Review Summary: Not bad, but often repetitive. Hopefully as much a grower as it tries to be a shower.
I first heard of Lacuna Coil around 2012, immediately falling in love with their albums Comalies and especially Karmacode. Something about the beautiful melancholy of those unusually crafted melodies, paired with the dark, heavy but not overwhelmingly so instrumentals really piqued my interest. Going through their catalogue however, I felt like their sound had lost most of their charm after 2009's Shallow Life. 2014's Broken Crown Halo did bring back some of that magic, only for that to be almost completely discarded with 2016's Delirium, which despite being a great album brought focus to elements that although present on the previous offering were much more subdued. 2019's Black Anima sounded to me like them doubling down on that sound, but made much less accessible and inviting - at which point I had lost almost all interest in this band. I refuse to comment on Comalies XX.
However, in January this year I went through their catalogue again, remembering how much I loved their earlier material and even building new appreciation for their then last original LP - issues aside. Thus, I was particularly hyped for Sleepless Empire, although from the singles (save for the last one - more on that later) I feared it would be just yet another rehash of that same old sound.
That said, from a few couple of listens, the final single I Wish You Were Dead remains the only real standout track on this record, but it also happens to be easily amongst their best since Karmacode (also it sounds rather Comalies-esque which is always a plus). Some other instrumental portions here (eg. In Nomine Patris main riff) remind me of Unleashed Memories era material, which I much prefer to the, at this point, overdone single-note syncopated riffs and chromatic ascending guitars on verses (eg. verse riff on that same song). Some other rare moments, such as that final riff on Sleep Paralysis, do break from the formula a bit, which is nice. Interestingly, I do feel like the album tracks here are more unique sounding than the singles, which mostly sound super similar. Between those, I'd say Hosting the Shadow (with Randy Blythe) is a standout, with In the Mean Time (with Ash Costello) being certainly my least favorite track on the album. Those two songs also have in common that they could absolutely do without their featured artists. Also I kinda hate how they didn't do a nasty breakdown after the screamed callout before the last chorus on the title track Sleepless Empire, but that's on me.
All in all, most songs on this sound like them doubling (or at this point, quadrupling) down on that formula they've been slowly building - but exhaustively repeating - since Broken Crown Halo. I enjoyed the novelty of those syncopated mid-tempo beats with single-note riffs, paired with Andrea's screaming vocals, back when they rather sparsely first appeared on that album, but they *really* didn't need to make *pretty much every song* since sound exactly like that. At least they've dialed back on the guitar solos compared to their previous efforts, as those always sounded to me like pointless and unnecessary filler and a heavy indicator of poor songwriting. Also, apparently their metronomes all got stuck on the same BPM since then and no one's bothered to fix them.
It's gotten to a point where I almost miss Andrea's clean singing, and am honestly bored with how they seemingly try to make every chorus too grandiose and cinematic for its own good - after a while it just sounds samey and overdone, to the point by song 3 on the album I already felt like it was getting repetitive. I really miss the unusual, almost restrained at times, smooth vocal melodies and harmonies they employed on their earlier material - think Fragile from Karmacode, with the way their voices intertwined together to create a chorus that sounds (in my opinion) more interesting and better built than pretty much anything since.
Overall, I really don't hate this album and somehow still do like it more than I expected after the utter disgrace that was Comalies XX. I honestly hope I'll be enjoying this more after repeated listens, as in many ways I feel like Sleepless Empire does improve on their previous standing, but save for that one song it still steers far from the heights I know Lacuna Coil are capable of reaching.
