Lacuna Coil

Immediately soaring above the metallic substructure of Comalies, Cristina Scabbia's eerie call introduces a dense emoting that drenches every moment of Lacuna Coil's newest album. Following two full-length releases and two EPs, Comalies reveals a band comfortably affirming their ethereal darkness without resorting to stale repetitions of past achievements. After suffering comparisons to other gothic metal bands, Lacuna Coil could easily have felt pressured to prove themselves with this album. Instead, the band focused on intertwining hard-edged riffs amongst sparse surroundings, weaving a spacious stage for Scabbia's passionate voice. "If you're too worried about what other people will think about you, you just miss the point," Scabbia explains. "You have to write for yourself and be satisfied with your songs." Scabbia's lyrics are rich with feeling, intentionally mirroring the emotional instrumentation of each song. While her words evoke otherworldly, spiritual images, Scabbia prefers to write about personal experience. "I don't pretend to be a poet or a philosopher," she says. "Real life is a very big influence. It's always easy to find lots of inspiration." And while Scabbia's enamouring beauty may be merely a surface attraction, Lacuna Coil has the talent and substance to back it up. "We know that it's real important to give a good image to the people, but this is just presentation. Behind the image you have to offer a lot more, because people are not stupid." The diverse sounds of Comalies indicate the band members' wide-ranging tastes. The album reaches beyond conventional synth-heavy goth metal to other musical traditions; Scabbia even ventures into spoken word. "In every kind of music you can find something interesting, if you don't close yourself," she observes. "We know that with Lacuna Coil, we cannot really experiment too much," Scabbia continues, "because when you offer a record under a name, you have to be coherent." The trick is in maintaining your signature sound without stagnating. Lacuna Coil needs no lessons in this balancing act, for although Comalies doesn't stray far from their previous repertoire, it has a freshness all its own.