Welcome back to another Metal Debate album review. Today we’re reviewing the new album “Dreams Of Lands Unseen” by Ignea. Ignea are a symphonic metal band from Ukraine. The material fits in the general mold of symphonic metal, but Ignea provide enough musical twists and tangents to keep things fresh and not be too derivative.
Following the intro instrumental “Téoura”, Dreams of Lands Unseen opens with “Dunes.” The vocal and instrumental melodies are impressive, pulling the listener along and demanding attention. A good mix of power and softness in both the vocals and instrumental execution. We also get some snippets of Ukrainian language included among the otherwise English lyrics, to nice effect.
The next song “Camera Obscura” has a synthy intro, will heavy riffs kicking in thereafter relegating the synths to a backing role. Singer Helle Bodenova’s voice is soft and flows well prior to the issuance of her growls. We already begin to see here hints of a moderately progressive approach with Ignea’s music. The majority of tracks on the album begin with a traditional verse, chorus, verse, chorus, sequence, but then branch out as the songs continue with a variety of conclusions including some abrupt endings.
Track 4 - Далекі Обрії (Daleki Obriyi)- reverses the approach of “Camera Obscura” with an initial motor of crunching guitars segueing into keys. We get harsh vox on the verses, and cleans on the choruses, and there’s a satisfying if brief keyboard lead break.
“To No One I Know” features some tasteful string instrument sounds – whether real or synth I’m not sure. But it brings to mind that Ignea is not the brand of symphonic metal that relies on overwhelming backing orchestrations as with acts such as Xandria or Visions Of Atlantis. Their approach is more measured. “Incurable Disease” has a lot of the old Delain feel to it. It’s very cinematic sounding, conjuring spectral images of light and darkeness narrated by beautiful vocals and a lot of ambient backing sound.
Next comes “Nomad’s Luck” which is one of my top songs on the record. Immaculately crafted, this track ‘works’ from beginning to end. I really applaud Ignea for what seems to be the amount of thought they put into these songs. Helle’s voice is excellent here, highlighted by some slow but powerful singing toward the song’s incredible crescendo ending.
“The Golden Shell” has a very east Asian feel to it, especially in the intro. This one casts aside the aggression for passion, eschewing harsh vocals entirely in favor or a soft voice and slow, sustained tempo throughout. This is a good song, just not one of my favs mostly because I don’t think it highlights what this band does best.
The pentultimate track “Opiumist” is also the longest on the album clocking in at over 7 minutes. It’s another of my favorites – just the overall pacing and structure are great. “Opiumist” incorporates even more oriental flavoring in it’s execution, as well as an overall trippy feel from. It gets really trippy about 4 ½ minutes in, than following that interlude goes into about two minutes of straightforward death metal. Kind of a weird song, to be honest, but for me it definitely works.
The album concludes with “Zénith.” This track didn’t work for me - the bouncey main guitar riff I just fine so cringeworthy as to be unlistenable. Give it a chance yourself and perhaps your aesthetic sensibilities will find it more acceptable than I do.
What I have for this album is mostly praise. Dreams Of Lands Unseen is a solid metal album that I would recommend highly to anyone. I’m giving it a nine out of ten – and that’s something given I really didn’t like one of the tracks. Fans of symphonic metal, melodic death metal, and melodic metal generally should check out Ignea – you won’t be disappointed.