'Lacuna Coil/Straight Line Stitch'
The Corporation/Sheffield - 4th November 2011
Review By Diane Parkes (pictured above)
It’s Friday night again, and I’m headed back to the Corporation in Sheffield, this time for Lacuna Coil and their support, Straight Line Stitch. As both bands have female lead vocalists I made the decision to approach this with a totally open mind, especially as I had never heard material from either band. I needn’t have been sceptical, both bands totally blew me away!
Straight Line Stitch - Genre: metal/hard rock
Alexis Brown - vocals
Seth Thacker - Guitar
Jason White - Bass
Kanky Lora - Drums
Kris Norris - Guitar
First onstage were Straight Line Stitch a five piece band from Knoxville Tennessee. Yet again I missed the very first part of the set as was backstage chatting to, and sneaking a photo opportunity with Cristiano Migliore of Lacuna Coil. The large room at the Corporation was rammed by the time I got there and I ended up near the back, never good when you are only 5’ tall! The energy and professionalism these guys expended onstage was incredible and I swear the room was shaking with the booming bassline. Alexis has a voice I honestly never thought I would hear coming from a woman; clear and lovely when singing the ordinary lyrics and then WHAM she goes into the ‘growling lyrics’ with gusto, leaping around the stage and head banging like a teenager. This is one band I will definitely be keeping my eye on.
Straight Line Stitch have three albums to date, firstly their self-release E.P. ‘The World Made Flesh’, then they were the very first band to be signed by ‘Raging Nation Records’ owned by Dale ‘Rage’ Resteghini, and their first studio album’ when Skies Wash Ashore’ was released by Koch Records in 2008. Frontman of Hatebreed, Jamey Jasta sings on the track ‘Taste of Ashes’ complementing Alexis’ vocals perfectly. They have also toured with Napalm Death, DevilDriver and 36 Crazyfist. Their current album ‘The fight of Our Lives’ was released in 2010 and features the singles ‘conversion’ and ‘One Reason’.
This is only my personal opinion, but think Slipknot without the masks and gimmicks and with an awesome female warrior doing the vocals, and you’re getting there!
Setlist:
Tear Down The Sk
Never See The Day
Laughing In The Rearview
What You Do To Me
Conversion
Taste Of Ashes
Black Veil
Lacuna Coil - Genre: Gothic Metal/Gothic Rock/Alternative Metal
Cristina Scabbia - Vocals
Andrea Farro - Vocals
Cristiano Migliore - Guitar
Marco Coti Zelati - Bass
Marco ‘Maus’ Biazzi - Guitar
Cristiano ‘CriZ’ Mozzati - Drums
Hailing from Milan, Italy Lacuna Coil (simply translated from Italian to English as ‘empty spiral’) are a 6 piece gothic metal band, having previously been called both ‘Sleep of Right’ and ‘Ethereal’ and over time having had a couple of line-up changes. I have to admit that despite them being a well-known band on the gothic metal circuit I had not heard any of their material before tonight! Thankfully I managed to worm and wheedle my way down to the front, to just beyond the barrier - there are advantages to being small too J
Lacuna Coil have excellent credentials, having worked with names such as DevilDriver, Lamb of God, Nine Inch Nails, Disturbed, Rob Zombie and Killswitch Engage, to name but a few; impressive eh? The current tour is called the ‘Darkness Rising Tour’ and the first song of the set was ‘Our Truth’ which is from their 2006 ‘Karmacode’ album, this track had a music video made for it plus the song featured on the ‘Underworld: Evolutions’ soundtrack; it also achieved a place in the U.S. Mainstream Rock Charts. Cristina and Andrea sing both individually and together onstage, perfectly complementing each other. I have to confess that despite enjoying the entire show I did prefer the newer, edgier songs, the ones with the more ‘metal’ sound, and I do hope they continue moving forward in this way, with the more distinctive bassline and heavier guitar and drum work.
I am really looking forward to getting a copy of their new album ‘Dark Adrenaline’ (hence the title, Darkness Rising Tour). The first single released from this album is ‘Trip The Darkness’ which was the penultimate song of the encore. The album release date is set for January 24th 2012.
The final song of the first set before the encore was their cover of the Depeche Mode song ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and the room positively erupted when the band launched into the opening bars, there were hands in the air, horns held high and heads banging to the beat everywhere I looked, this was for me, most definitely one of the highlights of the night.
As of August 2010 Lacuna Coil had sold over 2 million records and with 5 studio albums (plus the imminent arrival of ‘Dark Adrenaline’) to their credit these guys are going from strength to strength, headed in my opinion for even greater things, the newer sound is exciting, slightly more up-tempo, definitely heavier and I for one am loving it!
One final accolade I must just mention is that Lacuna Coil have been hand picked personally by none other than Dave Mustaine to perform on the ‘GIGANTOUR’ (tickets available from 4th November 2011)
“the critically acclaimed package festival founded in 2005 by esteemed
metal titans Megadeth”
In conclusion, its confession time; I started off the night a tad sceptical, but by close of show was a total convert, oh dear I think I’m in danger of becoming a ‘Coiler’!!
Setlist:
Our Truth
To The Edge
I won’t Tell You
I’m Not Afraid
Kill The Light
Fragments of Faith
Heaven’s A Lie
Daylight Dancer
Wide Awake
Without Fear
Swamped
Fragile
Enjoy The silence
Encore:
Survive
Trip The Darkness
Spellbound
Lacuna Coil, with support from Straight Line Stitch are on tour until the 23rd November so there’s still chance to catch this amazing show. Tickets available from www.kililive.com and other usual outlets.
