Lacuna Coil, Motionless in White and Devilment

The Forum London

1st November 2014

Review by Victoria Fenbane

Photography By Mootograpy

Lacuna Coil played The Forum in London as part of the UK leg of their Broken Crown Halo co-headline tour with Motionless in White.  Support came from Devilment.

Devilment have been around since 2011 but have only just released their debut album ‘The Great And Secret Show’.

They have taken their time to build up the hype that would naturally surround a band which is fronted by Dani Filth by releasing demos.

Their sound is a mishmash of styles but towards the end of their set I settle on gothic metal as the most accurate description of their sound.

They have a more mature sound and style than Cradle of Filth, while Dani’s trademark high-pitched black metal screams connects their sound to his main project. Dani is balanced out by the penetrating vocals of keyboardist Lauren Francis .

For such a high profile opening in a near full venue Devilment failed to make much of an impact on the crowd. Probably too heavy for a room full of Lacuna Coil fans and personally I found them samey and was glad they were the opener and not main support. Good quality stuff but not the right crowd.

Pennsylvanian metalcore boys Motionless in White are not an act usually expected to be featured on the pages of Metal Rules, however as they were the co-headliner they have managed to sneak themselves in here.

I have a soft spot for ‘teenage girl metal’ like Deathstars and Lord of the Lost and was therefore looking forward to seeing Motionless in White but I went off them almost immediately when their most enthusiastic fans made me feel ancient and possibly a bit silly for liking them.

As their set started, an ear piercing scream arose from the front 15 rows, revealing that it was filled with girls well within school age. Adult women are incapable of making such a sound and it hurt the ears!

After the young fans initially turned me off them, I was also disappointed by the sound, which distracted from a very slick performance.

MiW had been mixed heavier than they should sound, with the guitars drowning out the drums in many places. This turned down the industrial element of their music that I enjoy the most.

With anthemic tunes filled with breakdowns, such as ‘Unstoppable’ and a skinny silly fringed goth boi image, it’s no surprise that they have a gaggle of young fans (think industrial nu metal with a large dose of emo). Despite this you get the impression that they want to be taken a bit more seriously. They do have tunes worthy of attention.

Being a co-headliner they played a lengthy set and which felt a little repetitive, however by the time they got to ‘Dark Passenger’ and ‘Devils Night’ the had won over the crowd enough to get applause from the rest of the venue (or was that the beer kicking in?).

There was a long wait until Lacuna Coil to take the stage, during which the venue did not appear to get any busier. This was down to a combination of the MiW fans vacating the front and The Forum’s great layout. Being an old theatre, the venue is on many levels but unusually the stalls are quite small with two more levels behind in the standing area. This makes it easy to find a clear vantage point and prevent everybody being squashed towards the stage.

Lacuna Coil finally took the stage clad in what looked like Halloween outfits but Christina’s blood-spattered dress has been seen elsewhere on this tour. As they launched into ‘Trip the Darkness’, it was clear the crowd was here to see them solely. I previous saw Lacuna Coil in 2006, at the now much missed Astoria, on their Karmacode tour and was left disappointed. This time I was instantly impressed. They have doubled the amount of material and have so much good material to pick from now. The show benefitted from perfect sound which was not too loud. The venue’s acoustics suited Lacuna Coil and any louder would have distorted the sound (we may have been deafened from MiW at this point).

Bass player Marco was not playing with them due to illness and Andrea’s microphone stopped working at the start of Die and Rise but this was quickly resolved and therefore was instrumental in part. As the band said, the show must go on and these disruptions were barely noticeable.  The set leaned towards songs from new album ‘Broken Crown Halo’ and proceeding album ‘Dark Adrenaline’. The best of the earlier albums are also featured in a perfectly balanced setlist which were ‘Spellbound’, ‘Heaven’s a Lie’ and ‘Our Truth’.

‘Heaven’s a Lie’ is still a favourite with the crowd, belting out the emotive lyrics across the venue. Christina couldn’t have been more perceptive when she said they were sucking up the crowd’s energy and giving it back. The gig did feel like being a part of the Lacuna Coil family

‘Zombie’ from Broken Crown Halo was well received as were all material from latest album ‘Broken Crown Halo’. These are fans that do their homework. Compared to be previous experience of Lacuna Coil they appeared to me more like a band, with Andrea with more prominent and an equal to Christina. This could be down to the structure of later material.

I was disappointed that Depeche Mode cover ‘Enjoy the Silence’ was the closing song before the encore. With this not much has changed, when I saw then before it was in the encore and a very new addition to the set. I feel it unnecessary for a band like Lacuna Coil to include this song in their set list or to even have covered it, put it on an album and play it all the time since then. I love the original song and would rather see Lacuna Coil play their own material only. Despite this the band gave a near apology for playing it, by providing a big build up to its introduction. I used this opportunity to powder my nose and get away from hearing it.

There was not much ceremony around the encore. Curfew time was fast approaching and the band only nipped off stage to freshen up. After ‘Nothing Stands in Our Way’ the night closed with ‘My Truth’, during which black and red balloons were released from the ceiling.

I’m really glad I made the effort to see Lacuna Coil again and I will do so the next time our paths cross.

Setlist:
Trip the Darkness
Spellbound
Intoxicated
Die & Rise
Heaven’s a Lie
Fire
Victims
Zombies
Upsidedown
Enjoy the Silence

Encore:
Nothing Stands in Our Way
Our Truth