Three years didn’t feel like a long time between albums for Cristina Scabbia and Lacuna Coil, but it did give the group plenty of time to live life and turn it into songs for new album Black Anima, with standout track “Save Me” is exclusively premiering below. And as the song title suggests, those weren’t always the most pleasant events to write about.
“This record is the sum of all the experiences we’ve had in the last few years,” Scabbia tells Billboard about the Oct. 11 release on Century Media Records, Lacuna Coil’s ninth studio album overall. In her case, it was the deaths of her parents within nine months of each other, after both were in poor health for extended periods. “For others in the band,” she reports, “there were moments of depression or other kinds of losses, stuff that might happen to everyone. I think a lot of people can relate to that. It’s the circle of life.”
Black Anima’s predecessor, 2016’s Delirium, mined similarly dark terrain. But Scabbia says the heavy, dynamic new album takes a different attitude toward turmoil. “If Delirium was [about] going through suffering, this record is the realization that it’s okay to not be okay,” she explains. “It’s okay to go through hard moments, because you will eventually get out of them and get better. Sometimes it’s okay to enjoy the darkness because it is part of life. You need it for balance. At the same time, we wanted the record to be heavier and darker in terms of atmosphere and lyrics — and even visual.”
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The latter, in fact, includes packaging with tarot cards representing each of the album’s 10 tracks, as well as one for each of the Italian metal group’s four permanent members, plus the album cover. However, says Scabbia, “I wouldn’t call it a conceptual record. Every song is detached from the others. But at the same time, you need to listen to the record from first to last to get the idea of the journey we went through. But it’s not a story, song through song.”
“Save Me” is perhaps the most dynamic song on the set, with lighter touches than many of the other tracks on Black Anima. “We like to explore different sides of music,” explains Scabbia. “We’re not the typical metal band where everything sounds the same, shall we say. We’re not afraid to try different things.” Lyrically, “Save Me” is about “basically screaming for help — but like, a silent scream, because a lot of people are just afraid to talk about their problems. They like better to keep things to themselves and see if they can find a solution without any help, which can be foolish.”
Lacuna Coil is touring the United States through Oct. 19, then will hit Europe during November and December, starting with four shows at home in Italy. Scabbia also expects a full slate of live dates during 2020, including a number of festival appearances.
Black Anima arrives concurrently with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Lacuna Coil’s debut album, In a Reverie, which the group commemorated with a special one-off show in London earlier this year featuring circus performers, as well as a photo book about the band’s first two decades. “Twenty years have gone by in the blink of an eye,” observes Scabbia. “I think we’re the same people we were back then in terms of excitement and energy. Of course, things change; we definitely grew a lot as human beings because of the experiences we’ve had, but we don’t feel tired of being on the road or tired of music. When we finished the book, it felt like we were starting a new book, and we’ll see where we’re at 20 years from now.”
Lacuna Coil Disease of the Anima Tour with All That Remains:
Oct. 5: Spokane, Wash.@The Knitting Factory*
Oct. 6: Calgary, Alberta@Palace Theatre
Oct. 7: Edmonton, Alberta@Starlite Room
Oct. 9: Winnipeg, Manitoba@Park Theatre
Oct. 10: Minot, N.D.@The ‘O’ Riginal Bar
With Bad Omens, Eximious and Uncured
Oct. 11: Minneapolis@The Cabooze
Oct. 12: Columbia, Mo.@The Blue Note
Oct. 13: Milwaukee@The Rave II
Oct. 15: Cincinnati@Riverfront Live
Oct. 16: Chicago@House of Blues*
Oct. 17: Cleveland@House of Blues
Oct. 18: Toronto@Opera House
Oct. 19: Baltimore@Ram’s Head Live
*no Bad Omens
With Eluveitie and Infected Rain
Nov. 2: Bari, Italy@Demodé Club
Nov. 3: Rome@Orion
Nov. 5: Bologna, Italy@Estragon
Nov. 6: Milan@Live Club
Nov. 8: Stuttgart, Germany@LKA Longhorn
Nov. 9: Oberhausen, Germany@Turbinenhalle II
Nov. 10: Antwerp, Belgium@Trix
Nov. 12: Manchester, the United Kingdom@O2 Ritz
Nov. 13: Glasgow@Garage
Nov. 14: Dublin@Academy
Nov. 15: Bristol, the United Kingdom@SWX
Nov. 16: London@O2 Forum Kentish Town
Nov. 17: Utrecht, the Netherlands@Tivoli Ronda
Nov. 19: Frankfurt, Germany@Batschkapp
Nov. 20: Hanover, Germany@Capitol
Nov. 21: Berlin@Huxleys
Nov. 22: Leipzig, Germany@Felsenkeller
Nov. 23: Munich@Tonhalle
Nov. 24: Dornbirn, Austria@Conrad Sohm
Nov. 26: Bordeaux, France@Le Rocher de Palmer
Nov. 27: Barcelona@Razzmatazz
Nov. 28: Madrid@Mon Live
Nov. 29: Toulouse, France@Le Bikini
Nov. 30: Rennes, France@L’Etage
Dec. 1: Paris@Elysée-Montmartre
Dec. 3: Saarbrucken, Germany@Garage
Dec. 4: Nurnberg, Germany@Hirsch
Dec. 5: Ljubljana, Slovenia@Kino Siska
Dec. 8: Vienna@Arena
Dec. 10: Krakow, Poland@Kwadrat Students Club
Dec. 11: Warsaw, Poland@Progresja
Dec. 12: Riga, Latvia@Melna Piektdiena
Dec. 13: Helsinki@Tavastia
Dec. 14: Tampere, Finland@Pakkahuone
Dec. 15: Tallinn, Estonia@Rock Café
Dec. 17: Stockholm@Klubben Fryshuset
Dec. 18: Oslo@Vulkan Arena
Dec. 19: Gothenburg, Sweden@Tradgarn
Dec. 20: Copenhagen, Denmark@Amager Bio
Dec. 21: Hamburg, Germany@Docks
*festival dates