It’s another one of those massive billings that just can’t be passed up as they hit UK shores so rarely. Love em’ or hate em’, Italian goth titans Lacuna Coil came to London with their friends from Motionless in White, and gothic newcomers Devilment featuring the vocal talents of legendary Dani Filth. The Metalist was there to give a verdict on what was a showcase of gothic metal’s old and new.

DEVILMENT

Admittedly we were only able to catch 3 Devilment songs due to arriving at the venue later than expected, but we got just enough to make a verdict on how gothic metal’s newest act faired in The Forum. Despite that Devilment is a new band, it really isn’t anything new as the band is fronted by Cradle of Filth’s Dani Filth and already puts a label on what to expect – and yes, the music did sound like radio-friendly Cradle.

It just wasn’t possible to shake off the idea that Dani Filth was not performing with Cradle, as the music was similar, the sound was similar, and Dani performed just as he does with Cradle. Given this time he seemed slightly more energetic than when we last saw Cradle, possibly with the idea of performing some new music, but was honestly nothing particularly special. Asking a fellow concert goer if we missed anything grand the response was that we only missed 2 songs meaning there were only 5 songs total in the set. Too short to make any sort of impact for our liking, but there could be some good things to come for Devilment. We just need to listen to their new album to understand them first!

MOTIONLESS IN WHITE

I personally have never been a fan of Motionless In White as it seems more of a mass-marketed emo machine than a valid entry into the gothic / industrial genre. The music has always been very average with no particular track in memory having any peak of interest. Having said that I am always willing to give a band a chance live, and it appeared that most of the nearly sold out Forum had come to see Motionless – even more of a reason to see if they could pull a performance that would win me over.

The band kicked off with their latest album title track ‘Reincarnate‘ much to the appreciation of the adoring fans that had come to witness what was instantly the Chris Motionless show. Band members took their places and more are less stuck there with the odd movement around the stage, mainly to get out of Motionless’ way. The opening tracks the stage show lit up and was actually fairly impressive, setting a real gothic industrial metal atmosphere and introduced a visual feast to the music that had a very sharp sound through the mighty PA. Sadly this was not enough to win me over though.

With what was a fairly capturing couple of opening tracks, the arrogance of the frontman started to creep in as the fans seemed to adore whatever was being thrown at them. As soon as ‘Generation Lost‘ kicked in it was absolutely evident that the band tours around Chris Motionless being that market machine we assumed to teenage girls and it just didn’t seem like this show was about the already dull music. The band continued to play ‘America‘, which I honestly believe is never a really good thing to do outside their home country given a hostile response they could possibly get. They didn’t though, further proving the point that this show was not about the music.

The band capped off their set with ‘Devil’s Night‘ which was the highlight of the performance for me where it actually seemed like the band was working as a unit. The performance clocked in at just over an hour though – a little too long for what I initially thought was a support act and not a co-headline tour (the bill was marketed as a Lacuna Coil headline show). If this was unintentional and the band went overtime that does not bode well with me at all either. But if it was a co-headline tour that was not well presented.

LACUNA COIL

Now for what should have been the main act of the night, the gothic metal legends hailing from Italy and having quite a series of star albums under their belt. I have seen Lacuna a few times and they have always delivered for their crowd interaction is fantastic, even though they only play mid-tempo metal at the fastest. The lights dimmed and the flurry of well-synced lighting rained on the stage and audience alike, setting an atmosphere for the gothic icons to take the stage and own it.

The band roared in with ‘Trip the Darkness‘ the opening single from their 2012 effort ‘Dark Adrenaline‘, and all members entered the stage donning their Halloween gear from the previous night that made the stage presence all the more interesting. One key point of interest though was that their regular bassist Marco Zelati was not present as he had what we gathered as some sort of emergency, and a fill-in was used to play for the night who was not as energetic as the rest of the band but did fulfil his duties.

Lacuna continued with an iconic array of tracks capturing the audience rather than forcing them to move. Both vocalists Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro moved around the stage in the most theatrical fashion making the performance of each song a pleasure to watch, especially with classic tracks like ‘Spellbound‘, ‘Heaven’s a Lie‘ and the Depeche Mode cover ‘Enjoy the Silence‘. Perhaps it’s the Italian roots that make the stage show very visual, but every movement with the musicians and vocalists was pulled off with clinical expertise, something that is very rare to see in such a natural light in metal music.

Of course the band played newer tracks such as ‘Zombies‘ and ‘Fire‘ to support their latest effort ‘Broken Crown Halo‘, but the setlist was well-balanced and covered Lacuna Coil through their career. The only real problem in my own view has already been mentioned – Lacuna was billed as a headliner, and their set was shorter than Motionless in White’s. After the encore of the classic ‘Our Truth‘ rang out, the set clocked a total of 50 minutes. It was a real shame as the band has so much more to give, and with British show curfew’s being notoriously early and strict they simply couldn’t. The disappointment of a short set eclipsed what really could have been something to remember as the band could have churned out other classics such as ‘Swamped‘ and ‘Within Me‘ that they did not have time for. All too easy to scapegoat Motionless in White for this but there could have been other circumstances.

All around it was an entertaining evening, with Lacuna really stealing the night and showing the professionalism and technicality that they have build over their long career.