Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire
Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire
Century Media Records
Release Date: 14/02/2025
Review by Beth Morait
9.5/10
After forming in 1994, Italian maestros Lacuna Coil have been a staple of the Gothic Metal world for an unbelievable 23 years now (where the hell did that time go?) since the release of their 3rd album, “Comalies” brought them international recognition in 2002 Since then, they’ve been delighting audiences across the world with their dominating and dynamic live performances, and a host of successful albums. This new release is set to continue their Gothic onslaught.
Opening with ‘The Siege’, this is a classic Lacuna Coil album from the get go. It moves effortlessly through 11 tracks of heavy, crunching, and pacey instrumentation, with the dual vocals of Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro bringing us the polar opposites of heavenly cleans, and growls straight from the fiery pits of Hades. It’s tight and cinematic, with symphonic grandeur in bucketloads, as you would expect from these seasoned musicians.
It also features a couple of notable guest appearances; Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe on ‘Hosting the Shadow’, and New Year’s Day’s Ash Costello on ‘In The Mean Time’. Both these guests slot in seamlessly to the Lacuna Coil sound, adding an extra dimension. ‘Hosting the Shadows’ is a particular favourite of mine from this album. It’s got a great lamenting feel to it, and the storytelling nature really stands out.
‘In Nomine Patris’ is a banging track, as is ‘Sleep Paralysis’, the latter being slower and more laboured, with a dirty breakdown (that kind of reminds me of Korn in the “Life Is Peachy” album era), and a spikey little guitar solo, both of which add an extra air of dark insanity to the song. But the absolute best track on the album, for me, is the closing song, ‘Never Dawn’. Here we’re treated to the full range of Cristina’s vocals, huge riffs, chugging Bass, and rhythmical sections that you can lose your shit to. Great way to finish an album.
As a pretty funky extra, the band have also created an oracle game that fans can play, with custom dice that are available with the box set version of the album. This not only plays to the band’s love of gaming, but also offers something a little bit different. All in all this is yet another banger of an album from Lacuna Coil.
TRACKLISTING:
01. The Siege
02. Oxygen
03. Scarecrow
04. Gravity
05. I Wish You Were Dead
06. Hosting The Shadow (feat. Randy Blythe)
07. In Nomine Patris
08. Sleepless Empire
09. Sleep Paralysis
10. In The Mean Time (feat. Ash Costello)
11. Never Dawn
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