It’s been 8 years since I last saw Lacuna Coil; that was at the White Trash Ballroom, Berlin with Genus Ordinis Dei and Forever Still. The Genus Ordinis Dei link continues as Lacuna Coil recruited the GOD founding member and drummer Richard Meiz in 2019.

Tonight, though, the support came from Finnish nu-metal band, Blind Channel. This was a bunch of angry, high energy pseudo emo’s who sounded a bit like the Beastie Boys on acid! While the music was definitely not my style you had to admire both the energy and the support the band had. There were plenty of fans behind the barriers crying out for more. The band describe themselves as playing violent pop and while there was no mosh pit in evidence the description is pretty apt. With five studio albums to their name they largely ignored the first three, and most of the 11-song setlist was taken from the 2022 album, Lifestyles of the Sick and Dangerous, and their most recent album, Exit Emotions released earlier this year.

Promo photo’s of the band show them as a fairly typical metal band but tonight the look was definitely more emo-kid with baseball caps, boiler suits and sneakers on show. Once described as a boy band trying to play metal their rather good claim to fame came in 2021 when they represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest, coming 6^th with a score over 300points!

Almost half the set came from Exit Emotions and the band kicked off with DEADZONE, a piece of electronicore/rap metal which was a pretty good start to the night. The songs are generally on the short side, mostly three minutes or less, so the 11-song set went over quickly. Amongst the songs from Exit Emotions and Lifestyles were a couple of very popular covers; BYOB by System of a Down and Everybody by the Backstreet Boys. The latter of these was definitely entertaining and full of energy as the band, as a whole, jumped around and across the stage. As I said, not my thing generally but entertaining nonetheless and a band to keep an eye open for.

Setlist:

DEADZONE

Over my Dead Body

We are no Saints

Die Another Day

Flatline

XOXO

Violent Bob

BYOB (SOAD cover)

Balboa

Wolves in California

Everybody (Backstreet Boys cover)

Dark Side

When I took pics of Lacuna Coil in Berlin the lighting was generally good, that can’t be said for tonight. The backlit, overly hazed stage made for some great silhouettes but the cameras (and me) had to work hard to get images that were recognisable.

Tonight, the band comprised Cristina Scabbia, Andrea Ferro, Marco Coti Zelati, new-ish recruit Richard Meiz and very new recruit, Daniele Salomone, who was imported from INVERNO earlier this year to replace Diego Cavallotti. When he joined the band it took a little while for fans to work out who he was as he played the part of ‘the masked guitarist’ for a while! It’s hard to believe that the band have been around for 30 years!

While a good portion of the set was taken from recent albums Black Anima (2019) and COMALIES XX (the 2022 update and re-release of the 2002 album COMALIES) the band also took the opportunity to demo songs from their next album, Sleepless Empire, due for release in February next year.

The ‘Beauty and the Beast’ approach to the vocals is front and centre to the performance with Andrea Ferro’s rasping vocals being countered by the very musical Cristina Scabbia and this is shown in full in the set opener, the upbeat Blood, Tears, Dust from the 2016 album Delirium.

The pace never really dropped from this opening song with visits to Black Anima, Dark Adrenaline, COMALIERS XX, Karmacode and a selection from Sleepless Empire; with just one, rather unusual cover, Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode) included to finish the main set.

Throughout the set Cristina had plenty to chat about and lots of banter with members of the audience, which is always good to see.

Black Anima gets a trio of songs performed next, the run broken only by a teaser for the new album in Oxygen. With Andrea bouncing across the stage, Cristina gives the audience her full attention; her voice is really quite something else, I’d almost forgotten just how good it is. One effort from Karmacode is followed by two from COMALIES XX and then it’s time for more from the new album which the band talk about at length. Although it’s Cristina and Andrea that get most of the attention, let’s not forget the contributions from Daniele, Marco and Richard. Of course, neither Richard, nor Daniele were with the band the last time I saw them but this assembly of performers does seem better than it was 8 years ago.

The main part of the set finishes with he only cover of the night, a heavily ocked up version of Enjoy the Silence from Depeche Mode, an unusual choice but one that worked exceptionally well.

The 4-song encore was taken mostly from COMALIES XX with the final song being the only one from 2014’s Broken Crown Halo and that was Nothing Stands in Our Way.

Setlist:

Blood, Tears, Dust

Reckless

Apocalypse

Trip the Darkness

Oxygen

Layers of Time

Our Truth

Entwined XX

Heaven’s a Lie xx

In the Meantime

Hosting the Shadow

Never Dawn

Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode cover)

Encore:

Aeon XX

Tight Rope XX

Swamped XX

Nothing Stands in Our Way

The new album is due out in February next year, it should be a stormer.

I’d like to thank the lovely Cristina for signing some photographs, one of which she swiped, and to tour bus driver Chris ‘Jaffa’ O’Flynn, an old mate, who mediated the photo signings and fed me coffee on the tour bus between acts. I was also allowed to talk to the band’s pet cat!

A super night all round.

Words & images: Reg Richardson (Rock Stars Rising Music & Performance Photography).

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