Italy’s Lacuna Coil has certainly stuck it out. Since their debut EP was released in 1998 the band has become known for their signature sound of dark, melodic hard rock and heavy metal. They garnered legions of fans and perhaps just as many imitators, some of whom achieved even larger commercial success.
Lacuna kept touring and releasing new albums, refining their sound into a sharp focussed point that kept the distinguishable elements that they had pioneered, while attracting the attention of mainstream press and radio. It’s a difficult balancing act. Despite maintaining their essential sound, much of their underground metal fan-base cried foul at their increased popularity, viewing their success as tantamount to selling-out their original credibility.
But the band continued on the path they had chosen, playing in front of every possible audience they could find, attracting new fans from all over the world. They’re currently promoting their latest album “Dark Adrenaline”, a more sombre affair than their last hit record, the ironically-titled “Shallow Life”. I had a chance to sit down with the always-lovely vocalist Cristina Scabbia before their most recent set in Toronto opening for the reformed Coal Chamber.
Recently I got a chance to sit down with vocalist Corey Glover of Living Colour on the Toronto stop of the 25th Anniversary Tour for their debut album “Vivid”. To this day the album remains passionate and political, focussed through the sound of youthful optimism. But the band’s following albums got funkier and heavier, with a distinctly palatable sense of anger. Record sales declined until only the die-hard fans remained. After an aborted attempt at a fourth album in late 1994, the band went their separate ways. The break-up would last five years.
Fan support for the band has always been strong. The last time I met up with Corey was in 2009 when the band performed a headline show at Toronto’s Lee’s Palace. The place was probably over-capacity and the band delivered a two and a half-hour set. This was with almost no promotion or press coverage that I had seen.
All of a sudden things are different. The press coverage for this tour has been immense. They even performed at Wrestlemania, as their biggest hit “Cult of Personality”, has become the entrance theme for wrestler CM Punk. While their other pre-break-up albums are now out of print, “Vivid” continues to be a strong seller. This recent attention seems strangely out of place for a band who continues to extol fierce societal messages. So a tour where they play their most commercially successful release front to back comes as a bit of a surprise. Corey is extremely candid as always, and provides a lot of insight into their recent coverage and where he is now as an individual as opposed to when “Vivid” was released 25 years ago.