Italian alt-metal mainstays Lacuna Coil have spent the past 30 years wowing crowds worldwide with their signature brand of dark, hooks-loaded heaviness, as heard most recently on the band’s 2025 full-length Sleepless Empire.
At the front of the stage is Cristina Scabbia, the vocalist whose dramatic, powerhouse vibrato has rattled rooms as much as the rest of her band’s heavy thrum. Whether at clubs, theaters or massive festival stages, night in, night out, the members of Lacuna Coil give their songs everything they’ve got. But with 10 albums worth of inky anthems to choose from, there’s truly only so much room to spare in the setlist each night.
With that in mind, we reached out to Scabbia to highlight some of her current favorites to sing onstage.
“I Wish You Were Dead”
It’s a heavy but fun song that allows me to be a little bit more cinematic onstage, and I absolutely love when I can somehow “act” onstage.
Broken hearts and revenge (that is only in your head)… isn’t this real passion?
“In Nomine Patris”
My heart pace accelerates on this song. It’s fast, gives you no breaks, it keeps the listener close tight to then let everyone free to build their own empire. I feel a sense of pure freedom every single time I sing it.
“Heaven’s a Lie”
It’s always recharging to sing something and everyone in the room is singing the same thing.
It’s unity. It’s sharing with your beautiful community. It’s what every gig should be about.
“Never Dawn”
There’s something about the notes changing, the strings and bass line that gives me goosebumps every night. We played it last on the latest setlist, and I gave 110 percent onstage — it felt like pure soul relief.
I love this song so much.
“Blood, Tears, Dust”
This song haunts you in a good way. From [Lacuna Coil co-vocalist] Andrea [Ferro]’s demon voice to my siren vocals, and the theme of interior struggle, solitude, isolation.
I love to watch the crowd reacting to it as it feels we all need a moment of reflection after it.
Lacuna Coil “Sleepless Empire” North American tour 2026:
03/24 New York, NY – Gramercy Theater ^
03/25 Worcester, MA – Palladium ^
03/27 Cleveland, OH – Globe Iron ^
03/28 Detroit, MI – Saint Andrew’s Hall ^
03/29 Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall ^
03/31 Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall ^
04/02 Salt Lake City, UT – The Grand at The Complex ^
04/03 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall ^
04/04 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile ^
04/05 Portland, OR – McMenamins Crystal Ballroom ^
04/07 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore ^
04/08 Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades ^
04/10 Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether ^
04/11 San Diego, CA – House of Blues ^
04/12 Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren ^
04/13 Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater ^
04/15 Dallas, TX – The Echo Lounge & Music Hall %
04/16 San Antonio, TX – Aztec Theater %
04/17 Houston, TX – House Of Blues %
04/19 New Orleans, LA – House Of Blues %
04/21 Orlando, FL – House of Blues %
04/22 Fort Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room %
04/24 Charleston, SC – Music Farm %
04/25 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade %
04/26 Charlotte, NC – The Underground %
04/28 Richmond, VA – The Broadberry %
04/29 Harrisburg, PA – XL Live %
05/01 Albany, NY – Empire Live %
^ with Escape the Fate, VOWWS
% with Escape the Fate, AXTY