Rapidly approaching 30 years together since their earliest days as Sleep Of Right and Ethereal, Lacuna Coil are stronger than ever. Proof, if you need it, comes in the shape of their tenth album, Sleepless Empire, a ferocious powerhouse of an album that sees the band locked in tightly and bringing even more aggression to their music.
Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire (Century Media Records)
Release Date: 14 February 2025
Words: Paul Hutchings
It has been five years since Black Anima, and although the pandemic is slowly fading into memory, that album was crudely cut off at the knees due to the COVID-19 fallout. Black Anima was a fine album, combining the dark gothic overtures of the band’s earlier sound with a more contemporary Metal approach.
On Sleepless Empire, Lacuna Coil have plugged back in, drawn deeply on all their previous experiences and styles, turned all volume controls up to the maximum and delivered a possible career best.
Sleepless Empire is not a concept album in the truest form. But the band have taken a deep dive on the digital world we inhabit, exploring the relationships between our reliance on social media and the dominance that it has established. The title track is probably the most explicit, but there are others amongst the 11 tracks that continue and embellish the themes.
If you want an explosive start, look no further than the double whammy of The Siege and the crunching riffs of Oxygen. The latter is already one of the songs released and featured in the band’s live set in their autumn UK shows and a real demonstration their tightness together.
The interplay between the dual vocals of Andrea Ferra and Cristina Scabbia has always been a huge factor in Lacuna Coil’s appeal, but both deliver astonishingly good performances here. Ferra’s vicious roars contrast with Scabbia’s soaring vocal to huge effect.
It is almost impossible to explain how their differing ways work so well. But work together, they do, to the extent that one without the other would now seem wrong.
The production is superb, enhancing the driving bass lines of founder member Marco Coti Zelati, which pulsate and throb with a vibrancy that is intense enough to cause realignment in the vital organs. It is Zelati who sits behind much of what Lacuna Coil produce, of course, and his involvement once more brings an extra zest to the whole affair.
It is rare these days that any album has no filler within it, but there is not an inch of fat within Sleepless Empire. Scarecrow, Gravity, and I Wish You Were Dead are all ferocious affairs, although it’s In Nomine Patris where, for me, the band really slip into top gear. It is here that Scabbia’s stunning voice hits the absolute pinnacle, once more the perfect foil for Ferra.
Talking of hitting the heights, it is on the title track that follows where, for me, Ferra really demonstrates the extent of his gruffness with some astonishing roars. It is a towering track, sinister and dark, and harnesses the full power of this band.
So, with two phenomenal singers, why the need for Randy Blythe and Ash Costello, who also contribute? Well, check tomorrow’s interview with Andrea Ferra to see why the vocalists from Lamb Of God and New Year’s Day joined the party.
Blythe, a longtime friend of the band, adds his feral rage to Hosting The Shadows, and unsurprisingly it’s one of the heaviest and bruising tracks here, with some superb drumming from Richard Meiz. Semi-thrash in pace, it rips along, supported by a huge chorus that adds the delicious melody that underpins all that is good with this band.
Costello adds a different dimension to In The Mean Time, which sees Ferra bringing further gravel-throated roars, while Costello and Scabbia add the soaring cleans.
There have been few Lacuna Coil albums that have had me as enthralled as this one. It is compelling from start to finish, and I have had it on repeat for weeks. By the time the album arrives this week, I will have lived with it for over three months. I have never tired of it. It is that good.
Even the closing song, Never Dawn, the final one of four tracks to tip over the five-minute mark, is stunning. A slower build-up heightens the anticipation, and the delicious pause before the whole thing erupts is tantamount to unfair teasing. When the riff kicks in, it’s impossible not to bang the head and punch the air.
More words would merely be the pouring of extra superlatives into the mix. Sleepless Empire does not need that. Listen to it, absorb it, give it time to sink in, and revel in an album that may well be the band’s strongest and most incredible release to date.
Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire is out 14 February 2025 via Century Media Records. Pre-orders are available from here.
