We’re back! January 24th marked the first big release date of 2012, and now the numbers are in for the final first-week tallies. As expected, Lamb of God took the top spot in the Current Hard Music Chart (and #3 overall behind Adele [115,972] and Tim McGraw [67,530]), while Lacuna Coil landed at #2. New records by Blessed by a Broken Heart, Aborted, Primal Fear and Abigail Williams also ended up in the Top 100. Check out the numbers after the break.

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Just because this week isn’t as awesome as last week doesn’t mean we don’t have some cool new shit coming out. New releases from Lamb Of God, Lacuna Coil, Dodecahedron, Aborted, Primal Fear and more in this week’s wrap-up after the jump.

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Here’s a totally accurate chronology of my Lacuna Coil fandom: I heard a killer LC jam on the radio and was awed by singer Cristina Scabbia. Then I saw a band photo and got awestruck this time by Scabbia the woman. Then once fourth album Karmacode came out in 2007, my awe umbrella’ed out to include the songwriters of Lacuna Coil and, upon 2009’s Shallow Life, also their producer Don Gilmore.

But here’s where I’ll get all Oprah: Though a huge fan of Scabbia’s voice and a forged-by-nature respondent to her wealth of physical charms, I find the most awesome Scabbia is not the singer or the super-fox; she’s most awesome at being a bud, an honest dude, and a great chat. When we connected last week to talk about Dark Adrenaline, the once-delayed sixth Lacuna Coil album (out tomorrow), she effortlessly plowed through abstract questions and hasty analogies, and totally got the vibe of my persistent nagging about sales, producers, and artistic integrity. It was awesome!

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I guess Lacuna Coil really are a big deal mainstream band now, ’cause frickin’ Spin, of all outlets, is streaming the band’s new album, Dark Adrenaline (see cover art, above, for illustrated depiction of dark adrenaline). You can rock out Italian style here.

It’s a Lacuna Coil album, which means it’s really, really, REALLY catchy. Personally, I’ve been enjoying “I Don’t Believe in Tomorrow,” and — get ready — I have done a complete one-eighty on the song “Kill the Light,” and now think it’s the best tune on the album. For serious, no jokesies. It might be the first pop metal song in history that actually benefitted from repeat listens.

Plus, there’s a really weird but pretty interesting cover of REM’s “Losing My Religion” on the record. Just pointing that out.

Eat your salad after your main course but before your dessert here, then call me a wuss for caring about this band in the comments section below. Dark Adrenaline comes out January 24 on Century.

-AR

The new Lacuna Coil song, “Kill the Light,” is like 95% the excellent, infectious pop metal I love from these Eye-talians — but man, it really doesn’t go anywhere, does it? The energy level of the chorus isn’t noticeably higher than that of the verse, and Andrea Ferro’s phrasing just seems… I dunno, off, to me. Even the bridge seems more exciting to me than the chorus. It’s weird.

And kind of a bummer, ’cause like I said, for the most part, I think the song is great. And I’m still really stoked to hear the rest of LC’s new album, Dark Adrenaline.

Check out “Kill the Light” below and see if you think I’m nutty or what. Dark Adrenaline comes out January 24 via Century.

LACUNA COIL – Kill The Light by Crabby Medea Records

-AR

As part of an ongoing to effort to prove they’re not just a pop metal band that only teenge girls and mall goths (and teenage girl mall goths) like, Lacuna Coil have debuted their new video, “Trip the Darkness,” via Hot Topic. So that oughta settle that.

Anyways, it’s not like a great video or anything, but the song is as catchy as the flu to be sure, and for at least a portion of the video, Cristina Scabbia does not look like a beardless Gandalf, which is nice.

“Trip the Darkness” will be on Lacuna Coil’s new album, Dark Adrenaline, which comes out January 24 via Century Media.

-AR

FEATURING MEMBERS OF LACUNA COIL, TRAPPED UNDER ICE, ALLEGAEON, CULTED, MILLIONS, BIRTH A.D., AND NIGHTFALL

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time twice a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the first group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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Lacuna Coil debuted a new song called “Kill the Light” at a show in Glasgow last week, which means they debuted a new song for everyone with the internet. You can check out the fan-filmed footage below. The quality is, as usual, not perfect, but it’s good enough to hear that this sounds like a catchy new Lacuna Coil song. So you already know if that kinda thing appeals to you or not.

Lacuna Coil’s new album, Dark Adrenaline, will be out January 24 via Century Media.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

To me, dudes who write about music are heroes. And we metal listeners benefit from the largest number of heroically passionate and sharp writers, bloggists, journalers, and otherwise enthusiastics. My bad if that sounds self-serving or lame. But I think it’s harder to get good advice about non-metal; and it must be hard to cover product that’s supported by so much money and energy. So my hats off to bands who do good covers, helpful covers that kinda gateway metal fans to non-metal greats. And I vote we belatedly doff ‘em to Lacuna Coil for their 2000 cover of “Stars” (above), the most popular but nowhere near most awesome jam by Dubstar. Now, I say we only go as far as hat-doffing because the new version first appeared on an EP (cough filler) and the original was biggish in Europe fives years earlier (motive). But hey awesome Cristina Scabbia (this track’s sole vocalist wink wink) does a great job, so high fives!

-ADF

Lacuna Coil’s forthcoming sixth album, Dark Adrenaline, is slated for release on January 24. November UK dates here. Bonerz.

The art that adorns the cover of Lacuna Coil’s Dark Adrenaline isn’t very interesting. But in the band’s defense, they have never had a really cool looking album cover, and the music still always ends up being really catchy, so whatever I guess. I think I’m one of like fifteen people on the face of the planet who still gives a shit about album art anyway, and the other fourteen are all, like, Yog Sogogolth fans or whatever who probably don’t even know who Lacuna Coil are. I don’t even know why I still write about this stuff.

What was I saying? Oh, right, the album cover:

On a semi-related note, I’d like to predict right now that the special edition of this album will come with little vials like the ones above (although presumably filled with water and with black food coloring or something, and not, y’know, adrenaline). And if not, well, they well oughta. They’d make nifty key chains, maybe?

ANYWAY, Dark Adrenaline comes out January 24 on Century Media, in whatever format(s).

-AR

Last month it was confirmed that Gigantour would be back for a 2012 go-round shortly after Dave Mustaine let it slip that Megadeth would be touring with Motorhead, Volbeat and Lacuna Coil. Dates for the trek were released today, which you will find after the jump. But I’m still not sold on the idea of this tour as “Gigantour,” though; what’s so “gigantic” about it?

In 2005 and 2006, Gigantour’s first two years, the fest featured a two-stage / all-day format, not dissimilar to what Rockstar Mayhem does now and Ozzfest did back then. So how is the 2012 Gigantour any different than any Megadeth + special guests tour? The lineup is sweet, sure, but there’s nothing gigantic about this tour. As Axl claimed all the way back in January of 2008 when the Megadeth / In Flames / Bodom / High on Fire / Job For A Cowboy edition of Gigantour was announced, calling this thing “Gigantour” is false advertising. One’s thing for certain: with those bands on the bill the ticket price is certainly going to be gigantic.

I guess it all comes down to marketing; perhaps Mustaine and his handlers have discovered that they can sell more tickets with the Gigantour brand than they can with the Megadeth name atop a show flyer. If that’s the case, well, I guess they deserve a pat on the back for finding a clever way to get their fans to plunk down their hard-earned Benjamins when they otherwise might not.

Those tour dates after the jump:

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Sometimes I tell people I like Lacuna Coil and they look at me all cock-eyed, and then I have no choice but to look back at them all cock-eyed, ’cause, well, why the crap WOULDN’T you like Lacuna Coil? I remember the first time I ever heard of ‘em — I saw them open for Anthrax on the We’ve Come For You All tour in 2003 — and as soon as they were done, a WHOLE LOTTA PEOPLE, this blogger included, ran over to their merch booth and bought their then-newest release, Comalies. They were that kinda good. And what won us all over that evening? Yeah, the fact that Cristina Scabbia is hot probably didn’t hurt, but Eyes Set to Kill has twice as many attractive women in their band, and I ain’t never bought one of their records. The difference is that Lacuna Coil write songs which, although perhaps not the heaviest tunes ever composed, are as catchy as that shit in Contagion.

And the band’s new single, “Trip the Darkness,” ain’t no exception. A lotta bands that veer towards the poppier side of metal seem to run out of steam fairly quickly, but this is as fun a song as I’ve ever heard the band release. So if you’re in the mood for something that maybe doesn’t have a million notes a second but you will actually remember and have stuck in your head a few hours from now, head over their Facebook page to stream it now.

“Trip the Darkness” will appear on Lacuna Coil’s new album, Dark Adrenaline, which comes out January 24 on Century Media, and probably has a bunch of other references to the dark, too.

-AR

Last week Dave Mustaine let it slip that Megadeth would be touring with Motörhead, Volbeat, and Lacuna Coil “this year coming up,” and now Noisecreep has confirmed that that tour is, indeed, a go, and is, as we suspected, the newest incarnation of Gigantour. Of course, in a day and age where there are routinely massive multi-band package tours like Mayhem and Summer Slaughter, there’s really nothing gigantic about it, but, hey, the line-up is good enough that there’s no point nitpickin’ the name.

And the really good news is, the tour will apparently take place from January through March, so our concerns that this was gonna be yet another big summer tour are now eased, and we have something to look forward to in the cold winter months. Also, it’s a safe bet that Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia, who voice is good enough that she’s still in the band despite looking like the kid from Mask, will probably be doing “A Tout Le Monde” with Megadeth every night, and I’m all in favor of anything that will mean Dave Mustaine has to do less singing.

There are no dates yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as there are, natch.

-AR

Back in July, Dave Mustaine announced that he was bringing Gigantour back in 2012, and now, in an interview with Street Date (above – skip to the 3:00 mark), Mustaine claims that Megadeth will soon be touring with Motörhead, Volbeat, and Lacuna Coil “this year coming up.” That’s a pretty loose time frame ,so it’s not clear if he’s referring to Gigantour or just a regular Megadeth tour. Although, come to think of it, Gigantour hasn’t had a second stage since 2006, meaning it’s usually just been a four or five band package anyway, so, uh, I’m not really sure what would differentiate this from a “proper” Gigantour.

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At first, you may feel hostility to heavy rock bands like Lacuna Coil, but fuck that. You don’t settle for the easiest, most immediate appraisal of stuff — especially stuff as nebulous as rock music. So after two more seconds of thought, you see that it’s allegiance that we owe to Lacuna Coil and their skilled ilk. Without them and their complicated shirts, our only sources for pure, habit-forming pop hooks would be Billboard’s top 100, that one Cave In album, and Faith No More. Surely don’t go to Lacuna Coil for metal, but rather when you desire ace pop delivered in metal vernacular. In this capacity, their jamz save us from mainstream radio, where every song is about doin’ ya/refusing to do ya/doin’ your friend/choking a stripper. Shudder.

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On Monday, I headed over to Metal Hammer’s Germany-based site where Deadlock’s new album is streaming in full. After clicking play, I had my computer translate its accompanying text into English as follows [all sic]:

Deadlock have been her fifth album finished: BIZARRO WORLD. Then they combine more subtle than before Death Metal, melodic, hardcore and pop moments. Convince yourself

Stood there were never deadlock, further development is the law with them. This is also true for the eleven new songs on Bizarro World – will be released on 2/25/2011, but are now already tested exclusively with us

I swear that is the cutest thing I’ve ever read. It’s like a band bio as penned by Charlie from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Just like how Deadlock’s music is Lacuna Coil as interpreted by slightly heavier metalists. That’s a good thing for the higher-impact guitar work and similarly epic female vox. But it seems like bands with male-female singer duos defeat themselves; in all but the most exceptional cases, from The Sugarcubes to Lacuna Coil, it ends up that I mostly tolerate the stud’s mic-time and, worse, I flinch whenever the breathtaking female harmonies are about to make way for dude’s bulging-vein growls. It’s too wide a chasm between the two, like an art museum’s placement of a darkly beautiful piece of Byzantine erotica adjacent to 3D images of a rectal prolapse. Hard to be in the mood for both. For Deadlock, t’s not ineptitude, just a nearly no-win configuration; shit, so far only Devin Townsend has pulled off dual gender duets without dips in momentum. But hey, don’t listen to me! Just click here and “convince yourself”!

-ADF

Click here to order Deadlock’s Bizarro World, out today on Lifeforce Records.

It goes without saying that an attractive women at a metal show is about as common as a MetalSucks reader who’s seen a vagina somewhere other than the internet. That’s why things like Revolver‘s “12 Hottest Chicks In Metal” calendar are little more than a cheap lie: a more honest title would be “Complete List of Hot Chicks in Metal.”

With such a shortage of ass, metal hotties are in high demand, and men are forced to make tough choices — and what tougher choice is there to make than the classic game of FUCK, MARRY, OR KILL? If you aren’t familiar, FMK is a game in which you are given a list of three names and must choose which one you would fuck, marry and kill. I figured it would be good practice for readers to choose which metal hotties they would eff, marry and kill — check out the menu after the break!

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Photo of a real live female in a real live pit courtesy Justina Villanueva. Hey, Justina is a woman, too!

One of the most enjoyable parts of being a metalhead, in my opinion at least, is being able to catch my favorite bands live. The concert experience – whether it’s taking place at an arena, a bar, or a basement – is an integral part of our culture, and that fact alone is one of the few things keeping this industry alive (financially, at least; metal itself is forever. Duh). Now, as many of you may have noticed (and lamented), there is a distinct lack of estrogen floating around amidst those churning seas of testosterone we call metal shows. I’ve been to many, many, MANY metal shows, and am always invariably one of the few (if not the only) women there. It depends on the genre, of course; you’re probably not going to find nearly as much eye candy down front at Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult or Cannabis Corpse as you’ll stumble across at a stoner rock show or see at, I don’t know… Lacuna Coil or As I Lay Dying. The safer (and lamer) the band, the more chicks you’ll find lining up to buy a ticket. Why? I wish I could share the secret with you dudes, but honestly, I don’t get it either. Why a fly-ass honey wouldn’t want to squeeze into a dark room packed with sweaty, hairy men and blow out her eardrums in the name of Satan is beyond me, but I’m not going to delve into the why-don’t-girls-like-metal debate today – it’s been done. Instead, let’s just be stoked that girls are coming to shows at all, in ever-increasing numbers no less.

I’ve come up with a handy little survival guide of sorts for both my sisters-in-arms, as well as ladies who’ve never been to a metal show before, but are curious about what goes on and might be interested in popping their concertgoing cherries. A lot of this stuff is pure common sense, but I’ve also picked up a trick or two over the years that just might make your night a helluva lot better, and may get you to bring some girlfriends out to the next one!

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All these bands decided to release new videos within the past twenty-four hours. So I’m just lumping them all together in one post, the same way my mom lumps any music with loud guitars together under the heading, “Things I assume my degenerate son must like.”

First up we have this pretty amazing video for “Tres Brujas” from The Sword. I’m not even, like, the biggest The Sword fan in the world, but I gotta hand it to them, they have definitely made the nerdiest stoner metal video I’ve ever seen by a band that isn’t Mastodon. The thirteen year-old zit faced virgin in me thinks that this video is incredible, and the eight year-old autistic kid who’s never heard of Sabbath in me thinks the music is pretty great, too.

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Listen to the intro for Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years”…

…and then listen to the intro for Lacuna Coil’s “Heaven’s a Lie.”

Oh, Cristina… you’ve been a naughty girl!

-AR