By Chesney Hearst, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Fans of metal in Rio won’t have to wait until September for Rock in Rio to get their live music fix, as Gothic metal band, Lacuna Coil will make their Rio debut on Lapa’s Circo Voador stage Friday, March 1st. The Italian natives will play in Rio as the first of three stops in Brazil during the Over Latin America leg of their ongoing Dark Legacy Tour.
Known for their mid-tempo songs with strong choruses, the sextet of Lacuna Coil consists of dueling male and female vocalists, Andrea Ferro and Cristina Scabbia.
With a bit of a beauty and the beast dynamic, the two interchange the role of lead vocalist with Ferro’s gravely tones and at times death metal growls proceeding Scabbia’s powerful and melodic vocals. Their voices often blend and at times contrast during chorus duets.
The band’s primary composer, Marco Coti Zelati, also serves as Lacuna Coil’s bassist and has taken a turn at the guitar and keyboards along the way. Cristiano Migliore and Marco Biazzi are the two main guitarists responsible for the band’s heavy metal guitar riffs while Cristiano Mozzati works his double bass drum set driving the songs.
Released in 2012, Dark Adrenaline became the band’s sixth full-length recording and marked a return to a heavier metal sound. The first single from the album, “Trip The Darkness” opens with a Gothic sounding overtone and then lashes into heavy guitar riffs accompanied by pounding drums.
Ferro rips into the opening verse with his rasping tone that’s just shy of a scream. When speaking about the band’s most recent album, Dark Adrenaline, Mozzati told Drum! Magazine, “We try to mix the Gothic thing with aggressiveness.”
Carioca Fabio Figueira De Sousa, who works at the Clover Irish Pub in Copacabana and is in a band Clashing Clouds, tells The Rio Times that he expects the show to packed. “Like most of the bands from U.S. and Europe, [bands] are often surprised with the amount of people in their gigs when they decide to come down to Rio.
In 1994 Ferro along with bassist Zelati founded a band that would later evolve into Lacuna Coil. Forming in Milan, Italy they named themselves, Sleep of Right and released two demos. Singer Cristina Scabbia began to contribute vocals and they eventually changed their name to Lacuna Coil and released a self-titled EP in 1998.
It was the release of their fourth full-length album, Karmacode in 2006, that brought the band their first taste of mainstream success, debuting 28th on the Billboard Charts. They have since performed on the main stage of Ozzfest and in multiple other festivals worldwide throughout their fifteen year history.
“There’s a pretty big metal fan-base here… a lot of people don’t realize that I think,” Rio resident Andrea Wells told The Rio Times. “[Lacuna Coil] reminds me of the early days of Evanescence, with a little Linkin Park and Type O Negative in there.”
Circo Voador doors will open for the show at 8PM on March 1st.
Who: Lacuna Coil with opening act Painside
Where: Circo Voador – Rua dos Arcos, S/N, Lapa
When: Friday, March 1st
Tickets: R$160 (full price) R$80 (students and promotion) available at ingresso.com
Doors open at 8PM