Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
The first track from the upcoming album “Monumental” by Ukrainian modern metal band Ignea has been published, as per Blabbermouth. “Dreams of Lands Unseen” is a move toward something new, but it has the same name as the four-piece’s 2023 album. The song examines the rush to space during the Cold War, a period when humanity, plagued by conflict, projected its highest aspirations into the cosmos far beyond our known worlds. “Dreams of Lands Unseen” is bursting with intensity from the outset, combining furious growls with a powerful, driving melody. A very 1980s mood is evoked by shimmering keyboard and theremin solos. This is consistent with the album “Monumental,” which Ignea is set to release on October 23, 2026 through Napalm Records. It examines and considers nostalgia in all of its manifestations.
This song is about the blend of ambition and illusion, where space wasn’t an escape but a conquest shaped by ideology and dreams. Across Ukraine and many post-Soviet countries, mosaics still depict this promised future: cosmonauts, rockets, bold visions of worlds yet unseen. We shot the video in black and white on purpose, reaching for the vibe of old sci-fi rather than modern blockbuster spectacle, using Cooke Varotal lenses, the optics favored by Kubrick. In the end, I think the song isn’t nostalgic for space exploration itself, so much as for an aesthetic that was itself already nostalgic, looking back at a future that was already passing. Still, I guess each of us has dreamt of becoming an astronaut at least once… haven’t you? – Helle Bohdanova
“Monumental” is Ignea’s second full-length album that was written during the full-scale war in Ukraine. The recording process mostly took place in the winter of 2025-2026, during icy temperatures and long power outages in Kyiv.
Musically, “Monumental” blends technical metal riffs, industrial textures, atmospheric interludes, grandiose choruses, and melodic passages to mirror “nostalgic rides,” where darkness, reflection, and awe collide.
Visually and conceptually, Ignea drew inspiration from retrofuturism, modernist and monumental architecture, and industrial design, creating a world where sound, imagery, and memory converge. The album stands as an ode to the past, a meditation on lost and unrealized futures, and a celebration of the enduring beauty hidden within forgotten places. The opening track, “Darkness,” sets the emotional tone, capturing the nostalgic escapes we all drift into when the present feels overwhelming and the past seems gentler than it truly was.
