![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260209_201246-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 2022, the year I arrived in Singapore, the Italian gothic metal band Lacuna Coil played a gig at the city-state\u2019s Esplanade Annex Studio.\u00a0 Although I\u2019d really enjoyed several of the band\u2019s early albums, such as Comalies<\/em> (2002) and Shallow<\/em> Life<\/em> (2009), I somehow, stupidly, missed seeing them on that occasion.\u00a0 When I heard that the band would be paying a return visit to Singapore on February 9th<\/sup> this year, playing in the same venue, I made sure I didn\u2019t make the same mistake again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lacuna Coil are currently touring in promotion of their 2025 album Sleepless<\/em> Empire<\/em>.\u00a0 The album was well-received by critics, who noted that it showed the band moving towards a darker, heavier sound.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Though plentifully equipped with chugging guitars, earlier Lacuna Coil albums like those I\u2019d mentioned above had prioritised melody over volume. \u00a0\u00a0This was embodied in the band\u2019s use of two vocalists, the operatic Christina Scabbia and the rougher, more aggressive-sounding Andrea Ferro.\u00a0 Indeed, to me, they sounded like a goth-metal version of the 1980s Icelandic indie-band the Sugarcubes \u2013 wherein a very young Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s charmingly fey vocals were offset<\/a> by the more discordant ones of Einar \u04e6rn<\/a>, allegedly \u2018the first punk in Iceland\u2019.\u00a0 Nonetheless, Ferro\u2019s rawer voice was still in synch with the tunes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n At tonight\u2019s gig, I was discombobulated at first to encounter a louder, crunchier, snarlier incarnation of Lacuna Coil than I\u2019d expected \u2013 songs from Sleepless Empire<\/em> made up nearly half the setlist, with previous, gentler albums represented by one or two tracks only. \u00a0It was also a surprise to hear those alternating vocals.\u00a0 While Scabbia was as operatic as ever, Ferro sometimes indulged in death-growling<\/a>, Cannibal Corpse<\/a>-style.\u00a0 Actually, one of Sleepless<\/em> Empire<\/em>\u2019s tracks, Hosting the Shadow<\/em>, was recorded with guest vocals from Randy Blythe of the American thrash \/ groove metal band Lamb of God, who in the past has provided guest vocals for \u2013 surprise! \u2013 Cannibal Corpse.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But a few songs into Lacuna Coil\u2019s set, my brain had adjusted and I enjoyed the rest of the gig enormously.\u00a0 And the heaviness of Sleepless Empire<\/em> was leavened by a few old tracks I\u2019m fond of: Heaven\u2019s a Lie<\/em> and Swamped<\/em> off Comalies<\/em>, Spellbound<\/em> off Shallow Life<\/em>.\u00a0 No room, alas, for Survive<\/em><\/a>, the first track on Shallow Life<\/em>, which is maybe my favourite Lacuna Coil song thanks to its use of a spooky, children\u2019s-nursery-rhyme-like refrain, which sounds like something off the soundtrack of an old giallo<\/em> movie.\u00a0 (Giallo<\/em> were a sub-genre of stylish but brutal horror-thrillers developed in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s by directors like Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Sergio Martino and Lucio Fulci.\u00a0 Frequently, the murders in them were the result of someone having suffered childhood trauma<\/a>, which necessitated flashback scenes accompanied by the sounds of creepy children.)\u00a0 And that brings me nicely to my next point\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n One thing I liked about Lacuna Coil\u2019s show tonight was how, visually, they echoed old Italian horror movies, of which I\u2019m a big fan.\u00a0 Bassist Marco Coti Zelati<\/a>, who also composes the music for and produces their records \u2013 Scabbia and Ferro write the lyrics \u2013 was slathered in white corpse-paint, except for a dish-shaped portion at the top of his head, which had been painted red and brain-like to suggest his brainpan had been removed.\u00a0 Indeed, he resembled a lumbering, reanimated cadaver from the zombie epics that Lucio Fulci<\/a> started making after he stopped making giallo<\/em>.\u00a0 Meanwhile, recently recruited guitarist Daniele Salomone wore a cowl and resembled the hooded villain in Antonio Margheriti\u2019s 1963 horror film The Virgin of Nuremberg<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The colours bathing the stage veered from garish blue to garish red with the abandon of the stylised lighting that drenched the movies of Mario Bava<\/a> and Dario Argento<\/a>.\u00a0 And the dark-haired, red-dressed Scabbia would have made a good female lead in an Italian gothic horror, either being menaced (\u00e0 la<\/em> Jessica Harper<\/a>) or doing the menacing (\u00e0 la<\/em> Barbara Steele<\/a>).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Finally, I should say the crowd were appreciative of Lacuna Coil\u2019s artistry, though a few too many phone-cameras were in operation.\u00a0 I\u2019d secured a good position near the front of the stage, but my view of the band was sometimes disrupted by a girl standing before me who held her phone permanently aloft, seemingly hellbent on filming the entire gig.\u00a0 Occasionally, she\u2019d turn and, with a sweep of the arm, try to film the audience behind her too. Whenever she did this, I noticed how her arm swooped up and down so as to avoid getting a close-up of my grizzled, decrepit visage amid these panoramic shots.\u00a0 Heaven forbid — that would have ruined all her footage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2022, the year I arrived in Singapore, the Italian gothic metal band Lacuna Coil played a gig at the city-state\u2019s Esplanade Annex Studio.\u00a0 Although I\u2019d really enjoyed several of the band\u2019s early albums, such as Comalies (2002) and Shallow Life (2009), I somehow, stupidly, missed seeing them on that occasion.\u00a0 When I … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260209_201455-169x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260209_202618-169x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260209_201534-169x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260209_201553-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260209_201326-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"