The genesis of Lacuna Coil can be traced back to Milan, 1994 when guitarist and songwriter Marco Coti-Zelati and his friend, Andrea Ferro, form the band Sleep of Right. Marco plays guitar, Andrea plays bass, and Raffaele Zagaria joins them on guitar and Michelangelo on the drums. The band plays their first live gig in Bologna, Italy in 1994. They record Bleeding Souls which sees release in 1995 on the Noise of Bolgia compilation CD.
Marco soon moves to playing bass so that Andrea can concentrate on vocals and they are joined by Claudio Leo, as second guitarist, and Leonardo Forti on drums; following the departure of Michelangelo. Their next decision no doubt changes the direction their future music would take forever; they ask a female friend, Cristina Scabbia, to sing some backing tracks for them. It is clear that Cristina’s soaring, natural vocals, perfectly compliment the deep growling of Andrea Ferro and they ask her to join the band permanently. After the inclusion of Cristina Scabbia as female vocals the band changes their name to Ethereal and in May 1996 a two-track demo tape, with the songs Shallow End and Frozen Feeling, is recorded and sent to several European record labels. The band receives responses from Nuclear Blast and Century Media and decides to sign the deal with Century Media. Now, with the record deal in place the band discover that the name Ethereal has already been taken by a Greek band. The bands now firmly established line-up – Cristina Scabbia, Andrea Ferro, Marco Coti-Zelati, Claudio Leo, Raffaele Zagaria, and Leonardo Forti – settle on the name LACUNA COIL, meaning “Empty Spiral”, reflecting their vision on life.
The following year, Lacuna Coil recorded its first EP – “Lacuna Coil” in Germany with producer Waldemar Sorychta at the Woodhouse Studios and 1 month later found themselves on tour in Europe supporting Moonspell. 2 months after this, Lacuna Coil performed for the first time at the Lisbon Coliseum in front of more than 5,000 people.
Subsequently, Lacuna Coil has spent the last two decades performing all over the world with many notable and legendary established bands such as The Gathering, Sentenced, Lacrimosa, Dimmu Borgir, Samael, Tiamat, In Flames, Grip Inc, Anthrax, Typo 0 Negative, POD, Disturbed, Static X, Megadeth, Alice in Chains, Rob Zombie, Black Sabbath, Black Label Society, Dragonforce, Lamb of God, Hatebreed, Slipknot, Deftones, Korn, System of a Down.
In addition to Headline and supporting tours, Lacuna Coil has performed at many of the most prestigious festivals around the world including Dynamo Open Air, Gods of Metal, Graspop, Heineken Jammin Festival, Ozzfest, Gigantour, Wacken Open Air, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Sonisphere, Rockville Festival, Rocklahoma, ShipRocked, 70000 Tons of Metal. The band has also played the main stage of the legendary Download Festival in England and has gone on to sell in excess of 2 million records worldwide. Among the achievements of the band, its songs have been used in the films Resident Evil - Apocalypse, Alien vs. Predator, The Devil's Hideaway - The Cave, Alone in the Dark, Underworld: Evolution, Masters of Horror II and indeed during 1 episode of the TV series Criminal Minds. Furthering its audience even wider, it’s music has also featured on videogames including Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines, Guitar Hero III - Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band I and II.
A stand out point remains that Lacuna Coil are the only Italian band apart from the historic PFM band (Premiata Formerai Marconi) who have entered the chart Top 200 of the American Billboard Chart. This began with its third album Comalies in 2006 at 178th place, in 2008 at 28th place with Karmacode, in 2009 at 16th place with Shallow Life, Dark Adrenaline in 15th place in 2012 and again at 27th place in 2014 with Broken Crown Halo.
Currently, after having toured the world with the Delirium World Tour throughout 2016/2017, Lacuna Coil concluded with a sold out show in London at the 02 Kentish Town Forum on January 19th 2018 in celebration of the 20th. Anniversary of the band. This will also be released a DVD in the Autumn of 2018.
Endorsements: Ibanez, Chapman Guitars, Ovation Guitars, Gallien & Krueger, Blackstar, Positive Grid, Line6, EMG Pickups, Seymour Duncan Pick-ps, D’Addario Strings, Dunlop Picks, Planet Waves, Mapex, Evans, Pro - Mark, Sabian Cymbals, Ultimate Ears, Scott Dixon flight cases, Affliction, Blackcraft Clothing.
Discography:
Sleep of Right:
NOISE OF BOLGIA - BLEEDING SOULS - 1995
Ethereal: PROMO 96 - SHALLOW END - FROZEN FEELING - 1996 Lacuna Coil:
LACUNA COIL - EP - 1997
IN A REVERIE - 1999
HALFLIFE - EP - 2000
UNLEASHED MEMORIES - 2001
COMALIES - 2002
KARMACODE - 2006 VISUAL KARMA (BODY,MIND & SOUL) - DVD LIVE - 2009
MANIFESTO OF LACUNA COIL - BEST OF - 2009
SHALLOW LIFE - 2009
DARK ADRENALINE - 2012
BROKEN CROWN HALO - 2014
DELIRIUM - 2016
