Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Ukrainian modern metal architects IGNEA further open the doors to their upcoming album Monumental, out on October 23, 2026 via Napalm Records, with the second single, “Darkness”. The song sets the emotional foundation for the album, which is set around the concept of nostalgia. “Darkness” explores finding comfort in memories even if they reveal cracks. Native to Kyiv, IGNEA have their own fair share of those, so the new song inevitably takes a bittersweet turn. Shifting between eerie, melancholic verses and grandiose, uplifting choruses before crescendoing into a live choir set against raw blast beats, the new song mirrors the emotional swing of nostalgia itself, the drift into shadow followed by sudden bursts of longing.
 
“Darkness” is paired with a music video shot in Ukraine’s capital city. The walk through Kyiv captures an additional theme of the album – the walk past modernist buildings representing a future that never arrived. Part of the video was filmed at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture — symbolically vital for an album about urban nostalgia, as its halls carry the energy of generations of students who trained there to build the very structures the video mourns.
 
With the very same buildings that once only held innocent memories of the band’s upbringing now being destroyed by the war, the imagery adds a second, bitter layer to the nostalgia. It’s not just longing for the past, but grief for what is disappearing in real time. In a cruel coincidence, IGNEA shot the video for “Darkness” in the literal darkness of the largest missile and drone attacks on Kyiv that hit the night before shooting.
 
Helle Bohdanova about “Darkness”:
“‘Darkness’ is about the rides we take into nostalgia when the present gets too heavy — and how bittersweet it is to realize you can never actually go back. As all IGNEA members are from Kyiv, we wanted to make a nostalgic ode to our city, walking through its memory — the same modernist buildings that once promised a future, the subway stations, the same streets that hold our childhoods, our first kisses, people we’ve lost.
 
The war, in its turn, adds its own layer of darker nostalgia, watching those buildings burn in real time — and it heavily affected both days of filming.
 
On the first day, one of the worst missile attacks on Kyiv hit the night before — we hadn’t slept at all, running on nothing but adrenaline, and the city was still on fire as we drove to the location. On the second, we filmed through the city with sirens and drones overhead.
 
Considering this, we’re living in literal darkness, longing for the peaceful, trouble-free days… Can we ever get back?”

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 Bohdanova 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.”

Pre-order your copy of Monumental NOW

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 tracklisting:

1. Darkness    
2. Dreams of Lands Unseen     
3. Presence of the Past              
4. Prefab (feat. Combichrist)
5. What Buildings Dream of    
6. I am in Hell 
7. Between No Longer and Not Yet      
8. Harmony Manufactured (feat. Hiraes)
9. 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 Live 2026
 
Supporting EVERGREY’s Architects Of A New Weave European Tour 2026
w/ Stellar Circuits
11.11.26 SE – Lund / Mejeriet
12.11.26 SE – Stockholm / Kollektivet Livet
13.11.26 SE – Linköping / Paletset
14.11.26 SE – Gothenburg / Filmstudion 2
15.11.26 NO – Oslo / Salt
17.11.26 DE – Hamburg / Logo
18.11.26 DE – Berlin / Hole44
19.11.26 DE – Munich / Feierwerk
20.11.26 AT – Vienna / Weberknecht
21.11.26 IT – Milan / Slaughter Club
22.11.26 CH – Aarau / KiFF
23.11.26 BE – Antwerp / Zappa
25.11.26 UK – Southampton / The Brook
26.11.26 UK – Birmingham / Asylum
27.11.26 UK – London / The Underworld
28.11.26 UK – Leeds / The Key Club
29.11.26 IE – Dublin / Opium
30.11.26 UK – Belfast / Limelight 2
01.12.26 UK – Glasgow / G2
02.12.26 UK – Newcastle / Anarchy Brew
03.12.26 UK – Manchester / Rebellion
04.12.26 UK – Bristol / Strange Brew
05.12.26 UK – Nottingham / Saltbox
07.12.26 FR – Paris / Petit Bain
08.12.26 DE – Trier / Mergener Hof
09.12.26 DE – Karlsruhe / Substage
10.12.26 DE – Dortmund / Junkyard
11.12.26 NL – Rotterdam / Baroeg
12.12.26 NL – Maastricht / Muziekgieterij

IGNEA are:
Helle Bohdanova – Vocals
Yevhenii Zhytniuk – Keys
Dmytro Vinnichenko – Guitars
Oleksandr Kamyshyn – Bass
 
IGNEA online:
WEBSITE
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NAPALM RECORDS