Infected Brain

Hello friends !
We will discover the universe of IGNEA but especially their new album.

Present yourself to the readers

Hey everyone! I’m the vocalist of IGNEA, a melodic metal band from Ukraine. It’s quite hard to define our music cause all track are different, so we always ask not to judge us by one song. Mostly, we mix heavy riffs with electronic, symphonic, and folk elements, occasional growls, breakdowns, and blastbeats.

What’s the story for THE REALMS OF FIRE AND DEATH ?

‘The Realms of Fire and Death’ is the most well-thought release we’re ever made, and we feel that we leveled up with it. It’s the album we worked on most, in terms of time and effort. It is a concept album with strong story-telling, metaphors, symbols, and is accompanied by a book of short tales incorporating the lyrics of each song.
Musically, The Realms of Fire and Death is a modern-sounding metal having the dynamics of shifting from lighter to more brutal parts, and yet, preserving the melodic part. While earlier we were working in a symphonic direction, the melodic part in the new album is executed through using various synths and electronic sounds.
On this album, you’ll hear everything: light melodic metal, modern MDM, a Disney-like acoustic ballad, a blackened death metal song, a symphonic epic song. Check it out!

Who composes ?...How does it work in the band ?

In our band there’s only one composer and it’s Evgeny, the founder of the band and our keyboardist. So, usually, he writes music, creates a demo and tabs, and sends it all to the rest of the band members. We gather at the rehearsal space and play them all together. Sometimes, other band members can change the parts a bit for their convenience, or I can write vocal parts for a song, but this is how it works in general.

Who writes the texts ?..What are they talking about ?..How does inspiration come ?

Depends on the album. On our EP ‘Sputnik’ and previous full-length album ‘The Sign of Faith’, 50% of texts are mine and 50% belong to Evgeny. On ‘Sputnik’, everything is about space, life on Mars, spacecrafts, the first ever human satellite, etc. On ‘The Sign of Faith’, the text themes are mixed but most of them are related to the issue of faith, in religion, self-belief, and more. They’re socially-related, so to say.
Inspiration is a very ephemeral thing and it’s hard to explain the formula for its appearance. With the new album, I’ve decided not to spread any social or political messages through our lyrics. I wanted this album to be pure fiction and the plot of my imagination. On our last album ‘The Realms of Fire and Death’, all texts are created by me. Each 3 songs on the album make a story, and all stories are under one concept of fire and death.
Apart from the lyrics to the songs, I wrote a book of short stories that allows to dive into the album more. It’s available in our store at https://ignea.band/ and on our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/helleignea

Why the name IGNEA ?

When we started the band, it was called Parallax. But, after releasing our first EP, our band started to grow, and we faced two main challeges: the name was not suitable for our new music and there were too many bands called Parallax, which is a problem if you want to promote your band. So, we came up with the word IGNEA, which means ‘flaming’ or ‘fiery’. We think it suits our music and band vibe.

What are your personal musical tastes and your influences ?

I’m very open-minded and I listen to lots of music genres. Metal-wise, I vary from Gojira, Amorphis, Nightwish, The Agonist, and similar bands to Satyricon, Ulver, and Shining. I can say that I have passion for soundtracks, like OST for the ‘Oblivion’, ‘Last Kingdom’, ‘The Fountain’, ‘Tron: Legacy’ and other movies. Recently, I’ve been relistening to soundtracks to Disney movies and animations. I love pop artists like Lady Gaga, Lana del Rey, Katy Perry. Depending on my mood, I also like to listen to various mixes of dark ambient music, acoustic music by singers-songwriters, etc. And I love the nordic folk-pop scene a lot, so Aurora, Eivør, Björk are very close to my taste. But it’s always changing, you know, so my answers can be different a year after. I go with the flow.

What's your best live memory ? And why ?

If you’re asking about the live shows, then I can recall the show in Arnhem, the Netherlands, within our tour with Butcher Babies and Kobra and the Lotus. It was a packed sold-out show with a great crowd, great club, and it was the second show on tour from the end. On the one hand, we enjoyed every minute of each other’s company, on the other hand, we still had one more night to come. Everyone was on fire, performance-wise, and bonding. And I’d love to get back to this feeling again.

In studio, what was the atmosphere for your new album ?…etc.…

I guess, our recording process differs from the rest of the bands’. We usually record our parts one by one, on the weekends or after the day jobs. We work with the same sound producer, and it’s always an enjoyable process.
However, with this album, I was feeling more established and prepared. Maybe also because it was the first time we worked through the demo of every song, our performance became better over the past few years, and we really knew what we were doing and why.

How does it work for the great design of the CD ? and why this title ?

All desings are made by Maria Goruleva, a talented Ukrainian artist. She’s created all our lyrics videos and the music videos for ‘Queen Dies’, ‘Disenchantment’, and the upcoming video for ‘Jinnslammer’. It’s the first time we decided to work even closer, and she created a whole worlds of visuals for this album, including merch design, album artwork, book illustrations, etc.
We’re super glad to have her on board!

How was the shooting of the clip DISENCHANTMENT ? and why this choice ?

In the video, we see a person who finds a defective hard drive containing a damaged file of a film telling the story on behalf of Gods of Fire towards mankind. Not only people used the sacred flame to kill each other but, eventually, they also started substituting fire with electricity — artificial, soulless light. The gods were “disenchanted” in the earthlings and left them, claiming that “when artificial light is off when you are burnt by the watts you loved, you will return to inception but we’ll be far away.”
It’s the most epic song on the album, so the choice was obvious. We were shooting everything at a photo studio on white background and on chromakey background within just one day. The rest was done at the post-production stage. We’ve got a great director and animator Maria and she was doing everything together with her boyfriend and camerman Ivan. It’s the perfect crew for us.

With Management and booking, how do you work ? And with whom ?

We work with The Flaming Arts Agency for management and booking. However, most of the day-to-day management is done by me. Our manager Vadim is our advisor when it comes to strategic decisions and booking, of course.

What are your projects ?

If you mean the plans, then we’ll release our new video ‘Jinnslammer’ in the late June, early July. Then, we’ll wait for the situation to clear with touring. We’ve got some massive EU touring plans for November and a couple of selected solo shows in Finland for December.
Until then, we’ll also planning a lot of things for our Patreon, including a possible single release for patrons only.

What's your motto ?

Count only on yourself.

Website to remember

Our official website: https://ignea.band/

What would you like to say to the readers ?

Please wash your hands, keep the distance, and stay safe. It will help us all to improve the situation with corona, and we’ll all be able to meet each other in the moshpits soon!