THE PAST WE CAN’T REWIND
A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREA FERRO OF LACUNA COIL
Lacuna Coil, the Italian gothic metal band have made waves and broken new ground during their illustrious duration that has spanned over 20 years. Hailing from Milano, Italy, a region that at the time was not known for heavy metal or rock music, Lacuna Coil have since paved the way and put Italy on the map for the metal world. With the current release of their ninth studio album, Black Anima, Lacuna Coil are at it again taking the world by storm on a new North American tour before commencing their European leg next month. Vocalist Andrea Ferro managed to spare some time while combating sudden snowstorms to speak about the new album, their long career and a surprise collaboration with DC Comics.
Long-term fans of the band will certainly notice that Lacuna Coilβs sound has grown increasingly darker and heavier with each album. This change caught fansβ attention with their previous album Delirium, and Black Anima is hurtling ahead on the same trajectory. βWith the previous record Delirium, we were able to experiment musically and lyrically with it. The record leaned more towards mental illness, many of us have experiences with this in our families of people suffering from this kind of illness,β Ferro said. βSo we decided to use this as a topic for the record and it was very successful, it pushed us a bit more towards the heavy side of our music. It was also very well-embraced by our fans. When it came time for us to write Black Anima, we decided to be freer and we felt that the success of Delirium gave us permission to just go with it and follow the music and donβt worry about staying in the boundaries that people expect from us.β
βI was reading a book at the same time called The Physics of Angels (by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake), itβs a book that analyzes the figures of angels, spirits, and ghosts throughout history by a man who is a religious person, a priest, and the other is a scientist,β Ferro remarked with regards to the concept and imagery for the new album. βWhen we were brainstorming topics for the new record, this seemed the strongest topic to talk about, the passage of life and the idea of acceptance that we are not always so right. That gave us the idea to talk about a sort of collection of souls that we imagine could be the one you see on the front cover of the record.β
BLACK ANIMA ALBUM REVIEW
Ferro reflected back over the years to when Lacuna Coil first formed and commented about on the learning curve of being one of the first metal bands to come from Italy. βItβs been a great journey, completely unexpected because when we started back in β96, we were just a little band from Milano, Italy which is not exactly the rock βnβ roll or heavy metal paradise.ββSo everything that came, the contract, the international record deal and success, the big tours, the record sales, itβs beyond any possible expectation back then.Β We were just this little band and we thought maybe we can do a couple of records, maybe tour Europe, we never expected this to happen. Itβs also been a big learning process because we had relatively little experience doing metal. In Italy, we had to learn through all of our own experiences, with a lot of things weβve done, we were actually the first Italian band to ever do it.β
Lacuna Coil is currently at the tail end of their North American tour with All That Remains. βWeβve toured with these guys 10 years ago so we know each other really well and it was a pleasure to meet the guys again and share another tour together. Weβre pretty different bands so we have different offerings from the musical side.β Ferro also commented about seeing a younger generation of fans amidst the crowds. βWe also have fans who are coming who are very young and this is their first experience or one of their first experiences at a show, some have already been there and have been going to shows for years so itβs a cool and interesting package.β
Fans who are tuned into Lacuna Coilβs Instagram would have noticed some recent shots of Ferro and fellow vocalist Cristina Scabbia hanging out at the famed DC Comics studio. Ferro reveals the reason behind this visit and also their plans for Halloween. βOn Halloween this year, weβre going to be going to a convention in Italy called Lucca Comics & Games which happens to be near Florence and itβs the biggest one in Europe,βhe comments. βWeβre going to present the special box set weβve done in collaboration with DC Comics for the 80th anniversary of Batman. Weβre going to be drawn into the comic together with Batman and theyβre going to work in our music, our visuals, and our custom-made tarot deck plus some Batman goodies like the mask and the comic book and a lot of the gadgets into the box set.β
Unfortunately for fans outside of Italy, it seems this limited-edition comic will not be available worldwide but that likely wonβt stop those dedicated from hunting it down. As for Lacuna Coil, it seems they also wonβt be deterred. From conquering the world to conquering madness, Hell, and now the city of Gotham, nothing is stopping this little band from Milano.
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