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. They were formed by vocalist Andrea Ferro and bassist Marco Coti Zelati, and 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.

Lacuna Coil recorded a two-track demo in 1996 and signed to Century Media Records, and are still on the same label today. Their 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 HALFlife.

Lacuna Coil continued to release one record a year until Comalies in 2002, 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.

Line Up:

Their current line-up is as follows:

Cristina Scabbia - Vocals (1994-present)
Andrea Ferro - Vocals (1994-present)
Cristiano Migliore - Guitar (1998-present)
Marco "Maus" Biazzi - Guitar (1999-present)
Marco Coti Zelati - Bass, Keyboards (1994-present)
Cristiano "CriZ" Mozzati - Drums, percussion (1998-present)

The band also has three former members:

Raffaele Zagaria - Guitar (1994-1998)
Claudio Leo - Guitar (1994-1998)
Leonardo Forti - Drums, percussion (1994-1998)

Discography:

Lacuna Coil EP (1998)
In A Reverie (1999)
HALFlife EP (2000)
Unleashed Memories (2001)
Comalies (2002)
Karmacode (2006)
Shallow Life (2009)
Dark Adrenaline (2012)

Lacuna Coil provides examples of the following tropes:

Berserk Button - Do not misspell Cristina's name. Her Twitter handle is even called "NoDamnH".
Bilingual Bonus - "Senzafine" (from HALFlife and later Unleashed Memories) is sung in the band's native Italian, as are the title track to Comalies and "Without Fear" from Karmacode.
- "My Spirit" from Dark Adrenaline also includes a short speech in Italian during the interlude. Translated into English, it means about the same thing as the first verse and chorus.
Black Sheep Hit - "I Like It" from Shallow Life, in particular, even for many fans that didn't mind most of the album. Out of all the singles they've released, it's the only one that has never been performed live.
Concept Album - Shallow Life, loosely. The album talks about superficial lifestyles in most of the songs. Other albums like Comalies play with this by having a few groups of songs directly connect to form single storylines.
Creative Differences - Why the original guitarists and drummer left. Apparently, it was actually their idea to record the One-Woman Wail song "Falling" on the original EP with just an acoustic guitar and keyboards for backing; the rest of the band rerecorded it as "Falling Again" on In A Reverie, this time with distorted guitars, bass and drums.
Dark Is Not Evil / Light Is Not Good - The message behind the "Trip The Darkness" video.
Determined Defeatist: "Survive".
Even the Girls Want Her - Cristina reportedly attracts just as many crazed lesbian groupies as males.
Executive Meddling - Suspected to be why Shallow Life was rereleased with a bonus disk just under a year after its initial release.
The Faceless - Their band logo
- Also the cover to Karmacode
Fading Into the Next Song - "Trance Awake"/"Senzafine" from HALFlife, "Aeon"/"Tight Rope" from Comalies and "You Create"/"What I See" from Karmacode.
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 / Alternative Rock - How much of each depends on the album. Shallow Life contains the most of the latter; their extended plays and In A Reverie, the most of the former.
Harsh Vocals - Andrea, on two or three songs from each of the early albums.
In Memoriam - "My Spirit," the final track on Dark Adrenaline, is dedicated to Peter Steele, a long-time friend and musical influence of the band.
Long Runner Lineup - Type 2. The lineup has not changed since Maus joined as second guitarist in 1999.
Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness - Most of the time, either a hard 6 or a soft 7. They go down to a 5 more than occasionally, though.
Name's the Same - "Closer" is not a Nine Inch Nails cover nor is "The Game" a Disturbed cover.
New Sound Album - Comalies. The sound was simplified, and Ferro'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 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.
One Steve Limit - Completely averted with two guys named Cristiano and two named Marco. There are nicknames for some of them, but they aren't actually that widely used.
One-Woman Wail - Karmacode is the only album so far that doesn't have a "Cristina solo" song.
The Pete Best - Three of them, actually. Raffaele Zagaria, Claudio Leo, and Leonardo Forti all played on the original six-song EP, then left the band before the recording of In a Reverie.
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 switched to Don Gilmore (better known for working with bands like Linkin Park and Good Charlotte) for Shallow Life and Dark Adrenaline.
Sampling - "Tight Rope" takes a sound bite from the video game Descent, and "Angel's Punishment" seems to sample a news report.
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.
Spell My Name with an "S" - Hammered home quite emphatically on Scabbia's Myspace page: "Cristina... NO DAMN H in it!!"
Surprisingly Good English - Shallow Life and Dark Adrenaline in particular. Cristina and Andrea have become much more fluent since the initial demo in 1996.
Vocal Tag Team: Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro
War Is Hell - "Angel's Punishment," from Comalies.
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.