Ukrainian modern metal band IGNEA further open the doors to their forthcoming album, Monumental, out 23rd October via Napalm Records, with their 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 yearning itself, the drift into shadow followed by sudden bursts of longing.

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/DGQfpAnp4Fk

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

'Darkness' is paired with a music video shot in Ukraine’s capital city. The walk through Kyiv reflects another central theme of the album, passing modernist buildings that symbolise a future that never arrived. Part of the video was filmed at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, a location of particular symbolic importance for an album rooted in urban nostalgia. Its halls still carry the energy of generations of students who trained there to build the very structures the video now quietly mourns.

With the very buildings that once held only innocent memories of the band's upbringing now being destroyed by war, the imagery takes on an even more poignant meaning. It's no longer simply a longing for the past, but grief for a world that is disappearing in real time. In a cruel twist of fate, IGNEA filmed the video for 'Darkness' amid the literal darkness left by one of the largest missile and drone attacks on Kyiv, which struck the city the night before filming began.

Vocalist Helle Bohdanova comments: “'Darkness’ is about the rides we take into nostalgia when the present gets too heavy and how bittersweet it is to realise 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?”

Echoing nostalgia for a future that never arrives on Monumental.

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 comments 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 unrealised 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.

Catch IGNEA live supporting EVERGREY on their Architects Of A New Weave European Tour 2026 with Stellar Circuits.

UK dates:
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

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

IGNEA online:
WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
NAPALM RECORDS

IGNEA release haunting second single 'Darkness'

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