Lacuna Coil - Cardiff Review

As I am writing this, November is now over and I am back home from another lengthy weekend away taking in live music. Most of the weekend's fun took place in Nottingham, somewhere I had not been to for over a year, but it all started off in Wales - with a night at the Tramshed in Cardiff. November was quite busy - not as busy as October, but there was still a lot going on both locally and further afield. This past weekend feels like the last truly mammoth, multi-city weekend away of the year - although there are still two busy ones left before Christmas and 2026's already busy gig calendar takes over. Starting with Cardiff, then, it was nice to return to the Welsh capital for only the second time of the year. Considering that Cardiff is relatively close to home, it is not somewhere that I tend to go very often. I last visited the city back in January, when I saw Trivium and Bullet for My Valentine pack out the arena - but last night took me to the smaller Tramshed, a venue which is just on the outskirts of the main city centre. I had only been to the venue a couple of times before: once to see Y&T back in 2019 and again last year to see KK's Priest. It is a decent venue, but it has never been a favourite compared to other venues elsewhere of a similar size. Cardiff is not exactly brimming with great music venues, then, although I have always liked the arena there despite it being on the small side. It is a shame - but with Bristol so close, which has always been a great place for live music, it is easy to see why Cardiff lags behind somewhat. The reason for the trip to the city, then, was the Italian gothic metal five-piece Lacuna Coil. Despite being somewhat ahead of the curve when it came to that gothic/atmospheric metal sound fronted by both male and female vocalists, Lacuna Coil have never really grown to the size of many of their non-Italian peers. I feel like Lacuna Coil could have been huge and were teetering on the edge of becoming so in the mid-2000s, but their brief turn towards a more nu-metal and alternative rock sound likely put some of their original fans off - and the shift in tone did not catch on enough to really catapult them into the big leagues. That being said, though, Lacuna Coil have still managed to have a great career - and there are not many bands out there that genuinely sound like them, especially now. After floundering with their identity somewhat in the late 2000s and early 2010s, during the last decade or so the band have reinvented themselves as something of a heavier act, with groove metal riffing, gothic atmospherics, and the clean/harsh vocal double team of co-frontpersons Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro. The band's last three albums are easily their best releases outside of their early heyday, too, with Sleepless Empire (which I reviewed here) their latest effort from earlier this year being another strong one. Despite having been a Lacuna Coil fan since around 2008, when I first saw them live with Bullet for My Valentine, they are not a band I have seen live too often. In fact, Friday night was only my third Lacuna Coil concert - and my first since 2019 when I caught them in Bristol. This was not for lack of interest, or opportunity, but for whatever reason the band's tours always fell during busy times. I was glad to be able to tie this latest Cardiff show into my Nottingham weekend, then, and it proved to be a good start to the long weekend. It was a cold walk down to the venue from where I was staying - but thankfully the potent showers which made their presence knows throughout the weekend held off during such.

The venue actually opened early, which is a rarity, but it was good to get in out of the cold. What was less good, though, was the over an hour wait before the support act started. This seems to be becoming more of an issue of late - and I would rather venues either opened later or shows finished earlier than have lengthy periods of waiting when inside. It is not as if it was easy for people to spend lots of money at the bar, either, as the Tramshed is one of those venues with no spare space. The best venues have space to move around at the rear and by the bars even when full - but the Tramshed is not such a venue. As such, most likely just felt penned in until Nonpoint took to the stage. Nonpoint have been around since the mid-1990s and were part of the original nu-metal scene. Nu-metal is one of the metal subgenres that I have the least amount of interest in, so I was not really looking forward to Nonpoint's set - but I actually ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. It was certainly not a classic showing, nor will I be going out and buying all of the band's albums, but their 45 minutes on stage was not as objectionable as I thought it was going to be. The band did not seem as influenced by rap or hip-hop as some nu-metal bands are - nor were their riffs as mechanical. The riffs were certainly influenced by the core nu-metal sound, but the guitar tones and melodies felt a bit more typically metal - and the Dominican and Puerto Rican ancestry of some of the band members allowed for some Latina influences and the occasional Spanish lyric. These facets helped to set the band apart from the nu-metal crowd as a result - and there was quite a bit of energy throughout their set, with frontman Elias Soriano coming across as likeable and capable with a strong voice. As such, the band's choruses were generally on the stronger side - and, for a support act, they managed to conjure up quite a bit of energy. There were even a handful of guitar solos thrown in, a rarity in nu-metal, which also helped me to enjoy what they were doing. I could have done without the slightly leaden version of Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight, and I have generally never seen the mass appeal of that song in any case, but otherwise Nonpoint did their job and warmed the crowd up nicely for what was to come. Perhaps Nonpoint being on the bill in the first place is telling as to where Lacuna Coil see themselves in the metal scene - and they have probably always felt more at home with nu-metal bands than with acts like Nightwish or Epica.

It was around 30 minutes after Nonpoint's set that Lacuna Coil took to the stage. During the changeover I tried to find somewhere a bit better to stand - and ended up near the entrance doors much closer to the stage, which ended up being a good vantage point. When the lights went down and Lacuna Coil took to the stage, the next 90 minutes was filled with a 19-song set that was largely packed with newer anthems, including eight songs from the new album, alongside a handful of older songs. Sound-wise, the night was pretty good. The vocals and overall melodies were clear throughout, which was good, but the riffing was a little muddy. It was one of those mixes where the guitars and bass seemed to fill the same frequency range - so there was less definition than would be ideal. The driving drums, synth melodies, and vocal hooks were well-defined, though, and the crowd were onside from the off - ensuring that the show was blessed with a strong atmosphere. Despite songs from Sleepless Empire dominating the set, it was actually two songs from the band's previous album which kicked everything off - with Layers of Time and Reckless acting as a powerful one-two punch to get everything underway. Perhaps strangely, most of the new songs were held back to towards the end of the set. Hosting the Shadow was deployed early on, but otherwise it was older tunes which dominated here. Scabbia has always been known as a great singer, but I was really impressed throughout by Ferro. He was become a very powerful harsh vocalist in recent years, which Hosting the Shadow showcased, but even his older crooning in approach during Kill the Light sounded more powerful than it used to. The vocal balance between the two singers felt more finely struck, then, although some of the older tracks like the hooky Spellbound saw Scabbia dominate. Much of the set was riffy and full of grooves, as seems to be the band's current focus, but there were some more atmospheric songs, too. One of the overall highlights was Downfall, which allowed some some cleaner guitar melodies, atmospheric synths, and some of Scabbia's most emotive vocals. Lacuna Coil have never really been a guitar solo band, either, but Downfall was one of the songs in the set which allowed newish guitarist Daniele Salomone a chance to add some soaring melodic soloing. Much of the set felt heavy, though, with even some of the older tracks brought up to speed with the band's current sound. Heaven's a Lie was slower and heavier than it used to be - with Ferro adding some harsh vocals and the song turning into something a bit doomier overall. It allowed the gothic rock of the older tune to fit in nicely alongside new cuts like the slightly symphonic In Nomine Patris and a more rip-roaring Gravity. The main set then came to a close with the anthemic Nothing Stands in Our Way - during which Scabbia whipped up a bit of a sing-a-long. The whole crowd was singing along with the band - and it brought the main set to a powerful close. A four-song encore followed, and three of the songs included came from the new album. The heavier The Siege kicked the encore off, but it was perhaps the hooky, poppy I Wish You Were Dead which had everyone singing along. The song is likely to be a live favourite going forward, and for good reason, whilst Swamped was a rare older cut during the set's closing moments. Another new cut in Never Dawn brought the night to a close - and the good atmosphere soon spilled out onto the Cardiff streets as the crowd dispersed. The setlist was:

Layers of Time

Reckless

Hosting the Shadow

Kill the Light

Die & Rise

Spellbound

In the Mean Time

Intoxicated 

Downfall

Heaven's a Lie

In Nomine Patris

Blood, Tears, Dust

Gravity

Oxygen

Nothing Stands in Our Way

-

The Siege

I Wish You Were Dead

Swamped

Never Dawn

Given that Lacuna Coil are not a band that I have seen live too often, it felt like a treat to catch the Italians live on Friday for the first time in six years. The band were on-point vocally and the large crowd managed to keep the early energy carrying on throughout the whole show. Despite not being a huge band, Lacuna Coil maintain an important place in the metal scene - and they showcased all of their power this past weekend.