If you know Lacuna Coil then you’ll already be aware that every album entry in their storied career is more than just a sound. 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. As founding songwriter-in-chief Marco Coti Zelati, aka Maki explains, while the writing process for Lacuna Coil’s tenth studio record began in December, the record’s real creative birth coincided with the release of 2022’s Comalies XX, a 20th-anniversary reimagining of their landmark 2002 record, Comalies. It was more than an epic and rapturously received reinvention of that 21st century classic. It would serve to align the past, the present, and the future of Lacuna Coil as they take their first steps into the fourth decade of their remarkable career. And from the colossal refrains of album opener The Siege to the wickedly catchy I Wish You Were Dead and the irrepressibly classic feel of Sleepless Empire’s title track, there’s no mistaking the confidence of Lacuna Coil’s latest, and it has its share of surprises, too. They come in the form of two very special guest appearances from none other than New Years Day banshee Ash Costello on their epic In The Mean Time and an ear-splittingly over-the-top contribution from Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe on Hosting the Shadow.