Lacuna Coil hits the Billboard 200

NEW YORK (Chipster PR/ www.lacunacoil.it) - After 92 weeks, Comalies, the acclaimed third album from Italian sextet Lacuna Coil - a group that Reuters news service recently declared to be "on the verge of a major breakthrough" - has cracked the Billboard 200, the magazine's weekly tally of the country's top-selling albums.

Originally released on October 29, 2002, Comalies - which shattered the 100,000 sales mark two weeks ago - achieved its best weekly sales mark to date from July 19-25, logging 5,818 copies sold, according to SoundScan. The album - #194 on this week's chart - has sold more than 17,000 copies in the last month alone, and marks the first-ever Billboard 200 appearance in the history of the group's label, the Los Angeles-based independent Century Media Records.
"It's a testament to our philosophy of believing in a band and working them from the ground up," says Phil Hinkle, Century Media's director of A&R. "In an era where artist development seems to be an afterthought, it's exciting to be a part of such a natural, organic success story."

In large part, Comalies' robust sales can be attributed to Lacuna Coil's Ozzfest performances. Of all second-stage acts, the group is being outsold by only Slipknot and Atreyu, both of which have released new albums within the last two months. In addition, current single "Swamped" is enjoying heavy commercial radio airplay nationwide - the track is No 40 on this week's R&R Active Rock chart - as well as steady video play on both MTV2 and Fuse. The song will be included on the soundtrack to the upcoming Sony Pictures film Resident Evil: Apocalypse and featured in the forthcoming Activision video game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

Aside from Ozzfest, Lacuna Coil will be playing select "off-fest" shows throughout August.
That month, the group will also deliver three acoustic in-store performances at select Borders Music locations. A new album will surface in 2005.