LACUNA COIL's CRISTINA SCABBIA Says 'Nothing Stands In Our Way' Book Will Be 'Visually Stunning'

LACUNA COIL vocalist Cristina Scabbia was interviewed by Underground's Voice prior to the group's December 2 performance in Oporto, Portugal. The complete chat can be seen below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):

On the group's forthcoming book, "Nothing Stands In Our Way", which commemorates their 20th anniversary:

Cristina: "It will be the story of the band with a lot of pictures that we never published — pictures from backstage, the things that usually people don't get to see. It was not an easy task, because we have so many pictures. We had something like 100 gigabytes of pictures, but some of them were so old, so they weren't good quality at all. Back then, there was not the same technology that we have nowadays, so some of the pictures were not usable because of the quality. Some of them were not usable for other reasons [laughs], because it's better to keep them behind doors. Twenty years, it's a long time. Sometimes it's hard to remember everything you did, but I think it's going to be a great book — visually stunning, and I can't wait to have it in my hands. It's going to be a great collector item."

On what she would pinpoint as the best and worst moments of the group's career:

Cristina: "It's hard to say. There are actually more good moments than bad moments, so this is great. Simply the fact that we're still here with the same passion, with the same love for our job, which is still a hobby in our minds because we love it. We have a huge passion for music, for songwriting, and we're so lucky to do this as a daily job. There are a lot of great moments — festivals we played from Ozzfest to tours with TYPE O NEGATIVE or Rob Zombie, so many bands that we love. It's hard to name every great experience in a few minutes. In terms of worst experience, I can't really think about something that negative that was like, 'Oh my God.' I can think of something negative when I think about the death of people that I really loved — I'm talking about people in music in this case, of course, starting from our ex-guitar player Claudio [Leo], but also to people that we felt really close to, like Peter Steele or Dimebag years and years ago up until the recent loss that we got from Chris Cornell. So many people that we have lost, so when I think about something negative, I mainly think about this. I don't see anything else as a negative experience, because even experiences that are not exactly pleasant can still be lessons in life, can still teach you something."

On whether the group's latest album, "Delirium", represented a new beginning for the band:

Cristina: "We actually said that it's not a new chapter — it's a new book. Basically, the writers are still the same, because the songwriters are still in the band — Marco [Coti Zelati], our bass player, who is always responsible for the music, and Andrea [Ferro] and I are responsible for vocal lines and lyrics. We also think that LACUNA COIL, it's almost an entity per se. There are members that come and go, but the style, the music, it's something that's even out of our [control]. So in a way, it's a new beginning because now we have new members in the band, so we feel like we are a new band. We feel the freshness; we feel very excited and passionate about our music, so in this way, it feels that we're a new band, because it doesn't feel that we've been around for 20 years. It still keeps the fire inside, which I think it's something rare after so many years."

LACUNA COIL will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its debut by playing a very special show, dubbed "Nothing Stands In Our Way", on January 19, 2018 at London, England's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire. The concert will be filmed and recorded for a release later in 2018.

The "Nothing Stands In Our Way" book is scheduled to be published around the world in early 2018. The book is described in a press release as "the full 20-year story of the Italian gothfathers as told by the band in their own words." Illustrated throughout with rare and candid photographs, memorabilia and personal artefacts, it will see founding members Andrea Ferro, Cristina Scabbia and Marco Coti Zelati sifting through the birth, growth and full flowering of the band to tell twenty years of LACUNA COIL.

"Nothing Stands In Our Way" will be available around the world in two editions, the Classic and the limited-run Signature set.

Register your interest now to be sure of getting a copy, and for the chance to have your name printed in the book.