Swedish masters of blackened death-metal atmospherics, AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION, dropped a haunting new single, “No Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons,” just recently, and it almost slipped past my radar entirely. I’m glad to have found it even a tad late because, quite frankly, the song slaps HARD! Right off the bat, it kicks off with a blast-beat-driven gut-punch, traversing a prog-tinged sonic terrain akin to NE OBLIVISCARIS and RIVERS OF NIHIL. Then, things mellow out a bit for an atmospheric section that resonates with an almost vintage OPETH-like air. It seems that almost everyone in the band is doing vocals, so I’m not entirely sure how the harsh and clean vocal duties are assigned. If the music video can be consulted, it would appear that keyboardist Robert Stenvall does the cleans, Christian Berglönn is responsible for both the death-metal growls and black-metal-tinted snarls, and the rest of the band tackles those ethereal backing vocals. This vocal arrangement is one of the band’s fortes; the harsh vocals make your skin crawl just like they should, and the clean vocals are pure gold-standard cherub stuff. The section that kicks off around the 4-and-a-half-minute mark is something to pay particular attention to!
I just discovered this bunch through this video single, and I must say that the band made nothing short of a jaw-dropping first impression! The balance between intense death-metal riffing and haunting atmospherics hits the nail on the head, and there are nice, progressively tinged twists and turns to boot. When the only complaint is that the song merely clocks in at 7 minutes, I guess it’s fair to say that these rogues mean business. This banger is taken from their upcoming full-length, the third overall, entitled “The Sleeping City,” due out on October 17th, 2025, via Willowtip Records. So, mark your calendars – if this song is anything to judge by, the new album is going to be top of the class! I guess I just found for myself yet another brilliant Swedish band to hyperfixate on.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
