Marco Coti Zelati

Lacuna Coil is an Italian gothic metal band from Milan.

Since their formation in 1994, the group has had two name changes, being previously known as Sleep of Right and Ethereal, and they have recorded nine studio albums, two extended plays, two live albums, two compilation albums, one video album, and sixteen singles and music videos.

Vocalist Andrea Ferro and bassist/composer Marco Coti Zelati formed Sleep of Right in Milan, Italy, 1994, and recruited Raffaele Zagaria on guitars, and Michaelangelo Algardi on the drums.

After recording a song titled "Bleeding Souls" for the Noise of Bolgia compilation in 1995, Claudio Leo became the band's second guitarist, and Leonardo Forti replaced Michaelangelo on the drums after his departure.

The band asked Cristina Scabbia, a friend and girlfriend of Marco at the time, to sing background vocals briefly, which led to her officially joining the band.

Soon after, the band changed their name to Ethereal, and signed to Century Media at the end of 1997.

Finding that the name Ethereal was already taken by a Greek band, they changed their name to Lacuna Coil.

Lacuna Coil released a self-titled EP through Century Media in 1998, shortly after Raffael Zagaria, Claudio Leo, and Leonardo Forti departed.

As a result, guitarist Cristiano Migliore and drummer Cristiano Mozzati were recruited officially.

At this point, the band was touring with Moonspell after the release of the Lacuna Coil EP.

Following a second European tour, the band recorded their debut full-length album In a Reverie and added second guitarist Marco Biazzi.

The band supported the album with another European tour, co-headlining with Skyclad.

Allmusic rated the album 4 stars, saying it was "a fine debut by a band that bears watching."

The band toured mostly around Europe, generally as a support act.

Following their debut, In a Reverie, the EP Half-Life was released in 2000 with five songs: "Half Life", "Hyperfast", "Stars" (a cover of a Dubstar single), "Trance Awake" and a demo version of "Senzafine".

The final version of the latter was included in the 2001 album Unleashed Memories.

While the studio album contained 10 songs, later re-releases included the Halflife EP.

That same year, the band toured the United States for the first time, supporting Moonspell.

The band's breakthrough album Comalies was released in 2002.

A significant player on Europe's metal scene for nearly a decade at this point, the band was virtually unknown in the United States.

The TV series Uranium gave the band some of its earliest US exposure; over a year later, the first single from Comalies, "Heaven's a Lie", began to receive radio and media attention, pulling the band into North America's musical mainstream.

They kicked off their first headlining U.S. tour in 2003, supported by Dog Fashion Disco.

Networks such as Fuse played the song's video, for example.

By 2004, Comalies had become the best-selling CD in Century Media's history.

The band appeared at Ozzfest in between headlining club tours in the United States and Europe.

A bonus, extended version of Comalies was released both in stores and on iTunes.

This version consisted of both live and acoustic versions of the songs "Heaven's A Lie", "Swamped", "Unspoken", "Aeon" and "Senzafine" from Unleashed Memories.

In early 2005, "Heaven's a Lie" won in The 4th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Hard Rock/Metal Song.

The beginning of this song was also used as the introduction music for the audio podcast novel The Rookie by Scott Sigler.

The second single, "Swamped", was played in heavy rotation and used in the video game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

It also appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Videos were filmed for both songs and broadcast on MTV2's Headbangers Ball, which also saw the band perform an acoustic rendition of "Heaven's a Lie" live.

According to the band's website, this made it possible for more time to be spent on production and to avoid the crowded summer 2005 release schedule for metal albums.

On 23 December 2005 the band announced on their web site that all recording, mixing, and mastering on Karmacode had been completed.

They have toured internationally and were nominated in 2006 for a MTV Europe Music Award.

The band and label postponed the release of their follow-up to Comalies, Karmacode, to early 2006.

It was then announced that Karmacode would be released in the United States on 4 April 2006.

They won the 2012 Metal Female Voices Fest Award for the Best Album, the 2016 Metal Hammer Award for the Best International Band, and the 2018 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Award for Best Live Act.

The band's 2012 release, Dark Adrenaline, peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200.

As of March 2012, Lacuna Coil have sold over two million albums worldwide.