===>> Lacuna Coil @=@=-- FUTURE STYLE -:-:- electronic machines and trend artists MUSIC magazine

Throughout history, Italy has been known for blending the classic with the innovative. In the musical realm, Milan’s prolific Lacuna Coil has best translated the dichotomy of this Italian consciousness.

With three full-length albums and two EPs released in a 4-year span, each offering has furthered the enunciation of the subtle, solemn beauty Lacuna Coil creates. Signifying "empty spiral" in English, the definition betrays the rich versatility of their music. Comalies, their offering for 2002, maturely exhibits the trademarked gothic overtones and simplistic melancholy of their haunting musical landscape. Leaving all comparisons to Draconian Times-era Paradise Lost and The Gathering's Mandylion-era behind, Lacuna Coil bring miraculous eloquence to their collision of melody and metal.

Originally formed in 1996, the band teamed up with producer Waldemar Sorychta (Sentenced, Samael, Tiamat) in 1998. Their songwriting talents immediately evident, Terrorizer Magazine hailed Lacuna Coil's self-titled debut as "superb, and its strength soon weakens whatever resistance you may have had after repeated plays." 1999 proved to be the band's most eventful year, with an impressive tour schedule in support of that year's release, In A Reverie, also produced by Sorychta. Sharing stages with Skyclad, My Insanity, Grip Inc., and Samael, they debuted at the esteemed Dynamo Open Air Festival in The Netherlands, the Metal Mania Festival in Poland, and Italy's prestigious Gods Of Metal Festival. Following an appearance at the Altheimer Open Air Festival, they toured with Swiss gothic legends Lacrimosa and reaped the praise of fellow musicians, critics, and new-found fans. With the demand for Lacuna Coil's music suddenly escalating, they released the Halflife EP (recorded in Damage Inc. Studio in Ventimiglia, Italy) as a gift to their European community of fans in the year 2000.

Welcoming Waldemar Sorychta back into the producer's chair at Woodhouse Studios to assist them with recording 2001's Unleashed Memories, this album (released in North America with the previously unavailable Halflife EP) lavished the band with much-deserved acclaim. Praised by Alternative Press for their "supersize chords that nearly burst into flame, gorgeous three-part harmonies and chill-inducing melodies that recycle in your head for days" and earning a special mention in Billboard Magazine's Hard Music Spotlight for their "compelling mixture of seductive melodies and aggressive riffs," the band embarked on their first North American tour with labelmates Moonspell in the winter of 2001. Metal Maniacs documented their live show to be "a sensory overload of the highest order. In one word: intoxicating."

It is indeed difficult not to get pulled into the dream-like quality of the world Lacuna Coil creates, which floods you with a myriad of heavy and hypnotic sounds. The epic feel of their latest melodic invention, Comalies, will quickly lead to you believe that an incredibly personal epiphany is about to happen. Each song contributes to the build-up, encouraging introspection while documenting the sadness that this particular journey uncovers. Upholding the emotive yin/yang tradition of vocal interplay between the dulcet tones of Cristina Scabbia and the deliberate vocals of her male singing partner Andrea Ferro, Comalies is another dynamic exploration of Lacuna Coil's soulfully somber and stunningly enigmatic musical alchemy.

Produced once again by Waldemar Sorychta at Woodhouse Studios, intoxicate yourself with the seething regret in "Swamped," consider "Entwined" to be the accompaniment to falling from an emotional cliff in slow motion, soar into unknown depths of consciousness with "The Ghost Woman And The Hunter," and remember a forgotten language with "Comalies."

Source: Century Media