Artist Profile

Lacuna Coil

By Dan ⋅ June 23, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… there aren’t enough strong female voices in hard rock. Lacuna Coil is one of those few bands with a solid female singer, and they’re not known widely enough in the states. I have all four full length studio releases, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t either.

Supposedly Lacuna Coil is classified as gothic metal… but I don’t really buy that. It’s just good metal. Can’t we label a band as simply metal anymore? I know I tend to find the most descriptive sub-genre when possible, but sometimes you can’t and don’t need to. Heavy guitars, well placed keyboards, tight rhythm section, and a strong female singer with some male vocals thrown in there too. Lacuna Coil has a wide range of influences, and that’s certainly expressed in their writing styles as they’ve really developed their own unique sound. Unless of course every Italian metal band sounds like this for some crazy reason. But somehow I doubt that’s the case.

Never heard of Lacuna Coil? I’d suggest starting with Comalies (2002). That’s the generally agreed upon best album among my friends and myself, although In a Reverie (1999) is growing on me. Regardless of where you start, all the albums are good and none of them stray too far from the sound and style they defined for themselves.  Their latest album, Karmacode (2006), is notably harder than the others, but also a little more mainstream… but only marginally. I’d also say Cristina’s vocals are much stronger and exhibit more confidence than shown in previous releases. I definitely look forward to their new release due for September this year… you’ve still got a couple months to catch up on their discography before then. If the audio clip above with two tracks from Comalies, Daylight Dancer and Tightrope, isn’t enough, don’t forget to check out their myspace page for some full length samples.

Tags: metal, rock