Ignea – Dreams of Lands Unseen (2023)
by Flork
It is not surprising that Ignea is one of the top artists in 2023 to watch out for, with their latest album Dreams of Lands Unseen comprising a power-packed compilation of songs dedicated to travel writer and photographer, Sofia Yablonska (1907-1971). I started following the Ukraine band in 2022 shortly after the full-scale invasion of the country broke-out, with my interest in Ukraine culture and people increasing on a daily basis as the events unfold quickly and with frightening consequence. And with every contact I make with Ukrainian people and their land (I have visited Ukraine 5 times since the beginning of the invasion), my interest in them and their approach to music only fascinates me more. So, after entering “Ukrainian death metal” into the YouTube search engine, I came across this amazing female-fronted band with a symphonic background and beauty and the beast vocals.
Now, Ignea is not a new band, having formed back in 2013. But they are somewhat new to international stardom, signing with Napalm records just 2 years ago in June, 2021. And with the ongoing war in Ukraine commanding international attention, the time was ripe for Ukrainian artists and musicians to showcase their work under a somewhat dystopian spotlight.
Dreams of Lands Unseen is by far the band’s best work to date. It combines ethnic folk elements and sounds of the orient with elements of death and progressive metal. The 10 tracks that make up the album follow the footsteps of Sofia Yablonska as she travelled the world, from the sands of the Sahara (as heard on Dunes) to her love of the sea. Her three travel journals were re-published in the Ukraine back in 2015 and quickly became popular with the young generation, giving hope and inspiration to those tired of the Russification of their culture, while renewing devotion to Ukrainian identity and nation.
The album kicks off with Téoura, an allusion to the sounds of exotic places yet to come. It follows with Dunes, which is one of the best songs on the album as Helle Bohdanova’s vocals take centre-stage with deep and haunting growls. But she is also an amazing singer with clean vocals, which are apparent on Camera Obscura and Daleki Obriyi (Far Horizons, sung in Ukrainian), which pay tribute to Yablonska’s traverses to the distant corners of the planet and her fascination with tribes and indigenous peoples. Ignea also doesn’t ignore Yablonska’s love of the sea as heard on Incurable Disease, whose ambient sounds transport the listener to the bow of a ship as it penetrates the horizon.
Both musically and lyrically, Ignea shines their brightest on this album. While the first half of the album gives the listener a long-awaited fix of heavy guitars and vocals, the latter half of the album is a bit more subdued (but still very hard) with the compositions showcasing the maturity of this group and their ability to write descriptive songs that incorporate elements outside the traditional genre of death metal music. Close your eyes and you can imagine yourself in Sofia’s shoes as she walks across barren landscapes (Nomad’s Luck) or loses herself in the labyrinths of oriental bazaars (The Golden Shell and Opiumist). The latter two tracks just mentioned are sung so beautifully and full of depth, you almost expect Helle to scream at several points, yet she remains gentle and soft, as if she foreshadows the end of the journey.
The album ends on a heavier note, with the final track Zénith rounding off this magnum opus. This is the only other song sung in their native Ukrainian and quite befitting for a band that has grown so much musically and professionally over the last decade. But let’s hope that their peak doesn’t end here, but rather Dreams of lands Unseen acts as a catalyst for more albums full of stories about interesting people and places. Ignea has hooked onto something cool and original with their incorporation of sounds of the orient into their music, doubtlessly making them an exotic band and worthy of attention.
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