Lacuna Coil - Biography
Give all proper credit to the Italians: They know how to do Horror. Drenched in centuries of Roman Catholic imagery, symbolism, mysticism, and genetically deep-rooted guilt, they take to the genre like piranhas to murky water. Italian act, Lacuna Coil, debuted in 1998, and they made an immediate splash in the international goth slash metal slash whatzit scene, with a bombastic doom ‘n’ gloom approach, both anchored and elevated by the enticing vocals of lead singer Cristina Scabbia. Lacuna Coil (the name translates to English as “Empty Spiral”) present a brand of straight-ahead hard rock that stands out thanks to Scabbia, who injects a mainline dose of operatic atmospherics into a genre perpetually in the terminal stages of adolescent aggression. Throughout, Lacuna Coil maintain levels of gothic dread and chill that would make Mario Bava proud.
Lacuna Coil’s eponymous debut EP hinted that mischief might be afoot. Lacuna Coil (1998 Centrury Media) rises above standard gloom-and-distorto posturing thanks to Scabbia’s luminous vocals, but the group needed a few full-length albums to effectively expand their sound. In a Reverie (1999 Century Media) and Unleashed Memories (2000 Century Media) take significant leaps forward, as the main songwriters, bassist and multi-instrumentalist Marco Coti Zelati and guitarist Cristiano Migliore, hone their craft. While the group’s male vocalist, Andrea Ferro, is completely competent during his portions of the verse-chorus-verse tradeoffs, this is clearly Scabbia’s show.
After the release of a third full-length, Comalies (2002 Century Media), the international bandwagon got rolling, and Lacuna Coil secured opening slots on world tours by Danzig, Opeth, and Type-O Negative. Comalies was also the band’s first album to chart in the US, while the single "Swamped" appears in the video game Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines and in the film Resident Evil: Apocalypse. In 2004, Lacuna Coil scored a coveted slot on Ozzy Osbourne’s metal extravaganza, Ozzfest.
Lacuna Coil released Karmacode (Century Media) in 2006; more than any previous title, it featured prog-rock ambition, classical flourishes, and Middle Eastern-tinged themes that set it apart from the metal crowd. There were four singles from Karmacode — “Our Truth,” Closer,” “Within Me,” and the cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” — and they helped make it the band’s biggest record to date; both the album and the single “Our Truth” landed in the US Top 40 charts. Lacuna Coil’s mainstream success didn’t stop there: "Closer" appears in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and as a download for Rock Band, while "Our Truth" appears in the games Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour. Also in 2006, the group toured with Rob Zombie, played the mainstage at Ozzfest, and shared a bill at the UK Download Festival with Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. Lacuna Coil’s fifth album, Shallow Life (2009 Century Media), was released to rave reviews in 2009, demonstrating that the band, with a unique blend of ominous riffs, tense electronics, and soaring atmospherics, has the ability to rise above the generic confines of Nu-Metal mediocrity, and achieve something special.
