- The h in "honest" is pronounced in "Cold Heritage".
- The vibrating 'th' is uncommon outside of English; thus in "Our Truth" it's being sung "Our Troot."
- "Entwined" is this and AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle.
- "Closer" has "there's no hell to discover" with "discover" pronounced as though it rhymes to "over".
- Perky Goth:
- While most of their music, scen shows and videos are quite dark, the band's off-stage image is much perkier and more positive.
- Cristina's public image as a vlogger and Twitch streamer is quite positive, enthusiastic and happy, at the same time as she obviously likes Goth paraphernalia and clothes even off-stage.
- In the official video for "Nothing Stands In Our Way", the entire band shows this attitude in the behind-the-stage footage.
- Precision F-Strike: Andrea in "My Demons", Cristina in "Claustrophobia".
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Blood! Tears! DUUUUUUUUUUUUUST!"
- Rearrange the Song: The Comalies album was rerecorded in 2022 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, with the songs updated to reflect the heavier sound in line with their most recent albums (including more Harsh Vocals from Andrea)
- Record Producer: Waldemar Sorychta falls under the George Martin category, having worked with Lacuna Coil from their signing onto Century Media up through Karmacode. They then switched to Don Gilmore (better known for working with bands like Linkin Park and Good Charlotte) for Shallow Life and Dark Adrenaline and Jay Baumgardner (P.O.D., Sevendust, Evanescence and Papa Roach) for Broken Crown Halo. Finally, Zelati took over the role from Delirium onwards.
- Running Gag: "1:19", a song released in 2000 from their second album, is one for the band.
- One of the questions Cristina stated she would not answer in a fan Q&A session in 2014 was the meaning behind the song.
- The "Delirium" video shows a man pulling away his shirt collar to reveal the phrase on his neck (appears about the 0:35 mark).
- Their 20th anniversary concert was held on January 19th 2018. The song was included as part of the setlist.
- Religion Rant Song:
- Subverted with "Heaven's a Lie". While the title seems to indicate that the song is about religion, it's actually about a failing relationship where one partner wants out.
- "Give Me Something More" is a Type 1 example. The singer has lost a loved one, with their faith in a god shaken as a result.
- Repetitive Audio Glitch: Done intentionally in "Aeon" — the song skips three times halfway through.
- Sampling: "Tight Rope" takes a sound bite from the video game Descent, and "Angel's Punishment" seems to sample a news report.
- Scatting: "You Create" and "What I See" from Karmacode and "Wide Awake" from Shallow Life.
- Siamese Twin Songs: "Trance Awake" / "Senzafine" from from HALFlife and "You Create"/"What I See" from Karmacode.
- Soprano and Gravel: Played with. The first three albums had Ferro utilizing both clean and harsh vocals along with Scabbia's singing. The harsh vocals were dropped in Karmacode but brought back in Broken Crown Halo.
- Spell My Name With An S: Hammered home quite emphatically on Scabbia's Myspace page: "Cristina... NO DAMN H in it!!"
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Spiritual Successor: They're regarded as Italy's answer to Type O Negative. - The Stinger: The ending of "Layers of Time" depicts a young girl walking to see a counsellor for help, which be explored further in "Reckless"
- Subliminal Seduction: Subverted with "Self Deception" — the backmasked messages that play throughout the song is simply the chorus played backwards.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted in the video for "Reckless", whose storyline revolves around a young schoolgirl seeing a counsellor for help with some recurring nightmares. The ending of the video suggests the counsellor might be in on the act...
- Title-Only Chorus: "Delirium".
- Title Track: Comalies, Shallow Life, Delirium, Black Anima
- Subverted with In a Reverie — the song in question is simply titled "Reverie".
- Also subverted with Dark Adrenaline — the song itself only appears as a Japanese bonus track.
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Without Fear" goes up for the second part of the second chorus, back to the original key for the bridge, and then back up for the final chorus and outro.
- Interestingly zig-zagged with "Fragments of Faith" — the home key is G-sharp minor, but pre-choruses are in A minor and both the first chorus and the first half of the second chorus is in F-sharp minor. The "offending" gear change during the second chorus is actually a return to the original key.
- Vocal Tag Team: Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro.
- Word Salad Lyrics: A lot of songs before Shallow Life seem like this, but often have deeper meanings. "1.19" might be the standout example in the band's catalog, though — all the band revealed is the title refers to a distance between two places, and that might be the most we'll ever get.
