LACUNA COIL's ANDREA FERRO Says Deconstructing 'Comalies' Album For 20th Anniversary Was 'An Experiment'

"Comalies XX", a "deconstructed" and "transported" version of LACUNA COIL's third album, "Comalies", will be made available on October 14 via Century Media Records.

Back in 2002, LACUNA COIL released an album which is now undeniably an anthem-laden millennial classic that established them as a band with the stamina to go the distance. Now, 20 years later, the current lineup of LACUNA COIL decided to revisit the songs, but not to just re-record them as they were but deconstruct and transport them into 2022.

When asked in a new interview with Metal Storm what inspired the decision to rework "Comalies" for the LP's 20th anniversary, vocalist Andrea Ferro said (as transcribed by BLABBERMMOUTH.NET): "Basically, when we knew that the year was coming of the 20th anniversary, we could have done just a remaster of the record. When you do a remaster, what happens is that you basically compress the files and make it sound louder; that's all that happens. Or maybe you repackage the album with a slightly different design. But that's what happens. So for such a special record as 'Comalies', [which] has been our breakthrough record, the record that was the most important record back in the first part of our career, for sure, we decided to do something a little bigger for a celebration. And so we decided instead of just remastering, go back and rework the songs, rearrange them, re-record them and sort of bring the sound of 'Comalies' and the essence of 'Comalies' into the sound of the band in 2022, like in the last couple of records, like 'Delirium' and 'Black Anima', and try to use the same lineup, the same kind of approach we have now to the old songs and see what was the result. It was a bit of a challenge for us and also for our fans as well, because when you go back and touch something so important, it's always risky because people might hate it, just the idea. But since we've always been a band that kind of looked forward to the next thing we do — we don't look back so much — so we decided to do it anyway and try to see what we could come out with this, what kind of record could come out. And actually, we are pretty pleased with the result. Obviously, it's a different era now. 'Comalies' back in 2002 was a completely different kind of record — innovative and different and new for many people — while nowadays it's more, as I say, of an experiment we've done. Obviously it can't have the same role as a record."

As previously reported, LACUNA COIL will celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Comalies", by performing it in its entirety at a one-night-only concert on Saturday, October 15 at Fabrique in Milano.

"Comalies" was originally released on October 29, 2002 through Century Media Records. The LP, which featured the band's breakthrough single "Heaven's A Lie", has reportedly gone on to sell over 300,000 copies in the United States alone.

Regarding the "Comalies" title, co-vocalist Cristina Scabbia said: "[During the album's recording], we had a sort of creative explosion. We were working in a coma, sort of like in a different dimension. First of all we just wanted to use the word 'coma' but there was something missing so we played with the two words coma and lies."

The "Comalies" song "Swamped" is available as a downloadable track for the music video game series "Rock Band" and also appeared in the 2004 video game "Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines".

LACUNA COIL played its first show in front of an audience in more than two years in April as the support act for APOCALYPTICA at the Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia.

Prior to the Atlanta concert, the last time LACUNA COIL played together was at the group's special September 2020 livestream event where the bandmembers performed their latest album, "Black Anima", in its entirety with no audience in attendance at the Alcatraz Club in Milan, Italy. That show was released as a live album, "Live From The Apocalypse", via Century Media.

LACUNA COIL hadn't played in front of a crowd since the completion of the band's South American tour in February 2020.