{"id":199100,"date":"2025-10-14T09:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199100\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T09:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:40:13","slug":"review-an-abstract-illusion-the-sleeping-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199100\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published by Christopher<\/a> on October 13, 2025October 13, 2025<\/p>\n

\"\"Album art by: Alex Eckman-Lawn<\/a><\/p>\n

Style: Melodic death metal, progressive metal, synth rock (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Fallujah, Devin Townsend, Wilderun<\/a>
Country: Sweden
Release date: 17 October 2025<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to let you in on a secret: within the next month, we\u2019ll be sharing our Top 50 Underground Prog Albums of the Decade So Far 2020 \u2013 2024, and you\u2019d better believe that An Abstract Illusion will feature1<\/a>. After all, their sophomore Woe received a rare double review<\/a> from Andy (busy with uni) and Zach (missing, presumed dead) in 2022, the duo bestowing upon it a 9 and 9.5, respectively. To boot, the band\u2019s debut full-length, Illuminate the Path, made our Top 50 Underground Prog Albums of the 2010s<\/a>, too. Suffice to say, the expectations for AAI\u2019s third outing have been sky high across the progressive metal scene. Will The Sleeping City have listeners eargasming like a geyser ever erupting or is it as soporific as its title?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The aim of the Swedes on The Sleeping City is to lean wholly into synth influences, such as Depeche Mode, My Bloody Valentine, Boards of Canada, and explicitly citing the score to Blade Runner (i.e. Vangelis), to create a death metal album that could soundtrack a dystopian sci-fi film. Synthwave and ambient influences were certainly present on Woe, but on The Sleeping City they\u2019re amplified, successfully steeping the band\u2019s trademark melody-forward take on progressive death metal in a neon-saturated sci-fi gloss, with a wall-of-sound production style reminiscent of Devin Townsend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBlackmurmur\u201d announces the new noise in style, with creeping synth arpeggios opening the album as the band warm up, leading us into our first main motif. Awash in synth, the track is far more densely-layered than their previous work, lighter in tone, and even more mood-driven than Woe. With a catchy, clean hook, some beautiful piano work, and several breaks for trippy synths between the soaring leads, vituperative harshes, plus synth solos you\u2019d expect to hear on a Carpenter Brut album, The Sleeping City, then, marks a clear evolution. The opener seems to take what worked about \u201cIn the Heavens Above, You Will Become a Monster\u201d (seemingly a crowd favourite) and capitalises on these various progressive elements, relegating the core death metal style to a secondary concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s plenty to like across The Sleeping City. Christian Bergl\u00f6nn and Robert Stenvall\u2019s vocal performances deserve particular praise, with the clean vocals becoming a much stronger focus here and providing some gorgeous moments such as the hook on \u201cBlackmurmur\u201d, the choral break on \u201cLike a Geyser Ever Erupting\u201d2<\/a>, and some positively Solbergian (Leprous) highs on \u201cFrost Flower\u201d. There\u2019s some impressive guitar work, including the solo on \u201cNo Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons\u201d and the heavy riff that follows it, a very cool lick on \u201cLike a Geyser Ever Erupting\u201d, and an absolutely gorgeous solo on \u201cThe Sleeping City\u201d. But it\u2019s Stenvall\u2019s keys that take centre stage throughout: a gorgeous piano break on the title track, and some impressive synth soloing on \u201cBlackmurmur\u201d and \u201cFrost Flower\u201d, as well as defining the overall ambience of the entire record. And don\u2019t get me started on the Steven Wilson homages3<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sleeping City, however, faces some issues. One is of motifs and mixing. Like finding sand after a beach trip, there\u2019s synth arpeggios in every nook and cranny, and that would be fine if they weren\u2019t so damned loud. For some reason, simplistic synth ascents and descents are turned up to eleven while more interesting guitar and synth lead work are pushed into the background, as though the album was mixed upside-down and all the numbers were read backwards. Mix problems rear their heads elsewhere: at the album\u2019s most densely layered junctures, the low end can become a touch muddy with drums and rhythm guitar particularly affected. With this rhythmic bed dampened, compositions become unmoored, too floaty for their own good. Playing with so many added layers is obviously a challenge\u2014Devin Townsend has self-produced his ridiculous wall-of-sound for decades and his mixes have always been variable. Still, while an admirable production job, elements unavoidably become buried on The Sleeping City, often by irksomely homogenous synth arpeggios.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Compounding this problem is the compositions themselves. While it\u2019s easy to pick out some great moments\u2014and a few prominent songs\u2014The Sleeping City suffers from an odd sameness throughout, a handful of distinct elements remixed a few different ways. By the time \u201cEmmett\u201d comes along, I\u2019m half checked out. This particular block is one that many a band stumbles over: when your record is built on the valleys and peaks of build-ups and crescendos, everything begins to sound the same4<\/a>. The Sleeping City duvets itself in synths and ambience that define the album much more readily than any other compositional decision does, once again, to the detriment of the rhythm section. The majesty of Woe was the versatility within an album that was, at its heart, one long song. Kauan-y post-rock vied against fully fledged death metal; choirs and Wilderun-esque symphonics were under assault by virtuosic technicality. Every song on The Sleeping City, no matter how promisingly it starts, seems to transform halfway into an attempt to recapture the epic magic of \u201cIn the Heavens Above, You Will Become a Monster\u201d\u2014those same grandiose melodies, synth motifs, and howls of anguish but combined in slightly different configurations. And as much as I adore that song, it defined Woe so brilliantly because it was an exception. It\u2019s no coincidence that the most successful track on The Sleeping City is the eponymous closer, which sticks close to its central, guitar-led rhythm and consistently builds upon it, rather than recapitulating iterations of the same tired ideas or giving way to a bunch of floating synth ideas without a rhythmic foundation within which they can root themselves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Very few bands ever make a masterpiece, and An Abstract Illusion hit upon one on their second try. The follow-up to Woe was always going to struggle to reach the same giddy heights, and, let me be clear, The Sleeping City is by no means a bad album. To their credit, the ambitious Swedish group attempt something new here, and the underlying vision is palpable\u2014there\u2019s a version of this record that could easily be a second magnum opus for the band. Unfortunately, certain compositional and production choices do the totality of the vision a frustrating disservice, making The Sleeping City feel untethered from itself; a dream of perfection marred by having woken up leaving mere pieces of an elusive whole. Woe is me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recommended tracks: The Sleeping City, Blackmurmur, Frost Flower
You may also like: Disillusion<\/a>, Dessiderium<\/a>, Iotunn<\/a>
Final verdict: 6\/10<\/p>\n

Related links: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Instagram<\/a> | Metal-Archives<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: Willowtip Records \u2013 Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Official Website<\/a><\/p>\n

An Abstract Illusion is:
\u2013 Christian Bergl\u00f6nn \u2013 lead vocals
\u2013 Robert Stenvall \u2013 keyboards, vocals
\u2013 Karl Westerlund \u2013 guitars, bass
\u2013 Isak Nilsson \u2014 drums, background vocals
With guests:
\u2013 Lukas Backestr\u00f6m \u2013 lead vocals (track 1, 4), choir (track 2, 3)
\u2013 Jonathan Miranda-Figueroa \u2013 cello (track 3, 4, 7)
\u2013 Dawn Ye \u2013 violin (track 3, 7)
\u2013 Flavia Fontana \u2013 violin (track 4)
\u2013 Elsa Svensson \u2013 voice (track 6)<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n