LACUNA COIL announce new album “Sleepless Empire”
Reveal new single and video “Oxygen”
02-10-2024
Italian goth metal veterans LACUNA COIL announce their 10th studio album, ‘SLEEPLESS EMPIRE’, their first collection of new songs since 2019’s Black Anima, with their new single Oxygen. The new song comes with a new music video, filmed in Latina and directed by Daniele Tofani, that shows singer Cristina Scabbia in the lead role. The song premieres today.
Watch Oxygen below.
Cristina Scabbia commented on the track and her experience filming the video: ““Oxygen” is a powerful exploration of emotional struggle and inner conflict. The lyrics convey a sense of drowning in a toxic environment, both literally (in the video) and metaphorically, where attempts at salvation, represented by “oxygen” are somehow futile. This song encapsulates the feeling of struggling to break free from what holds us down, when the journey is filled with difficulty. It’s a raw anthem of vulnerability, resilience, and the courage to face what seems insurmountable. Having to stay in the water for so many hours during the video shoot was cathartic for me, the realisation that the pleasant sensation of floating could in an instant become dangerous and deadly if I wasn’t careful was very fitting with the song’s theme.”
Inspiration to create Sleepless Empire came during the sessions for Comalies XX (2022), the acclaimed remake of their breakthrough record of the same title. Writing and recording took place in northern Italy between Milano, the band’s hometown and Como, where SPVN Studios are located. As with their previous albums, production was done in house with Marco “Maki” Coti Zelati at the helm, and artwork was hand curated by the talented Italian artist Roberto Toderico. Two other very special talents enrich the album, namely the guest vocalists, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe on the song “Hosting the Shadow” and New Year’s Day’s Ash Costello on “In The Mean Time”.
As a token of the band’s love for the gaming world (which we’ve seen in past endevours such as their card game “Horns Up” and their collaboration with Zombicide for which they wrote the track “Never Dawn”), the band have created an oracle “game” to be played with custom made dice available only in the box set version of SLEEPLESS EMPIRE.
The new album comprises 11 new tracks; and each one is a richly textured soundtrack to a specific time and a place. With Sleepless Empire, that place is dark, cinematic, and unmistakably true to the unique characteristics that have given Lacuna Coil such a celebrated entry in the annals of heavy music.
The band shares: “Sleepless Empire captures, through our eyes, the chaos of a generation trapped in a digital world that never stops, where social media consumes identity and every day pushes us one step closer to becoming soulless zombies. We find ourselves in between, having witnessed a full analogic world and the modern one, confronting the evolution and searching for a true meaning of it all. Throughout every song, the journey is an undercurrent of rebellion, a desperate cry to reclaim oneself in an era that seems to have lost its sense of time and reality.”
Sleepless Empire is now available for pre-order.
Tracklist
- The Siege
- Oxygen
- Scarecrow
- Gravity
- I Wish You Were Dead
- Hosting The Shadow (feat. Randy Blythe)
- In Nomine Patris
- Sleepless Empire
- Sleep Paralysis
- In The Mean Time (feat. Ash Costello)
- Never Dawn
- Ltd. Deluxe CD Box Set with symbolic dice oracle
- Ltd. CD Digipak
- Ltd. CD Digipak (US version)
- black LP & LP-Booklet
- black LP & LP-Booklet (US version)
- Ltd. white LP & LP-Booklet
- Ltd. deep blood red LP & LP-Booklet (exclusive Sony Music Entertainment Italy version)
- Ltd. Sparkle Rainbow LP & LP-Booklet
- Ltd. transp. glow in the dark LP & LP-Booklet (exclusive band version)
- black LP & LP-Booklet (US version)
- Ltd. ultra clear LP & LP-Booklet (US version)
- Ltd. silver LP & LP-Booklet (US version)
- Digital album
Lacuna Coil are
Cristina Scabbia – Vocals
Andrea Ferro – Vocals
Marco Coti Zelati – Bass, Guitars, Synths
Richard Meiz – Drums
Later this month, Lacuna Coil embark on their UK & Ireland headliner tour with Finnish nu metal group Blind Channel. Tickets are available AT THIS LOCATION.
Summer festival dates to follow and more…
Tour dates
October 12th Lyon, France – Le Transbordeur Club
October 15th Belfast, Ireland – Limelight
October 16th Dublin, Ireland – Academy
October 18th Bournemouth, UK– O2 Academy
October 20th Manchester, UK – Academy
October 21st Glasgow, Scotland – SWG3
October 22nd Wolverhampton, UK – KK’S Steel Mill
October 24th Nottingham, UK – Rock City
October 25th London, UK – Roundhouse
October 26th Bristol, UK– O2 Academy
June 6 – 8th 2025 – Metal Fest OpenAir – Czech Republic
August 8th, 2025 – Bloodstock Festival – England
August 9-10th, 2025 – M’era Luna Festival – Germany
LACUNA COIL have parted ways with guitarist Diego Cavallotti last month.
Cavallotti joined LACUNA COIL in 2016, initially as a fill-in guitarist following the departure of Marco “Maus” Biazzi.
Yesterday (Monday, June 17), LACUNA COIL released the following statement via social media: “As we step into a new cycle, writing and recording our next album, we are parting ways with Diego ‘DD’ Cavallotti. We thank him for the many unforgettable moments shared over the years and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours.
“All future live plans remain unchanged and the new songs are taking form, we can’t wait to share them with our fans.”
In April of this year LACUNA COIL released their new single, “In The Mean Time”, featuring Ash Costello of NEW YEARS DAY. The song’s title is a reference to the mean times the world is living in, as well as a reference to the state the band itself is in, between cycles.
Stream “In The Mean Time” below.
LACUNA COIL states: “‘In The Mean Time’ is a reflection on how much our society has generally ‘lost the plot’. We are living in really mean times filled with unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive. The pressure that crushes from the outside doesn’t allow us to see things with the right clarity.
“This song is like group therapy: not a lamentation, but acceptance that once broken, it’s hard to put oneself back together again.
“We need to take our minds off all the inescapable toxicity and find that there’s so much more to this life… and know that in the meantime, everything cannot be aligned.
“We invited Ash Costello from NEW YEARS DAY to feature on the track and we’re thrilled she came on board adding exactly what we needed for this song with her warm voice and charisma.”
Costello said: “I am deeply honored to join LACUNA COIL on tour for the first time, to have the incredible opportunity to lend my guest vocals to a new track and appear in the music video. Working alongside the vocalist Cristina has been a privilege, and I may be biased in saying that ‘In The Mean Time’ has quickly become my favorite by LACUNA COIL. Its message about embracing individuality and not conforming deeply resonates with me.”
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