An Abstract Illusion is ready to push forward.
Following the success of their previous album, the band led by Christian Berglönn (vocals), Robert Stenvall (keyboards/vocals), Karl Westerlund (guitar/bass), and Isak Nilsson (drums/backing vocals) unveils their third album, The Sleeping City, via Willowtip Records.
Lukas Backeström (vocals), Jonathan Miranda-Figueroa (cello), Dawn Ye (violin), Flavia Fontana (violin), and Elsa Svensson (narration) also participated in the recording.
The album opens with Blackmurmur’s hypnotic keyboard, a first composition that starts off fairly calm then becomes disturbed by elaborate riffs and finally aggressive growls that betray the more melancholic atmosphere. The soaring tones follow one another in violence, also passing through moments of uncertainty where clear vocals dominate, followed by dreamlike leads that pierce the veil of darkness before the keyboards return to haunt us, tempering the transcendent eruption before returning to more vaporous touches. The sound finally calms down to let No Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons pour out its jerky rhythm under a harmonious mix of screams and soothing choirs, but the technicality quickly resurfaces and transforms the agitated flow into an ocean of uncertainty and sonic surprises, whether rooted in aggression, beauty, or even both intertwined. The hazy finale finally shows us the way to Like a Geyser Ever Erupting, which offers a mysterious sound for a few moments before crushing us under the weight of its massive riffs, which testify to a much more furious approach, with blast beats confirming this ferocious touch, but which still allows for a few more mystical passages that borrow various ethereal influences in turn. We return to electronic tones with Frost Flower and its unexpected post-metal roots, which offer us a rise in intensity before welcoming a very soft, clear voice, but the heavy saturation will return to color the composition, as well as a few rapid screams that lead to another moment of tranquility, which in turn shatters. The sound is lost in nothingness, but we arrive at Silverfields, where the welcome is a little more disturbing, but the modern tones quickly dispel the unease and transform the moment into a rather warm interlude with Post-Punk influences before the other instruments return to reinforce the sound. Emmett takes over with a short but sweet melody that transforms with the help of the drums into a dissonant flow and then into a true as rich and diverse as unpredictable and changeable hurricane, providing the perfect playground for the combo’s prog roots, which revel in linking the elements together in a fairly natural way. The track ignites once again in the finale, then The Sleeping City takes its place, continuing in this contrasting atmosphere between heaviness and more fluid moments, creating an intoxicating duality that is fully expressed in both extremes, while leaving plenty of freedom for the guitar to play tortured leads, finally reaching a majestic climax before falling back into darkness to fade away completely.
If you’re as ready to be drawn into heavy, dissonant darkness as you are into bright, refined landscapes, An Abstract Illusion is the band for you. Far from limiting themselves to Black and Death Metal, The Sleeping City offers a true immersion between rage and complexity.
95/100