Ukrainian Modern Metal Upstarts IGNEA Share Video For 'Dream Of Lands Unseen' Single From Upcoming 'Monumental' Album

Ukrainian modern metal band IGNEA has released the first single from its upcoming album "Monumental". "Dreams Of Lands Unseen" shares a name with the four-piece's 2023 album but is a step towards something new. The single explores the race to space during the Cold War and therefore a time when war-ridden humanity projected its greatest hopes into the cosmos far beyond our known worlds. Bursting with energy right from the start, "Dreams Of Lands Unseen" combines a punchy, driving riff with fierce growls.

To deepen the nostalgic atmosphere, shimmering keyboard and theremin solos evoke a distinctly 1980s vibe. This matches the monolith of an album that IGNEA are about to release: "Monumental", due out October 23, 2026 via Napalm Records, explores and reflects on nostalgia in all its forms.

IGNEA vocalist Helle Bohdanova states: "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?"

Bohdanova comments on the "Dreams Of Lands Unseen" video: "In the video, actors portraying cosmonauts wear real Soviet space helmets and the bottom layers of Soviet space suits that were also used for stratosphere flights. This is because in a totalitarian regime, sourcing real items for film productions from adjacent ministries was often easier than building fake props — since films were 'ordered' by the leadership, and everyone was expected to contribute to their production. After appearing in a Soviet-era space film, the items remained stored at the film studio for decades afterward. The cosmonaut costumes featured in the video were specifically rented from the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studios in Kyiv, home to Ukraine's largest historic costume collection. On the night of June 14–15, 2026, the studio was hit in a Russian strike on Kyiv, destroying the costume workshop along with roughly 100,000 historical pieces from the archive. The same strike also damaged IGNEA's own headquarters."

"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.

Helle says about "Monumental": "Back in the 17th century, nostalgia was considered a deadly disease — and in many ways, it still is. It's a universal feeling experienced by every human being, pulling us toward a past that felt gentler than it truly was, especially during the bitter moments of the present. Much of this album was inspired by modernist architecture — concrete giants built to signal progress and a brighter future, now slowly decaying. They've become a sort of memory box: Monuments to unrealized dreams, where the future that was once imagined never arrived, yet continues to echo through the ruins and bright mosaics."

On "Monumental", IGNEA takes the listener on nostalgic rides, with all their ups and downs, expressed in music and lyrics, carrying a sense of gentle sadness and reflection, as nostalgia can bring back beautiful memories, darkened by the awareness that these moments will never happen again.

Following "Dreams Of Lands Unseen" (2023),the band navigates through unique facets of the past across nine tracks — from the grandeur and ambition of Cold War space dreams to the melancholy of urban decay and forgotten modernist structures, all the way to the emotional weight of personal and collective memory. All lyrics on "Monumental" were written by vocalist Helle Bohdanova. The music was composed by keyboardist Yevhenii Zhytniuk, with additional contributions from Helle Bohdanova. Mixing and mastering were handled by Grammy Award-nominated producer Jacob Hansen, known for his work with bands such as DELAIN, AMARANTHE, VOLBEAT, AMON AMARTH, ARCH ENEMY and EPICA.

"Monumental" track listing:

01. Darkness
02. Dreams of Lands Unseen
03. Presence Of The Past
04. Prefab (feat. COMBICHRIST)
05. What Buildings Dream Of
06. I Am In Hell
07. Between No Longer And Not Yet
08. Harmony Manufactured (feat. HIRAES)
09. Nadir

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.

IGNEA is:

Helle Bohdanova - Vocals
Yevhenii Zhytniuk - Keys
Dmytro Vinnichenko - Guitars
Oleksandr Kamyshyn - Bass

Photo credit: Lame Perfect