Years ago when I was still just becoming familiar with the hard rock and metal genres of music, a late friend of mine introduced me to a band called "Lacuna Coil". I'd heard gothic bands before, but their music style was almost completely different from anything I'd heard at the time. After one listen to their album "Comalies" which was released in 2002, I was an instant fan and they have become one of my favourite bands since then.

Like many of the bands I loved so much at that time, Lacuna Coil was formed in the 90s. As the story goes it was actually formed in 1994 in Italy. At the time the band went by a different name, "Sleep of Right"; and its original members were Andrea Ferro, Michaelangelo Algardi, Raffaele Zagaria and Marco Coti Zelati. Eventually the band added its present vocalist Cristina Scabbia, and changed its name to "Ethereal" and lastly "Lacuna Coil".

These days the band still has three of its original members, even though Michaelangelo Algardi and Raffaele Zagaria left in the late 90s. However Ryan Blake Folden now plays drums and Marco Biazzi plays guitar .

I was attracted to Lacuna Coil's music because I thought that their music style was different from a lot of what I had been hearing. The thing was I wasn't used to listening to a lot of bands who had female vocalists, and even stranger was they fact that they had a male vocalist as well.

Back then even many of the hard rock and metal bands who were female headed mostly focused on appearing very hardcore; and that would consist of incorporating vocals that were mostly screams and growls in their music. However, Lacuna Coil stood out because they were both hardcore and elegant. They could be both heavy metal and had the beautiful elegance of goth at the same time.

My favourite album from Lacuna Coil has to be Comalies for two reasons. It was the album that introduced me to to them and furthermore the album that introduced me to that particular genre of rock.

It's hard to choose what my favourite songs on Comalies were since they were so many, but they would have to be "Angel's Punishment" , "Heaven's a Lie", "Swamped", "The Prophet Said" and "Comalies" itself.

My second favourite album from Lacuna Coil would have to be their 2006 album Karmacode. I love the songs "Devoted" and "Our Truth" the most.

One of my favourite things about Lacuna Coil has also been Cristina Scabbia, the female vocalist. A part from loving her vocals, I've always loved her personal style. As a matter of fact, she's influenced me so much that my own personal style has been partially influenced by what I've seen her wear.

I think that she tends to be very edgy and elegant without being over the top or too revealing most times. I say most because I've seen one or two pictures of her where I wasn't really too keen with what she was wearing.
Like many of the other bands that I used to listen to back then, Lacuna Coil's sound seems to have evolved quite a bit. I think they've mellowed a little and they don't sound as intense as they did in say an album like Karmacode. For example, the last song I remember listening to was "Trip the Darkness" back in 2013 and that was from one of their more recent albums Dark Adrenaline which was released circa 2011-2012.

I recommend the music of Lacuna Coil to people who love Goth Metal and Heavy metal. Their sound is unique and intense all at the same time without being too over the top.