Comalies XX

“*Comalies* is obviously a very important record in our career,” Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia tells Apple Music about their third LP. Two decades after its release, the Italian gothic metal band have reimagined their most acclaimed album, rereleasing it as *Comalies XX*. “It’s the record that made us take the next step because, more internationally, we grew in popularity,” says the singer, who shares vocal duties with Andrea Ferro; it’s their vocal light-and-dark interplay that’s remained a beloved touchstone of the band’s sound and growth throughout their career. “So, we wanted to celebrate it in a different way. We didn’t want to just say, ‘Oh, happy birthday, new repackaging, hello.’ But it was a pain in the ass because it’s hard to touch holy ground for fans. The band was like, ‘Oh, my god. How are they going to react to this?’ Everybody’s so attached. It’s like remaking a cult movie.” The opportunity to reimagine an entire album allowed the band space to think about what had aged well, and what hadn’t, and which sections could be revisited, made heavier, darker, shorter, more intense—and, in one instance, less “happy.” Still, the essence of *Comalies* remains unchanged. “We did change different things, but not our musical core,” Scabbia says. “We protect our past, but we don’t live for it. It’s our purpose to always evolve and progress. That’s how life is.” Below, Scabbia talks through the reimagined songs that make up *Comalies XX*. **“Swamped XX”** “We wanted a faster version. We wanted Andrea to growl in the melodic parts. We definitely wanted to have a darker vibe all over the record because that’s what we really like. Now, when we listen to an older song, there are parts that somehow sound too repetitive or too long. Let’s say we left out all the parts that, in our opinion, were not necessary. We made it more brutal, especially the vocal line. The vibe is really almost like the soundtrack to an action movie. It reminds me of *The Dark Knight* or *Mission: Impossible*.” **“Heaven’s a Lie XX”** “We had no idea the original would become a lead single. It had strong language that created some trouble 20 years ago. A lot of people misunderstood this song. It was talking about freedom of ideas, but some fans would say, ‘I love your music, but I can’t buy a record with a song that says Heaven’s a lie.’ We wanted to include all the influences that we love, like Type O Negative. We wanted the new version to fit the new mood with a very dramatic chorus that explodes even more at the end. It’s like, ‘Hi, Dad. Hi, Ma. This is my new person. I’ve been together 20 years with this other person, but this one is really, really cool too.’” **“Daylight Dancer XX”** “The original was definitely more melodic. Now, it’s very, very, ‘Good *morning* to you!’ There are still some keyboards underneath that always remind me of Tim Burton movies. It’s very horror-ish. At the same time, Andrea’s vocals were very melodic, and now they’ve turned out as a punch in your face right away. My chorus changed completely. The structure of the chorus changed, too, but we obviously kept the same lyrics because it was very important for us to retain those.” **“Humane XX”** “It’s very choral. I played with a lot of voices combined together in one of the last choruses. In probably the first one just before the end, a lot of my vocals are going up into the sky. I sing a lot of very high vocals, but we often keep them in the back, just to enliven the song’s central feelings.” **“Self Deception XX”** “We took out some parts that were way too long, especially in my vocals. There were too many repetitions of the chorus. We said, ‘OK, in 2022, it’s probably too much. Let’s bring it down a notch. Let’s make Andrea more brutal, let’s change the structure a little bit. Let’s make it a little less dancey.’ I liked that song, but I always found that it was a bit *too* happy when we were playing it onstage. It was fun, but it was missing a darkness. We added that in.” **“Aeon XX”** “This is the only song where we actually transformed the lyrics. I wanted something that could totally remind you of something very cinematic, very pagan, very Viking, very choral. Very dark. I imagined something intimate, almost meditative, like a mantra that you can use to relax yourself and think. And we also wanted this version to become the intro to ‘Tight Rope’…” **“Tight Rope XX”** “...Which is something that should’ve happened when we did the original *Comalies*. We thought that they were sounding good, but we never thought about them as one joint song. This time, we said, ‘Why don’t we keep them together with the same vibe?’ We wanted the song to be a little bit faster and somehow brighter, but with a very dramatic and heavy chorus. I remember telling Marco \[Coti Zelati, guitarist\] that I had an idea for the chorus. He was like, ‘OK. That’s it. All right.’ Sometimes it happens!” **“The Ghost Woman and the Hunter XX”** “We had some troubles recording some parts where I have to sing really low or for a long time. I did it many times because I was never 100 percent satisfied. I don’t even remember why we called this ‘The Ghost Woman and the Hunter’ originally. I think it was because of a noise coming from another room in the studio that sounded like a ghost. This is a more tortured version. We like songs that make you cry and just go, ‘Oh, my god. I feel so bad that I feel good.’ Maybe we’re all a bit emo inside, and we don’t want to admit it.” **“Unspoken XX”** “We switched gears here. It’s not dreamlike at all anymore. It’s more like, ‘OK, let’s face a hard truth. Let’s face what it is.’ Now this song is more of an accusation. The way that I was singing it, it was more reflective. It was more about a woman *thinking* about something. Now it’s like it doesn’t matter what she thinks anymore. It’s more straight to the point, and we like it a lot: Just face it. Don’t run away from it.” **“Entwined XX”** “I was very worried about this one and ‘Comalies’ because I really, really care about those songs. They’re a punch in my stomach that I like very much. At first, it was hard for me to let the old version go, but the more I listen to it, it was like, ‘We got it.’ I don’t know how, but we got the perfect vibe that I was searching for. Every time we play this, there’s always someone who cries in the crowd. I feel so proud whenever people start crying!” **“The Prophet Said XX”** “The original was a mix of many ideas that we put together. It wasn’t a real song. It was like, the second part came in all of a sudden, and then it was like, ‘OK, what is this? Why’s it changing so fast?’ We didn’t really know what to do with it. It’s very strange. This time, we made it more of a song with a sense of itself. It was one of my least favorites on the original album, but now it’s one of my favorites. We concentrated more on the chant, making it the focal point, which we hadn’t in the original. It’s very atypical. Even the guitar parts are unusual for Lacuna Coil.” **“Angel’s Punishment XX”** “The intro is all news reports. They’re Spanish, Italian, Russian, all different languages. When the original song was written, all the news was about the Twin Towers. This time, it was all about COVID because we obviously all suffered through those years of being stuck at home with no purpose, without knowing what could happen. It was our way to reference something from the period, our way of marking the time of the record. Obviously, we wrote a lot of songs during COVID, but we didn’t want to put out an album *about* COVID.” **“Comalies XX”** “This is the perfect closure of the trip you take with *Comalies XX*. It’s a song that I really, really like. I remember when we wrote it—it came out absolutely spontaneously. The lyrics didn’t even take five minutes, and some parts are really strange. Sometimes I look back on them and it’s like, ‘How did these come out of me?’ I’m so used to writing lyrics in English now, but it’s not my mother tongue, and 20 years ago I was really, really new to English. Maybe we should’ve put a translation in this time.”

The first thing to notice about "Comalies XX" is that it seems to imply, quite heavily, that 2002 was 20 years ago. Ridiculous, I know. Nonetheless, all that time seems to have passed and LACUNA COIL's most beloved record is as ripe for reassessment and, as is the case here, reconstruction as any fr...

Graham Ray reviews the new remix album from gothic metal legends Lacuna Coil! Read the review of 'Comalies XX' here on Distorted Sound!

Lacuna Coil - Comalies XX review: Comalies XX brings the original album into the modern era with mixed results.