LACUNA COIL's CRISTINA SCABBIA Says New 'Black Anima' Album Is 'Deep, Intense And Melancholic'

Vocalist Cristina Scabbia of Italian heavy rockers LACUNA COIL recently spoke with "The Metal Teddy Bear Experience", a program on Montclair State University's student radio station WMSC 90.3. You can listen to the entire chat via the SoundCloud widget below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the writing process for the band's forthcoming "Black Anima" studio album:

Cristina: "We realized that we wanted to go in a heavier direction, but you never know how your songs are going to be until you literally enter the studio. You can change things a thousand times, then you have the final master in your hands and you realize that you went through a long journey and you made so many changes throughout the songwriting. It's hard to explain how it came out. When you're writing music, it's basically putting yourself in your art. So your experiences, your feelings, and music is something you can't touch but it makes you emotional in a certain way or it doesn't at all. So we wanted to put out a record that could incorporate our personal experiences into the lyrics because we always like to talk about real things; we don't like to create stories. We like to talk about real stuff because, for us, it's the best way for us to give ourselves one hundred percent and it's easier for us to perform and sing our parts because we live them. We took a heavier direction and maybe a weirder direction because some of the songs are more mellow. They're still weird. I would say that sometimes, but I don't say it in a negative way, but they almost put you in an uncomfortable mood in the way that makes you think. They make you sit and they make you think. They don't get in one ear and get out from the other ear. They're, like, 'Wait a minute, there's something strange here. I don't understand what it is.' I like this feeling coming out from 'Black Anima'."

On whether "Black Anima" is a "darker" LACUNA COIL album than its predecessors:

Cristina: "I think it was a mix of things. It was a mix of personal experiences. Now that we've gotten a little older, we experienced a lot of sad things — the passing of dear people. Even during the recording, we lost some friends to bad accidents, very young people. All those things are subconsciously influencing your songwriting. Sometimes you feel more creative when you're feeling sad. That's where you take the time and think about who you are, where you're at, why you're living, what for, what's the meaning of life? When you're super-young, you don't think about this. You only think about going out and having a good time, but when you've been living for a few years, everything gets more intense; priorities are completely different. And you give more importance to every single day. I think this record, in a way, is very deep and intense and melancholic, but on the other side, there is huge positivity coming out. We also want to send a message that there's always a way out. You can be touching the bottom, you can be in a very deep depression, but there's always a way to get out of it."

"Black Anima" will be released on October 11 through Century Media Records.

LACUNA COIL is currently on the road in North America with ALL THAT REMAINS on the "Disease Of The Anima" co-headlining tour.