{"id":82641,"date":"2025-10-15T17:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/82641\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T17:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:42:07","slug":"an-abstract-illusion-the-sleeping-city-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/82641\/","title":{"rendered":"An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When a group strikes gold, I imagine that there might be a temptation to continue mining the same vein. In 2022, Sweden\u2019s An Abstract Illusion seized the metalverse by the collective throat and shook it with forceful pathos. Woe<\/a> was a start-to-finish progressive death metal masterpiece which edged out some stiff competition to take the number one spot on my personal Top Ten(ish) list that year. The same was true for Carcharodon, whose mighty shoes\u2014flippers?\u2014I humbly struggle to fill. Now, with the release of The Sleeping City, An Abstract Illusion boldly declares that they are not content to repeat themselves.<\/p>\n

As a comparison of their cover artworks suggests, The Sleeping City is something of a tonal opposite of Woe. Whereas Woe was despairing with occasional hopeful spots, The Sleeping City is mainly bright with pockets of ferocity. At its core, An Abstract Illusion still plays a deeply emotive strain of progressive death, like a more intimate and less pompous In Vain or In Mourning. Vivid neon synths in the classic fashion of Tangerine Dream or John Carpenter now abound. This invites comparisons to last year\u2019s Blood Incantation<\/a> record, but I daresay that the synths are integrated more naturally and tastefully in The Sleeping City. An Abstract Illusion never goes full synthwave, though they do flirt with the style on \u201cSilverfields\u201d and \u201cFrost Flower.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Sleeping City by An Abstract Illusion<\/a><\/p>\n

An Abstract Illusion\u2019s unbridled emotional outpouring is still present in ways both familiar and new. To this end, the vocals are even more expressive. Christian Bergl\u00f6nn\u2019s screams display his signature unsettling anguish (\u201cNo Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons,\u201d \u201cEmmett\u201d) and guest Lukas Backestr\u00f6m\u2019s singing in \u201cFrost Flower\u201d is crisp and angelic. The Sleeping City also features a couple of guest violinists (Dawn Ye and Flavia Fontana) and a cellist (Jonathan Miranda-Figueroa), who pair extremely well with the crystalline synths to hone their poignant edges. Crucially, the strings are not overused, which might have cheapened their impact. The real magic happens when these elements come together, namely during the lush instrumental section in \u201cBlackmurmur,\u201d which builds to a sexy synth solo (Robert Stenvall) and then erupts into despairing howls. Drummer Isak Nilsson is a great addition, whose frenetic tempos and deliberate tom rhythms heighten listener engagement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On The Sleeping City, Karl Westerlund again proves himself a master of long-form songwriting. Unlike Woe, which felt like a singular body of work with distinct movements, The Sleeping City is composed of tracks that fit together more like jigsaw puzzle pieces. The individual tracks flow effortlessly while also subtly crossing over with one another, such as the similarly mysterious synth tunes which manifest back to back in \u201cFrost Flower\u201d and \u201cEmmett.\u201d The overall pacing feels less meticulous and patient than Woe, though this is not necessarily a bad thing, just different. An Abstract Illusion makes good use of the hour runtime; the aimless noodling at the end of \u201cNo Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons\u201d being the only part that could have been trimmed away. The production doesn\u2019t quite do this magnificent music justice\u2014see the DR score below\u2014but it\u2019s hardly a dealbreaker.<\/p>\n

The Sleeping City is evidence that Woe was not a one-hit wonder. Even more impressive, An Abstract Illusion managed to recreate prior success while significantly overhauling their style. The Sleeping City is different enough to further expand An Abstract Illusion\u2019s fanbase while retaining the heartfelt compositions that garnered such a large following before. The gorgeous cascading arpeggios that bathe The Sleeping City are an easy highlight. Recurring notes and melodies give each track a sense of identity, yet each is of equal quality that I can\u2019t (nor do I want to) pick any favorites. An Abstract Illusion is still firing on all cylinders, and it\u2019s exhilarating to behold.<\/p>\n

Rating: 4.0\/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: FLAC
Label: Willowtip Records<\/a>
Websites: anabstractillusion.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/anabstractillusion<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: October 17th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a group strikes gold, I imagine that there might be a temptation to continue mining the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5808,14119,53568,19940,5810,93,61,53569,53570,60,51235,278,37128,53571,5819,563,564,37136,53572,53573,53574],"class_list":{"0":"post-82641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-5808","9":"tag-4-0","10":"tag-an-abstract-illusion","11":"tag-blood-incantation","12":"tag-death-metal","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-in-mourning","16":"tag-in-vain","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-john-carpenter","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-oct25","21":"tag-progressive-death","22":"tag-progressive-metal","23":"tag-review","24":"tag-reviews","25":"tag-swedish-metal","26":"tag-tangerine-dream","27":"tag-the-sleeping-city","28":"tag-willowtip-records"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}