Lacuna Coil have reflected on the whirlwind success of their Depeche Mode Enjoy The Silence cover.
The Italian goth metal icons look back in a new Metal Hammer video interview where they detail the five songs which define their career. As the single which brought the band to mainstream attention in 2006, they naturally pick Enjoy The Silence as one entry.
Co-vocalist Cristina Scabbia reveals it was her idea for Lacuna Coil to attempt the cover. “It started with me because I love Depeche Mode,” she says. “We were considering some covers we wanted to try. I remember Marco [Coti Zelati], our bass player who writes the majority of the music, wasn’t really agreeing. He was like, ‘I don’t know if it’s a good idea,’ but then he turned it in a way where it almost became one of our songs.”
She adds, “It turned out so good that the actual band [Depeche Mode] liked it! They gave us permission to do the video for it.”
In a 2009 interview, Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan publicly endorsed the cover. “Their interpretation left me genuinely impressed,” he said. “It encapsulated the distinctive vibe I always hoped someone would bring to it.”
Scabbia and co-vocalist Andrea Ferro react to the backing in the Hammer interview. “We haven’t met him yet!” Ferro smiles. “We’d love to meet him one day just to thank him for the inspiration.”
“It was a dream! We love you guys! We can’t wait to meet you!” Scabbia adds with a gleam and a wave.
Ferro also reflects on the impact Enjoy The Silence had on Lacuna Coil’s popularity, as it brought the band onto MTV and pop radio. “It’s the song that I think brought us outside the metal scene,” he says. “We were known, at that point, in the metal scene but Enjoy The Silence is the song everybody knows, even if they’re not particularly into metal.”
He continues: “It was on every TV channel: MTV played it heavily, and not only on Headbanger’s Ball. A lot of radio, even in Italy, a lot of the radio that normally only plays pop music would play the song. It’s the song that put us on the map on a larger scale.”
Lacuna Coil recently announced their 10th studio album, Sleepless Empire, will come out via Century Media on February 14.
The singles In The Meantime, Oxygen, Hosting The Shadow and Never Dawn are currently streaming.
The Italians will play across North America with Machine Head, In Flames and Unearth in 2025 and appear with their tourmates in a song called These Scars Won’t Define Us, which dropped Friday (November 15).