By Carl Begai

In a show of diva-esque conceit, BW&BK; can lay claim to having locked on LACUNA COIL long before they were a big deal in Europe and less than a footnote on the North American metal scene. We go back to 1998 and the release of their self-titled EP, a venture that attracted the attention of anyone in tune with the likes of THE GATHERING and THEATRE OF TRAGEDY, both of whom were in their heyday. The band did their Italian heritage proud, displaying the characteristic energy of a traditionally passionate people, excited at the prospect of being able to chase their dreams at a professional level. The band is older and wiser now, but there’s no lack of enthusiasm when discussing their newest work, Dark Adrenaline. Sure, it may be tempered somewhat by a sense of responsibility for the career they’ve created, but there’s still a sense of “I can’t believe this is my life…” in the air as vocalist Cristina Scabbia delves into the new record.

“That's very true,” she says. “That was true especially in the very beginning, when things are happening and you don't really know how it works. That’s when every little thing gets you excited. The things that get us excited now are different. We've grown up, we have a lot more experience; we're not virgins in the music business anymore (laughs).”

Which is a monumental understatement given Lacuna Coil’s success over the last decade. Cristina and her bandmates live and breathe music 24/7 these days, having left the 9-to-5 day job grind far behind.

“It feels great. It’s been our day job for quite a while, and I think it's a privilege to be able to make a living out of our greatest passion, which is something that everybody hopes for. It's a fantastic feeling and we love it to bits.”

At press time, Lacuna Coil were two days done with a UK tour meant as a warm-up for what’s destined to be a busy schedule. By all accounts the band has been practically living on the road since 2002, when the Comalies album broke the North American market wide open and effectively made Lacuna Coil a household name both loved and hated.

“We've been lucky, because we've actually spent quite a while at home," Cristina reveals. "We were home from January to March or April 2011, we wrote Dark Adrenaline, and we recorded the music in Milan, which is our home town. It's probably because when we stop we're doing other stuff. When I'm in Milan I do things with a charity musical project, I post updates on Facebook, so the band name keeps circulating no matter what (laughs). So, we're working even when we're home.”

As albums go – the band’s sixth full length – Dark Adrenaline slides into the media hack bucket of clichés with ease. Typically Lacuna Coil at its root, the album is heavier and more aggressive than their previous outing, Shallow Life, from 2009. And most certainly darker when held up against to the upbeat singles ‘I Like It’, ‘Spellbound’ and ‘I Won’t Tell You’. That said, those heard-it-all-before descriptives shouldn’t be regarded as a dumbing down of the new music.

“You got the point,” says Cristina. “I feel silly when somebody asks me ‘Are you happy with the new album?’ Name me an artist that’s going to answer with ‘Well, I think the album sucks. I'm releasing it, but I think our older albums are way better.’ Of course the obvious answer is that it's the best album we've ever done, because it's something new. A new album is what you are in the present, so releasing it is what gets you excited as an artist.”

“Dark Adrenaline is a heavier album, and if you compare it to the previous album the sound is completely different. It's really diverse, more obscure, full of guitar solos, but everything I say can be misunderstood. If I say this is the heaviest album of our career, somebody is going to say ‘Yeah, sure, but they're not as heavy as...,' and then they'll mention the most brutal black metal or thrash band ever. What's the point in saying that? I'm just talking about my career and what I've done so far and Dark Adrenaline is the heaviest thing Lacuna Coil has done.”

The aforementioned diversity of songs on the album is reflected in a show of hands around the room regarding fan favourites. ‘Trip The Darkness’ and ‘Kill The Light’ may be the songs of choice according to the label, but Lacuna Coil’s followers are all over the map when it comes to picking out Dark Adrenaline’s standout tracks.

“For me, one of the most powerful songs on the album is ‘I Don't Believe In Tomorrow’,” says Cristina, “and I don't think a song needs to be fast to be powerful. Sometimes you can be heavy even with a super slow doom song. I think it’s awesome that everyone seems to have different favourite tracks on the album. I like that. None of us in the band wanted to have an album where there was that one song that everybody can relate to, and the rest of the songs were filler. It's great when people can relate to different songs for different reasons.”

Cristina goes on to say that the actual writing process for Dark Adrenaline wasn’t, as some might expect, land-mined with concern over whether they were repeating themselves or revisiting elements of a previous album.

“We’ve never really thought about that. Some people put too much thought into songwriting. I think you have to let your heart speak for you, to translate your thoughts in musical notes and lyrics at that precise moment. With music it’s so weird to be able to describe, for example, something you’ve done because it’s such an unconscious thing. It just happens. People always try to find an explanation as to how it happens, but it’s not a recipe where you have to be precise with all the elements to get a specific result. Music is abstract; you can’t touch it, and it’s something personal that can appeal in different ways to different people. We just wrote what we wanted for this album and this is the result of our work.”

That includes the vocal lines shared by Cristina and male vocalist Andrea Ferro. Contrary to popular belief, the duo doesn’t play off the idea of a his & hers dynamic, where each of them has a specific role.

“It just happens spontaneously. A weird thing in this band is that there’s a lot of democracy (laughs). There’s not just one leader in Lacuna Coil that decides what needs to be done. Me and Andrea are responsible for the vocal lines and the lyrics, and it doesn’t really matter who writes a certain part. We don’t think in terms that of one of us writes a part we have to sing it. I think having two completely different voices with two different ranges, it’s easy for us to hear what sounds better. There are some parts that are more aggressive, and I didn’t need to be the man of the situation since there’s already a male singer in the band (laughs).”

Up until recently, Cristina was known as the face of Lacuna Coil as well as one of the voices. Understandable given her striking good looks, but in the years following the band’s 2002 breakthrough that focus grew to a potentially unhealthy level. Essentially, Lacuna Coil were on their way to being another Hottest Chick In Metal band. Cristina agrees with the suggestion that the image had started to overshadow the music, which is why there’s been a significant move away from putting her in the spotlight.

“We did that on purpose because we always try to experiment with things, and we were probably one of the very few real metal bands to play the sexy card and the fashion card in pictures. I have a lot of fun at photo sessions playing with different images, but at a certain point we said ‘You know what? People need to realize that Lacuna Coil is about teamwork.” It might be easier for a label to work with solo pictures because the female singer appeals more to people, but we needed to promote the fact and make it clear that this is a band. It’s not Cristina and some session people. We agreed to do a lot more band photos, and there were times when I refused to take any solo shots. It was like, ‘What’s the point in doing that?’”
“It’s not bad in the sense that it’s still promotion, like it or not. It really depends on the band. Some bands like to have all the attention put on the woman, and that’s good for them. Every band has a different career and a different point of view.”