LACUNA COIL - Ready To Strike Page 2
by Martin Popoff

"The title was Andy's idea, our singer," answers Chris, asked about the odd title and even stranger cover art, which includes a nifty die-cut and a bunch of mystery images (plus a poster). "He was reading this book by this mathematician, an Italian professor at the university, who was trying to explain the fear of God, through mathematical formulas. And he was really intrigued by this thing, so we actually wanted to have this contrast between the modern times we're living in - so that's why we have the word 'code' in the title - and something more spiritual like 'karma.' The contrast between these words sounded like something really cool to explain the concept behind the album. And for the first time, we actually have a cover that actually reflects our concept. Before we always had some nice covers but they had nothing to do with the title. On this album, we actually explained to the artist who was working on the cover, what the concept was behind the title, and he tried to come up with something that fit to it. That's why the man takes off his face and you see all these bandages, and when you open the booklet, you actually find all these machines and stuff inside."

Chris goes on to dispel the oft-repeated notion that Italy is a haven for flowery power metal and little else. "It used to be like that, but not anymore. There are a lot of bands that play totally different kinds of music; there's a big underground scene. The only problem is that rock, not being the most popular music in Italy, it's really hard for a band to come up and actually be discovered. The record companies are not interested in signing the types of bands who play this music. But times are changing, and maybe even thanks to what we did. We got a lot of attention, and we're Italians. A lot of people actually don't know that. Even in the Italian magazines, who actually write all the time on this stuff, they actually found out afterwards that we were an Italian band; they thought we were German or American. So I hope this is going to help other bands make it through."

"We all hope it's going to do great," says Chris in closing, on the prospects for Karmacode. "But I don't know to what kind of extent; it's always hard to say. We certainly hope it's going to do just as well as Comalies did, but to hope for something more... you know, you don't want to be disappointed. It's always better to keep your feet on the ground and see what happens when it happens."