#the-sleeping-city — Public Fediverse posts

Record’s o’ the Month – October 2025

By Steel Druhm

The holidays are in full swing, turkeys have been stuffed, and thoughts turn to gift-giving, tree trimming, and snow golem building. Into this hectic, Mariah Carey-voiced silly season comes the October Record(s) o’ the Month. Yes, it’s a lot to process this time of year, and yes, it may be the Ho, Ho, HO that breaks your Christmas spirit like a wishbone, but we must endure for the good of the children. Unwrap these generous gifts and be thankful you didn’t get cesspool coal or spoiled pruno, you greedy fooks!

What more can we say about the progressive death metal of An Abstract Illusion? We fanboyed long and hard on their 2020 opus, Woe, and now in 2025, a new reviewer picked up the mantle and fanboyed just as hard over The Sleeping City. It’s almost like they paid us! Loaded with synths and emotional textures, The Sleeping City doesn’t try to replicate the melancholy of Woe, but instead finds its own groove with hints of Blood Incantation in its tasteful ferocity and venom. Violin, cello, and multiple vocalists help round out the scope and tapestry, and everything is played for and with emotion and feelz. Words like “masterpiece” have been thrown around the AMG offices despite my regime of brutal whippings and electro-torture. As a gobsmacked Killjoy gushed, “The Sleeping City is different enough to further expand An Abstract Illusion’s fanbase while retaining the heartfelt compositions that garnered such a large following before.” I guess there must be something special here after all.1

Runner(s) Up:

Aephanemer // Utopie [October 31, 2025 | Napalm Records | Bandcamp] — Number one on my pile of shame is Aephanemer’s brilliant Utopie, which takes the things that make these French neoclassical melodeath dealers great and continues building. Fortunately, while I’ve been trapped in the nether realm—a glass cage of emotion and questionable well-being—I have capable wordsmiths who are willing to climb over my near-corpse to produce brilliant reviews. Grin Reaper waxed poetic and had the added benefit of waxing correctly: “Utopie is the sound of a band with a vision so crisp and vivid that all you need to do is close your eyes to be whisked away to paradise. Aephanemer oozes jubilance and confidence, harnessing the successes of previous albums and honing them to an eager edge,” he gushed, “sallying forth with nary a concern for detractors. In a year when melodeath claimed two of 2025’s Records o’ the Month and saw huge releases from legends and newcomers alike, Utopie claims the top spot in the genre. Aephanemer in 2025 best embodies the spirit and triumph of what symphonic melodeath can do, mustering a celebration of undeniable charm and panache.” I mean, that’s pretty close to what I would’ve said. Just, y’know, late and with unearned confidence. – AMG

Dawnwalker // The Between [October 24th, 2025 | Independent Release | Bandcamp] — U.K.’s Dawnwalker are the kind of band that evolve and mutate from album to album. On The Between, they offer a single 30-plus-minute song showcasing a delicate blend of progressive, post, folk, doom, death metal, and New Age sounds,2 without forfeiting their metal credentials. With a concept centered on death and dying, things won’t exactly be cheery, but the music’s ebbs and flows take you on a real journey. The album’s seamless movement between heaviness and serenity lets it slip beyond strict genre boundaries and into something more cinematic. The Between feels meticulously structured and, because of its grand scale, continues to reveal new layers with each listen. As Twelve exuberantly exclaimed, “Writing a half-hour song in any context is a mighty undertaking, and it’s impressive how well Norgate and Dawnwalker pull it off on The Between.” Dawnwalker walks the walk.3

Howling Giant // Crucible & Ruin [October 31st, 2025 | Magnetic Eye Records | Bandcamp] — Nashville stoner/psychedelic rockers Howling Giant have a pretty unique sound that references multiple genres and some better-known acts, yet they never lose their own unmistakable identity. Their rock-forward foundation carries traces of sludge and a healthy dose of prog, all wrapped around hooky choruses and riffs built to level small buildings. The new record sharpens that formula: the songwriting feels broader and more ambitious, with layered guitars, soaring vocal harmonies, and psychedelic atmospheres that push them well beyond the usual stoner-rock palette. At the same time, they’ve kept the crushing low-end and riff-driven punch that makes their catalog so replayable, giving the album an immediacy that sticks from the first spin onward. All of it is cloaked in just the right amount of stoner smoke and mirrors, and there’s a rowdy, anthemic groove running through the whole affair—complete with nods to Helmet—so you know fun will be had. As Dear Hollow screamed at unsuspecting readers, “Songwriting prowess on full display, the kitchen sink of riff, solo, melody, and catchiness has never looked so clean!” Howl with the giant pack.

#2025 #AnAbstractIllusion #CrucibleRuin #Dawnwalker #HowlingGiant #RecordSOTheMonth #TheBetween #TheSleepingCity

An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City Review

By Killjoy

When a group strikes gold, I imagine that there might be a temptation to continue mining the same vein. In 2022, Sweden’s An Abstract Illusion seized the metalverse by the collective throat and shook it with forceful pathos. Woe 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—flippers?—I 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.

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’s Blood Incantation 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 “Silverfields” and “Frost Flower.”

An Abstract Illusion’s unbridled emotional outpouring is still present in ways both familiar and new. To this end, the vocals are even more expressive. Christian Berglönn’s screams display his signature unsettling anguish (“No Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons,” “Emmett”) and guest Lukas Backeström’s singing in “Frost Flower” 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 “Blackmurmur,” 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.

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 “Frost Flower” and “Emmett.” 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 “No Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons” being the only part that could have been trimmed away.1 The production doesn’t quite do this magnificent music justice—see the DR score below—but it’s hardly a dealbreaker.

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’s 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’t (nor do I want to) pick any favorites. An Abstract Illusion is still firing on all cylinders, and it’s exhilarating to behold.

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

#2025 #40 #AnAbstractIllusion #BloodIncantation #DeathMetal #InMourning #InVain #JohnCarpenter #Oct25 #ProgressiveDeath #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SwedishMetal #TangerineDream #TheSleepingCity #WillowtipRecords