New York Daily News
July 28, 2006

Ozzy knows best

Alloy of heavy metal headlines Osbourne festival

By GENE SANTORO
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Ozzy Osbourne

The music commonly gets shoved under just one moniker: heavy metal.
But the sounds huddled below that handy banner cover a wide range of
styles and sensibilities. There ‘s speed, goth, nu, thrash, alt and
prog-rock strains of metal. And nowhere is this range on healthier
display than at the annual Ozzfest show, which will have its wicked
way with Randalls Island tomorrow.
Though the great and powerful Ozzy Osbourne himself appears at only
some of the dates on this year’s version of the 27-city tour, New
York is among them. Fans can also expect to be pummeled by Disturbed,
Hatebreed, Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold, Black Label Society, Bleeding
Through and Norma Jean.

Two of this year’s leading bands, System of a Down and Lacuna Coil
represent the breadth of the genre nicely.

System guitarist Daron Malakian likes to say, "They call us nu metal
or prog-rock, but there’s all sorts of stuff mixed in what we do."

>From the quartet’s 1995 start in Hollywood, their hard-hitting mix
has even included addressing social issues in their lyrics. The
Armenian-Americans have stirred controversy with songs like
"P.L.U.C.K.," about the death-by-starvation of 1.5 million Armenians
in 1915. After Sept. 11, 2001, Clear Channel Radio whisked their hit
single "Chop Suey!" off the air, citing lyrics like "Trust in my
self-righteous suicide." It was nominated for a Grammy.

This year they bagged a Grammy for "B.Y.O.B.," which questions the
value of war.

At the moodier end of the spectrum is Italy’s Lacuna Coil, a novelty
here because of singer Cristina Scabbia.

"In Europe, this is common, to have a woman singing this music," she
says. "But in America, it is so unusual that journalists made a big
thing of it. I really don’t get this. Music doesn’t have a sex."

Formed in 1996, Lacuna Coil finalized its six-piece lineup with
trademark male/female vocal tradeoffs three years later. They toured
steadily in Europe, then tried to break into the U.S. – something no
Italian band had managed.

But in 2002, "Comalies" made it to U.S. radio and MTV. Two years
later, the band headlined European and U.S. club tours while joining
Ozzfest’s second stage. This spring, "Karmacode" debuted at No. 28 on
Billboard’s pop-album charts. Now, Lacuna Coil appears on Ozzfest’s
main stage.

"Naturally we are delighted," Scabbia says. "We worked very hard to
get here. But we are Italians, [so] we are even happier about the
World Cup."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress