Ukrainian modern metal outfit IGNEA have just cracked open the airlock on their next chapter, unveiling “Dreams of Lands Unseen,” the first single from their forthcoming album Monumental — out October 23, 2026 via Napalm Records.

If the title sounds familiar, that’s on purpose. It shares its name with the band’s 2023 record, but this song is less a callback than a launchpad, hurtling IGNEA into new sonic territory. The track sinks its teeth in immediately: a punchy, driving riff meets fierce growls, then quickly opens up into shimmering keyboard leads and a theremin solo that drips with unmistakable 1980s atmosphere. It’s the sound of Cold War cosmic ambition — a race to the stars powered by ideology, illusion, and a very human need to believe in something bigger.

Vocalist Helle Bohdanova frames the song as a meditation on a very specific kind of longing. “This song is about the blend of ambition and illusion, where space wasn’t an escape but a conquest shaped by ideology and dreams,” she explains. “Across Ukraine and many post-Soviet countries, mosaics still depict this promised future: cosmonauts, rockets, bold visions of worlds yet unseen.” She notes that the accompanying black-and-white video was shot on Cooke Varotal lenses — Kubrick’s optics of choice — to evoke vintage sci-fi rather than modern spectacle. “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.”

Watch the official music video for “Dreams of Lands Unseen” here: https://youtu.be/DOma9HHfKvQ

The visuals carry an extra layer of weight. The cosmonaut costumes worn in the clip are genuine Soviet-era space helmets and suit layers, 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, a Russian strike on Kyiv destroyed the studio’s costume workshop along with roughly 100,000 archival pieces. The same strike damaged IGNEA’s own headquarters. The video, then, becomes an accidental time capsule of artifacts that no longer exist.

Monumental is IGNEA’s second full-length written during the full-scale war in Ukraine, with most of the recording taking place through the winter of 2025–2026 amid icy temperatures and long power outages in Kyiv. Across nine tracks, the album meditates on nostalgia in all its shapes — from Cold War space dreams to crumbling modernist architecture to the emotional weight of collective memory.

“Back in the 17th century, nostalgia was considered a deadly disease — and in many ways, it still is,” Bohdanova says. “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.”

All lyrics were penned by Bohdanova, with music composed by keyboardist Yevhenii Zhytniuk (with additional contributions from Bohdanova). Mixing and mastering were handled by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob Hansen (Delain, Amaranthe, Volbeat, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Epica). The tracklist also boasts guest appearances from Combichrist on “Prefab” and Hiiraes on “Harmony Manufactured.”

MONUMENTAL TRACK LISTING:
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. Hiiraes)
9. Nadir

Monumental will be available on splatter vinyl (with LP-sized booklet, strictly limited), a CD + T-shirt bundle, solid silver vinyl, CD jewelcase, and digital.

Pre-order Monumental here: https://lnk.to/Ignea-Monumental/napalmrecords

IGNEA also head out this fall supporting Evergrey on the Architects Of A New Weave European Tour 2026 with Stellar Circuits.

IGNEA LIVE 2026 (w/ Evergrey + Stellar Circuits):
11/11 — Lund, SE — Mejeriet
11/12 — Stockholm, SE — Kollektivet Livet
11/13 — Linköping, SE — Palatset
11/14 — Gothenburg, SE — Filmstudion 2
11/15 — Oslo, NO — Salt
11/17 — Hamburg, DE — Logo
11/18 — Berlin, DE — Hole44
11/19 — Munich, DE — Feierwerk
11/20 — Vienna, AT — Weberknecht
11/21 — Milan, IT — Slaughter Club
11/22 — Aarau, CH — KiFF
11/23 — Antwerp, BE — Zappa
11/25 — Southampton, UK — The Brook
11/26 — Birmingham, UK — Asylum
11/27 — London, UK — The Underworld
11/28 — Leeds, UK — The Key Club
11/29 — Dublin, IE — Opium
11/30 — Belfast, UK — Limelight 2
12/1 — Glasgow, UK — G2
12/2 — Newcastle, UK — Anarchy Brew
12/3 — Manchester, UK — Rebellion
12/4 — Bristol, UK — Strange Brew
12/5 — Nottingham, UK — Saltbox
12/7 — Paris, FR — Petit Bain
12/8 — Trier, DE — Mergener Hof
12/9 — Karlsruhe, DE — Substage
12/10 — Dortmund, DE — Junkyard
12/11 — Rotterdam, NL — Baroeg
12/12 — Maastricht, NL — Muziekgieterij

Whether you dreamt of being an astronaut once or you’re just here for the riffs, “Dreams of Lands Unseen” is a striking opening transmission from a band making some of the most ambitious modern metal coming out of Europe right now. Queue it up, pre-order Monumental, and get your ticket before the tour lifts off.