Lacuna Coil @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Lacuna Coil have come a long way since they emerged in the late nineties. From gothic metal thoroughbreds on 'In a Reverie' and 'Unleashed Memories' to the polished sheen of their excellent breakthough album 'Comalies' and onto the nu-metalish exploits of 'Karmacode', each album opened new doors to success, albeit at the expense of support from some of the old guard. The diverse crowd at the Shepherds Bush Empire this evening indicated this process had continued with last years commercially successful 'Shallow life' album.

With bassist Marco Coti Zelati at home in Italy the band soldiered on as a five-piece, and in truth his absence was hardly noticed. You even got the feeling most of the crowd were unaware the band were a member short until Christina announced it. It didn't seem to change their sound much as opener 'Survive' crashed around the venue with the same might as it opens the current release. There was no question that this tour is pushing material from the 'Shallow life' album to the extreme, with no less than eight tracks thrown to the increasingly rabid pack that made up the crowd. The likes of 'Underdog', 'I'm not afraid' and 'I won't tell you' see both Christina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro excel in their dual vocal roles. Miss Scabbia's understated voice from the early years has been replaced over time with a fully confident and impressively powerful vocal style, which now sees her dominate most of the material, belting out the titanic 'Tight rope' with all the passion it deserves. It's hard to imagine Andrea Ferro fronting a band on his own but his vocals are part of the Lacuna Coil sound, the likes of 'Swamped' showing why he is such an important piece in this Italian jigsaw.

The nu-metal influenced 'Fragile' and 'To the edge' get fists of newer fans pumping but it was the classic Comalies tracks such as 'Heaven's a lie' and 'Swamped' which saw the fiercest pit action of the night. The Depeche Mode cover 'Enjoy the silence' again proves to be one of their more popular songs, and one which Lacuna Coil have made their own. This is impressive when you count the amount of goth and not so goth bands who have also attempted to cover this song.

The highly melodic encore of 'Not enough', a spellbinding rendition of 'Spellbound' and set closer 'Our truth' sends most of this London crowd home happy.

Even the hardest of pre-Karmacode fans would admit through gritted teeth that the current version of Lacuna Coil along with their pop sensibilities were tonight triumphant.