Sleep Of Right

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.


Ethereal

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 First EP and the Break-up

In 1997 at the Woodhouse Studio, in Germany, LACUNA COIL set about recording their first songs with Century Media; with the band sleeping in an old run down flat right above “Spirit” club. It becomes apparent in the studio that there are musical differences between Raffaele, Leonardo, and the rest of the band. Despite these problems the band records six songs, produced by Grip Inc guitarist Waldemar Sorychta. Ultimately however, the decision is made to not include the tracks from the Ethereal demo tape as they do not fit in with the bands emerging style.
With the EP due for release in early 1998 the band join Portuguese goth-metal act Moonspell in December 1997, on a promotional European tour, and LACUNA COIL have their first live experience. Anxiety, stage fright and intense emotions result in Raffaele Zagaria, Claudio Leo, and Leonardo Forti leaving the band after only three shows of the twelve-show tour. Undaunted, LACUNA COIL continue performing, with the help of Anders Iwers of Tiamat on guitar, and Markus of Kreator on drums.

In January 1998 they recruit Cristiano Migliore from Thy Nature and Cristiano ‘Criz’ Mozzati from Time Machine. Their arrival brings renewed enthusiasm just in time for the EP release in February, and a show in Lisbon in front of four thousand people, opening for Moonspell. It would be the first of a number of shows with the new line-up supporting the self-titled EP.
In March the band starts their second European tour with Dutch band The Gathering, and Siegmen. During the tour Node’s Steve Minelli plays guitar after new LACUNA COIL guitarist Cristiano Migliore injures himself shortly beforehand. Additionally, Alice Chiarelli helps with keyboards and the shows with The Gathering are memorable with Cristina Scabbia performing duets with Anneke Van Giersbergen a number of times.

In August 1998 LACUNA COIL’s first festival experience comes when they play at Germany’s Wacken Open-Air festival and they follow the show with their first signing session. Suddenly people are starting to take notice of the Italian band, and due to the nature of the direction they see their music taking, they decide to look for a second guitarist instead of using keyboards. I

FAVOURITE LACUNA COIL SONG:

*CRISTINA- Falling Again, all the songs included in Comalies
*MARCO- A Current Obsession, Daylight dancer, Entwined, Swamped, Halflife
*MAUS- Swamped, Tight Rope, Angel's Punishment
*CHRIS- Distant Sun
*CRIZ- Tight Rope
*ANDREA-In my mind I have a song for every moment of my life

FAVOURITE BANDS:

*CRISTINA- Depeche Mode, Korn, Linkin Park, In Flames
*MARCO- Devin Townsend, Alice in Chains, Korn, Meshuggah
*MAUS- Meshuggah, Type O Negative, Alice In Chains, Opeth, Pantera, Slipknot
*CHRIS- Police, Meshuggah, Carcass, At The Gates
*CRIZ- Police, Meshuggah, Portishead, Slipknot, Korn, System of a Down, Opeth
*ANDREA- Korn, The Cult, Massive Attack, Disturbed, System of a down, Steel Pulse, Queens of the stone age

FAVOURITE TV SHOWS:

*CRISTINA- Real TV, Super Quark, The fresh prince of Bel-Air
*MARCO- Family Guy, Dragon Ball, The Simpsons, Discovery Channel, Real TV
*MAUS- The Simpsons, Dragon Ball Saga, Okuto No Ken, Everything bizarre
*CHRIS- None
*CRIZ- All the shows with nice girls
*ANDREA- Family Guy, Jerry Springer, Six Feet Under, Smackdown, The Sopranos, Law and Order, N.Y.P.D., Mtv Headbangers Ball, Pimp my rid

FAVOURITE MOVIES:

*CRISTINA- Seven, The Silence of the Lambs
*MARCO- Star Wars, Braveheart, The Sleepers, The Lord of the rings, Alien saga, The Matrix trilogy
*MAUS- Seven, The Crow, The Matrix, Braveheart, Fantozzi saga, the Others, The Lord of the Rings
*CHRIS- The Matrix, Star Wars Trilogy, The Crow, Alien saga
*CRIZ- Zatoichi, The Matrix Trilogy, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, Braveheart, Once were Warriors, all Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Jim Carrey and Rocco Siffredi's movies
*ANDREA- Classic horror movies, Nightmare, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Profondo Rosso, etc. Italian comedy, spaghetti western and 70's gangsters movie.

FAVOURITE CARTOONS:

*CRISTINA- Escaflowne, Battle Angel Alita, Akira, Ghost in the Shell
*MARCO- Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Mononoke Hime, Escaflowne, Hurricane Polimar
*MAUS- Tom and Jerry, Toei Animation, Ghost in the Shell, City Hunter, Lupin III, Arale
*CHRIS- Okuto No Ken, Daitarn III, Gundam, Star Blazers
*CRIZ- Wicked City, Okuto No Ken, Jeeg Robot, Daitarn III
*ANDREA- Japanese Animee, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, Roadrunner, Pink Panther

FAVOURITE ACTOR/ACTRESS:

*CRISTINA- All the actors in Shrek, Al Pacino, Tom Cruise, Woopi Goldberg
*MARCO- Al Pacino, Kathy Bates
*MAUS- Lino Banfi
*CHRIS- Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver
*CRIZ- Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchett
*ANDREA- Al Pacino, Jhonny Depp, Bruce Willis,Sigourney Weaver, Uma Thurman, Milla Jovovich,

FAVOURITE BOOKS:

*CRISTINA- Il dio del fiume, Il settimo papiro
*MARCO- All the works from J.R.R. Tolkien, Star Wars books, Ratman
*MAUS- Inferno from Diviner Commedia, Epic and Yellow books, The Lord of The Rings
*CHRIS- Frank Herbert's Dune
*CRIZ- All the works from J.R.R. Tolkien
*ANDREA- I don't have a specific target but I like to satisfy my curiosity about religions, history, discovery, music, dark writers and sometimes fantasy

FAVOURITE FOOD:
*CRISTINA- Almost everything but spicey, especially potatoes
*MARCO- All, especially every kind of Meat but not liver
*MAUS- Pizza
*CHRIS- Lasagne
*CRIZ- Animals
*ANDREA- When I'm on tour in the U.S.A. there's nothing better than a double cheese burger with bacon and a strawberry shake!

FAVOURITE VIDEOGAMES:

*CRISTINA- Final Fantasy VII, IX, X, All Resident Evil, Silent Hill I+II, Fear effect
*MARCO- All Final Fantasy, All Resident Evil, Max Payne, Tony Hawk underground
*MAUS- Pro Evolution Soccer 4, Half Life 2, Halo2
*CHRIS- Diablo I and II, Half Life, Tekken 3, Quake I and II, R-Type I and II
*CRIZ- Diablo I and II, Half Life I and II, Max Paine I and II, Tekken 3, Vampires
*ANDREA-G.T.A. San Andreas, Pro Evolution Soccer 5, Halo 2 and Doom 3.

FAVOURITE ANIMALS:

*CRISTINA- my 3 fish and All the animals
*MARCO- Dog (Jack Russel Terrier), my parrot Spi

If you were at the Lacuna Coil concert in Dublin on the 16th of October, leave a comment here and tell us what you thought of it!