Lacuna Coil Lets Fans Get Creative With Shallow Life

Italian metal band Lacuna Coil is inviting fans to upload a visual representation of songs from its latest album, 'Shallow Life.'

"It's kind of a contest where they have to be inspired by our songs on 'Shallow Life' and make their own creations without taking anything from any other person," explains vocalist Cristina Scabbia of their "Photobucket challenge" where the winners might receive a phone call from the band or even have their own slide show on one of its web sites.

"It has to be absolutely personal and it can be an image made by them, a picture or they can be inspired by one single phrase from the album, for example. It's just time to be creative," she says. "Some of [the fans] are sending pictures of them in specific situations or their sending pictures of their drawings or collages of different images."

Scabbia says 'Shallow Life,' which was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Don Gilmore (Pearl Jam, Linkin Park), is not a concept album, as has been noted in some media outlets.

"It's not really correct to say it's a concept album because a concept album is an album where every single song is connected to a specific thing, but it's definitely an album that has been born by the same vibe because Shallow Life theme is going through the songs. It is more an inspiration."

She is excited to see what the fans submit on Photobucket. So far, she and fellow bandmates Andrea Ferro (vocals), Marco Coti Zelati (bass), Cristiano Migliore (guitar) and Cristino 'CriZ' Mozzati (drums), haven't had time to check out all the submissions. They just wrapped up a U.S. tour and begin a European tour June 11.

"We just saw some of them," Scabbia says. "We didn't have a chance to see them all because there is a person in the label who is taking case of filtering the stuff. We can't watch them right now because we are really busy, but we will for sure."

As for her own interpretation of 'Shallow Life,' she says it's not necessarily negative.

"It can be interpreted as something more light or funny because if you think of the shallowness of some celebrities, that's the wrong shallowness, but at the same time there is the other part of life that can be shallow, like an afternoon out with friends shopping. It's still fun and it helps you forget the problems for one day. So it can definitely be interpreted different ways," she explains.

"Even the cover [art] suggests that because the crystal grenade suggests something delicate and can be something beautiful to look at, but its ready to explode in your hands any second."

If crystal grenades aren't enough to spark the creative juices visually, what is?