On the eve of ninth album Black Anima, LACUNA COIL announce a special Hammer-supported Prepare event at for The scares. London Dungeon!
As the new Lacuna Coil album approaches, we’ve teamed up with The London Dungeon to celebrate it in spectacularly spooky style
IN CELEBRATION OF their mysterious ninth album, Black Anima, Italian goth metallers Lacuna Coil are bringing their newest studio venture to the spookiest venue they could find: the London Dungeon. For one night only, supported by Metal Hammer, a few lucky fans will join the band to experience the dungeons first-hand and hear the record in the creepiest atmosphere possible.
The songs that have become Black Anima did not come easily to the mischievous Milanese, who have been working on the album ever since the dust settled on 2016’s Delirium, vocalist Andrea Ferro tells Hammer.
“We started seriously writing about six months ago, but we were struggling with inspiration before that. We tried to sit down and write but it’s not something you can force: you either have inspiration or you don’t. We don’t specifically write concept albums but we always have a theme behind the album, a unique vibe, and I’ve been reading a lot of books for inspiration.”
As cinematic as it is relatable, this new release is more than just a collection of songs to the band. While it may not follow a clear concept like Delirium’s broad theme of mental health and institutions, Black Anima encompasses the lives and times of the bandmembers over the three years between the two records.
“For us, and [especially] our primary songwriter Marco [Coti Zelati, bass], each album is visualised like a new film, a story made up of different elements drawn from our life experiences from one album to another,” Andrea explains. “We collect those feelings and visualise them in a way that’s interesting for everybody, not just for us, because we live with these songs for the rest of our lives. It’s important that people can relate to our songs even if they haven’t experienced the same things.”
Teasing the contents of their upcoming album, the first to fully feature new guitarist Diego Cavallotti, Andrea details that his chosen highlight from Black Anima is a song that fans will be hearing very soon as one of the earliest tracks to be released from their ninth record.
“Black Anima is like a film you’ll want to see again, a great cult movie that can be a part of your life, one you’re not going to forget. The song Layers Of Time stands out to me because I’ve been listening to it the most. There are a lot of catchy elements to it, but it’s also very heavy, it’s powerful and very melodic at the same time. It’s a good way to surprise people while giving a hint of the flavour of the album – this is not a poppy record!”
THE ALBUM AND its supporting London Dungeon experience have been put together to show the band’s gratitude to the fans who’ve supported the band over their 25 years, providing an intense visual phenomenon to continue their relationship with followers both new and established.
“Very often, people get tattoos of our album artwork and lyrics, so there’s a special connection between us and our fans that creates our legacy,” Andrea notes. “We appreciate our legacy, and the work we put into each album is repaid by the legacy more than the money made from shirts and records sales.”
Lacuna Coil will be kicking off their next era with the London Dungeon event in September, bringing with them their new album for fans to experience in the creepy venue. For the band, London is a significant host city for such an ambitious, experimental event.
“THIS IS NOT A POPPY RECORD!”
“We’ve always had a special relationship with the city of London and the UK in general,” Andrea says. “London’s always been a home gig away from home, somewhere we feel at home because we’ve been there so many times. We feel so welcome in London and have a lot of friends and personal connections there, so it’s important to us to come back and do special events.”
Stashing the secrets of the London Dungeon event neatly under their distinctive black uniforms, Lacuna Coil bring this intimate album listening experience to the capital in addition to their UK headline dates, which kick off in November.
“Obviously, we can’t tell you too much right now because we want it to be a surprise – plus we’re still working on the visuals and developing the artwork for the album, which we’ll use in a special setting for this event. We’re creating a visual concept totally fitting the Black Anima atmosphere, a full-on package of something very artistic like the album, even down to the choice of songs that are more catchy but make more sense for this record. We even have an intro and an outro this time. It’s going to be something unique!”
As well as the album playback, the band will join fans to journey through the dungeons and face all the hidden scares and disgusting sights together, and for those that didn’t get tickets, you’ll be able to follow all the fun via Metal Hammer. We couldn’t resist asking Andrea the most important question of all, though: Which member of Lacuna Coil will scream first?
“Marco and I grew up together watching the classic 80s horror movie franchises when we were kids, like Halloween and Friday The 13th, so we are not that easy to scare. Our guitar player, Diego, is a more sensitive and sensible kind of guy so he will be the first one to scream… It definitely won’t be Cristina!”
METAL HAMMER PRESENTS LACUNA COIL AT THE LONDON DUNGEON IS ON SEPTEMBER 6. THEIR NEW ALBUM, BLACK ANIMA, LANDS ON OCTOBER 11 VIA CENTURY MEDIA. THE BAND TOUR THE UK IN NOVEMBER – SEE P.109 fOR DATES