On what happens to be one of the coldest nights of the year so far we headed down to The Marble Factory in Bristol, a venue which is located near Bristol Temple Meads railway station but pretty much situated in the middle of nowhere with only factory’s surrounding the venue, and we waited outside the venue in the cold patiently for the doors to open and it was worth it as Lacuna Coil were back in Bristol tonight to headline the venue and it comes pretty much two years on from when the band last played Bristol, which happened to be in the Anson Rooms for a special co-headline Halloween show with Motionless In White and since seeing Lacuna Coil then a lot has happened within the band from major line-up changes to the release of their latest album ‘Delirium’ which also saw the band the band sound bigger, louder, angrier and stronger than ever.
First band on tonight were fellow Italian rockers Genus Ordinis Dei, an theatrical metal band who formed back in 2011 and they took to the stage in a great way like a cult with their hoods up and slowly pulled down there hoods before blasting straight into their tight sounding energetic set where each band member gave it their all and it certainly pulled off for the band as they started playing to a handful of people and by the time their 30minute set came to an end the venue was packed to the rafters and the band were getting a lot of claps and cheers from the eager crowd.
The set that G.O.D played consisted of ‘You Die’, ‘Embracing The Earth’, ‘Flemish’, ‘Red Snake’, ‘Halls Of Human Delights’ and set closer ‘Roots And Idols Of Cement’ and by the end of the set the gained a fan in myself and I will sure to be checking out the bands back catalogue after tonight’s impressive set and I am sure many others in attendance will as well.
The main support band tonight were the four piece female fronted Forever Still who hail from Copenhagen, Denmark and the band released their debut album ‘Tied Down’ back in January and have been busy touring it ever since and were a perfect band to be supporting Lacuna Coil and judging by the crowd’s reaction throughout the set they agreed as well.
Early into their set Forever Still encountered some technical difficulties and had to ask for microphones to be turned up and other sound related issues to be rectified and it was within an instant as the band spent the next 30minutes warming the crowd up for Lacuna Coil.
Throughout their set Forever still unleashed some extreme energy with the whole band standing out in their own little way with Maja Partsch playing some thick guitar riffs, Mikkel Haastrup laying down some groovy basslines and Maja Shining unleashing her pitch perfect vocals which were extremely infectious in places.
Forever still managed to play 8 songs within their set and it was a good mix of songs from their debut album ‘Tied Down’ and their past EP’s and the likes of ‘The Last Day’, ‘Awake The Fire’, ‘Miss Madness’, ‘Once Upon A Nightmare’, ‘Save Me’ and set closer ‘Scars’ sounded amazing on the live circuit.
After a short change around Lacuna Coil took to the stage dressed in white straight jackets keeping in theme of their latest album ‘Delirium’ and each band member had their own make up and war paint on with Marco Coti Zelati and Diego Cavallotti standing out the most looking like Jesus and Captain Spoulding.
Lacuna Coil wasted no time and blasted straight into new track ‘Ultima Ratio’ and within seconds the dual vocals from Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro were unleashed and sounding as perfect as ever as let’s face it the duo are a powerhouse when it comes to vocals with their vocals complimenting and bouncing of each other to perfection.
The set that Lacuna Coil played was very ‘Delirium’ driven with the likes of ‘Blood, Tears, Dust’, ‘Ghost In The Mist’, ‘Downfall’ and ‘You Love Me Cause I Hate You’ being played throughout the set but that’s not to say that Lacuna Coil cut the old skool classics from the set as older tracks such as ‘Spellbound’, ‘The Ghost Woman And The Hunter’, ‘Our Truth’ and ‘Dark Adrenaline’ classics ‘Trip The Darkness’ and ‘Nothing Stands In Our Way’ being played with the later song gaining a massive chant of “We fear nothing” before being played.
The encore that Lacuna Coil played was one of the bets encores I have witnessed in a long time with the band finishing the night with a massive triple whammy of ‘Delirium’, ‘Zombies’ and The House Of Shame’ three songs that are so different from each other yet equally as epic with ‘Delirium’ getting the crowd melodically singing-a-long, ‘Zombies’ seeing the band go down the pop-rock route and ‘House Of Shame’ seeing the pit explode for the final time as Lacuna Coil played out one of the heaviest songs they have ever created to the pure enjoyment of the sold out venue.
Overall tonight was a great value for money tour with three solid bands, Genus Ordinis Dei were the perfect opener, Forever Still are a band who we are going to be hearing a lot more of in the near future and Lacuna Coil proved that despite some line-up changes they still have it and I am sure everyone in attendance tonight would repeat the gig in a flash.
Genus Ordinis Dei 4/5
Forever Still 4.5/5
Lacuna Coil 5/5
Review By Trigger |
