Lacuna Coil is one of—if not the leading—metal bands formed in Italy. Home to great opera singers like Andrea Bocelli , the country is not a major producer of heavier-sounding bands that have achieved international fame.
Featuring the striking vocals of Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro , the band returns to Brazil for a performance at the Summer Breeze , which takes place between April 26th and 28th. Their performance will be on the 27th, at the Memorial da América Latina, in São Paulo.
In an exclusive interview with Wikimetal , Ferro talked about the band's upcoming work, the cover of "Enjoy The Silence," the metal scene in Italy, and more!
Over twenty years ago, Lacuna Coil released a cover version of "Enjoy The Silence," originally by Disturbed , which was a huge success. The musician said that the band, which is working on a new album, also intends to include more covers on this new record. Regarding which songs these would be, he didn't reveal them, but said that "they are from bands that were very popular, let's say, in the 1980s, 1990s, not metal bands, but rather rock bands or music that isn't strictly metal. And we like to try to transform those songs into metal."
The new album is already well underway: “We’re at a good point right now. We have demos of almost the entire album. Almost, like, maybe two or three songs still need to be finished. Obviously, we’ll listen to some and see if we still like them after the tour. We’re going on tour in April, May, and after we get back, we’ll listen to everything and see if we still like it all, and then we can be ready to go into the studio.”
He commented on the headbanger scene in Italy, reflecting on the fact that Lacuna Coil had managed to "work" all over the world, even if with varying degrees of popularity, but that the same does not happen with other bands from the country.
“In Italy, the scene is very underground. I mean, there are a lot of bands, and I think bands are growing here in Italy too. But there aren't as many bands that can become as mainstream as we are, especially with 'Enjoy The Silence' and songs like that.”
“We were on every TV show, on every radio station, not just rock or metal stations. So, sometimes we managed to break out of the metal and underground scene and be exposed to a wider audience. But most metal bands are more, just for metal people, you know? But there is a good scene. There are a lot of fans who listen to the music. Maybe there aren't that many bands that reach a big level yet, but it's growing. I think it's growing.”
It's very common, especially in recent years, for metal bands to participate in the soundtracks of films and games, particularly horror games. An example of this is the song "Swamped," which is part of Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse 2. Asked if this was a good sign for metal, Ferro replied:
“I think metal is now a little more open to mixing different things. Like, we were doing a collaboration with DC Comics on Batman , and we were featured on the cover of Batman in a special episode called Batman Death Metal . And now there are more possibilities for different collaborations. We had a song, our latest song, “Never Done,” which was also used for the trailer and promotion of a game, a miniatures board game called Zombicide. So there are different crossovers with different things now compared to the past.”
Still on a similar topic, Andrea Ferro spoke about whether or not being a mainstream metal band was a good thing. He explains that it's good that mainstream bands like Metallica because "everyone can get to know their music and they can expose the genre to many more people, making them understand that there is quality in this music too, but it's also good to have underground bands, more extreme bands that bring a different flavor without many compromises or censorship."
"Because on one hand, you have the possibility for bands to work on a larger scale, do bigger tours, and get exposure like any other musical style, while you also have bands that keep the flame alive for something more experimental or more traditional in a certain way."
Speaking about their return to Brazil, the vocalist promises surprises and says they are very excited for the show: “We are very excited about getting back to playing live, because it's been a while since we finished the tour, and we've been mainly focused on the studio, working on the songs for a long time. So, we are excited to be able to go there and play, and we're going to Brazil, and then we'll also go to Costa Rica for the first time. And then we have some festivals in North America with some other shows.”
