Lacuna Coil
I just learned of the band Lacuna Coil last week, and purchased their most recent LP, Karmacode, last night. So what are they? Progressive Italian metal, maybe. Or ambient goth metal. AMG tries “Symphonic Black Metal”, which may get as close as anything. In all, really hard to classify. They live in the n-space neighborhood of Nevermore (who get a liner shout-out), Sabbath (ditto), and P.O.D. (right, them too) — but all that and ambient goth, too. Your first handhold might be Evanescence, but legitimate.
They’ve apparently been around for eight years, but either I’ve been living in a ditch or they haven’t really hit the mainstream yet.
Karmacode features dense-and-rich-as-gold production, intricate layerings of traditional and electronic instrumentation, and either a recording studio or a digital signal processor that gives the feel of performance inside an abandoned cathedral. They are two full-time guitarists, two full-time vocalists (one male and one female), a bassist and a drummer.
The guitar-playing is at times barely competant. The band have us wait until track 12 to show that they can play anything more than power chords. The male vocalist — well, I deleted what I just wrote about him and will instead say, subtly, he’s not very good. The English lyrics are like high school goth girl poetry, but it doesn’t scan, so it’s like random lines of high school goth girl poetry (”I’ll be there when there’s nothing left / Night and day holding you / Harmony deep inside your soul / Meet me there / Can you feel me?”)
But Cristina Scabbia, the female vocalist. Oh, Cristina. As a first-order approximation, she is the band. In fifteen years we may think of this group as her Y Kan’t Tori Read. Her voice is soaring, ethereal, haunting, mezmerizing. She sings her descants as if she’s standing on a Spanish minaret and her leads with gravelly earnestness. She’s stunningly attractive, too.
Intrigued? I am. I’m going to buy the rest of their discography, as well as checking out AMG’s other “Symphonic Black Metal” bands, such as The Gathering, Moonspell, and Opeth, of which I now know nothing.
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May 20th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Oh God! Lacuna Coil! I haven’t thought about them in years.
I’m having a vision of driving past Dungeon or Das Bunker, and seeing Josh hanging out in front, clove cigarette clutched betwixt fingers with black-painted nails.
Fair warning: Lacuna Coil has been known as a “gateway band”. It starts out fun, but then one day your family comes home and finds you listening to Wumpscut and Type O Negative. I shudder to think of it.
May 22nd, 2006 at 10:20 am
Hey Joshua, haven’t talked in a while but I pop by your site now and again.
I highly recommend you give Opeth a listen. I have seen both Lacuna Coil and Opeth live, and IMHO Lacuna Coil is not up to snuff. Any band that gives a shout out to P.O.D. is not a band you want in your collection.
Start with Opeth’s Blackwater Park, and move on from there. That album is probably their most interesting, combining moments of heavy symphonic/black metal with absolutely beautiful harmonies and classic guitar.
May 22nd, 2006 at 10:12 pm
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 am
Along with the Opeth recommendation, I would suggest checking out Celtic Frost. They’re pretty influential in regards to the whole black metal scene.
August 14th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Press Play to listen to “Our Truth” From Lacuna Coil
August 21st, 2006 at 10:07 am
LACUNA COIL ROCKS!!!!I LOEV LC
March 18th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
[...] Algeria was looking for Lacuna Coil. So was Tunisia. Montserrat looked at my family filter page. Mozambique was interested in my Pearl Jam mp3s, as was El Salvador. Former USSR looked at a lot, including my resume. And finally, Saint Vincent and Grenadines repeatedly looked at my root page. [...]