Lacuna Coil – have today announced their 10th studio album ‘Sleepless Empire’ & release new single ‘Oxygen’

Italian metal titans LACUNA COIL have announced their 10^th studio album Sleepless Empire, their first collection of new songs since the Black Anima album in 2019, along with the release of their new single Oxygen. The new song comes with a mesmerising video, filmed in Latina and directed by Daniele Tofani, that shows singer Cristina Scabbia in the lead role.

Cristina Scabbia commented on the track and her experience of 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 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 inhouse with Marco ‘Maki’ Coti Zelati at the helm, and artwork was hand curated by the Italian artist Roberto Toderico. Two other very special talents enrich the album, namely the guest vocalists Randy Blythe f Lamb of God on Hosting The Shadow and Ash Costello of New Year’s Day on In The Mean Time.

As a token of the band’s love for the gaming world – which have been seen in past endeavours 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 eleven tracks and each one is a richly textured soundtrack to a specific time and 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 to it al. Throughout every song, the journey is an undercurrent of rebellion, a desperate cry to reclaim ourselves in an era that seems to have lost its sense of time and reality.”

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

Sleepless Empire is now available for pre-order

Tickets available here: https://lacunacoil.com

Photo credit – Cunene