May 11

May 11 Show Review, Photos: Lacuna Coil Captivates Audience in Sacramento

Lacuna Coil
w/ The Birthday Massacre, Blind Channel, Edge of Paradise
Ace of Spades
Sacramento, CA
May 9th, 2023

Review and Photos by Jared Stossel

For the better part of almost three decades, Lacuna Coil has been bringing forth their unique brand of gothic metal. As they continue to refine their sound and keep things fresh, the band brought their most recent tour to Sacramento’s Ace of Spades on Tuesday night, unleashing a number of heavy-hitting tracks upon the audience from Comalies XX, a revamped version of their 2002 album Comalies.

The show was kicked off by Edge of Paradise, a five-piece heavy metal act from Los Angeles. Drenched in darkness and accentuated by ultraviolet light, the band warmed up the audience with their style of heavy and symphonic metal. Their set was followed by a highly energetic set from Finnish act Blind Channel. Treading the line between nu metal and post-hardcore, the 2021 Eurovision contestants produced what I would describe as the craziest set of the night as they weaved through their setlist. Despite just being an opener, Blind Channel left quite an impression on me, and they clearly know how to make an entrance and command a room.

One of my favorite performances of the evening came from the main support, Ontario’s The Birthday Massacre. The band has been steadily putting out material since the early aughts, and their set was one of the night’s very best. They play with what I can only describe as a relaxed confidence, seamlessly moving between songs with their unique style of dark rock. In contrast to their electronic-tinged dark rock sound, the band were all smiles and looked like they were having an absolute blast on stage.

Lacuna Coil closed out the night with an impressive seventeen-track set, with a majority of material coming from both the Comalies XX reissue and their 2019 Black Anima album. They’re a sight to behold in concert, and it’s fun watching co-vocalists Andrea Ferro and Cristina Scabbia play off one another. Ferro delivers excellent screaming vocals while Scabbia provides each song with near-operatic clean vocals; the contrast works incredibly well. Whether they’re performing new or old material, Lacuna Coil sounded excellent.

The evening concluded with a four-song encore comprised of Comalies XX numbers, followed by a powerful performance of the anthemic “Nothing Stands In Our Way” to officially bring the evening to a close. After an hour and a half, the Italian gothic-rock act bid the audience farewell. I’m expecting the next Lacuna Coil album to be comprised of entirely new material, but if they happened to take a shot at another “remix” album, I’d look forward to it all the same. I like what the band has done with the new arrangements, and I find that it doesn’t take anything away from the original recordings. It’s a contemporary reimagining, brought to life after twenty years of refining their craft.

Lacuna Coil continues their tour tonight at The Majestic Ventura Theater in Ventura, CA, before performing this weekend in Las Vegas at the highly anticipated Sick New World festival. Click here for more information.

Lacuna Coil Set List
Blood, Tears, Dust
Reckless
Trip The Darkness
Apocalypse
Layers of Time
Heaven’s a Lie XX
Sword of Anger
Entwined XX
Our Truth
Now or Never
My Demons
Daylight Dancer XX
Veneficium

Encore:
Aeon XX
Tight Rope XX
Swamped XX
Nothing Stands In Our Way