“Ignea” The Sign of Faith CD REVIEW by Nabil Hossam
Ignea is a female-fronted Ukrainian band, coming from Kiev. They introduce oriental metal which is not common to come from Ukraine. They’re also considered by many people to be the first to introduce such genre. Generally their music is oriental with symphonic influences.
The Sign of Faith is their first full-length album after their first EP “Sputnik” that was released in 2013 and a couple more successful songs (Petrichor & Alga) that were released before The Sign of Faith.
Yossi Sassi of Orphaned Land, contributed in “Petrichor” by his guitar solo, and that was before when they came up with their own full album and that’s when they started to be noticed.
The band consists of: Helle Bogdanova (vocals), Evgeny Zhytnyuk (keyboards), Dmitri Vinnichenko (guitars), Xander Kamyshin (bass) and Ivan Kholmogorov (drums).
So let’s talk about the album, the album contains 11 tracks, the most prominent thing you would enjoy while listening to it is the great vocals by Helle and the catchy Middle Eastern melodies. The harsh vocals were great too all of these combined can be heard in the first half of the album that starts with “Şeytanu Akbar”. It had more harsh vocals than clean vocals. A strong start of the album witch catchy heavy riffs. “Alexandria” is the 2nd track and it’s one of the catchiest songs of the album, with great vocals by Helle and a good solo at the end. “Petrichor” is the 3rd track and it’s actually one of the singles they released prior to the album’s release. A perfect combination of the mellow Middle Eastern music and the heavy proggy metal. You can also hear the great solo by
Yossi from Orphaned Land at the end.
“Theatre of Denial” is track number four, it is a bit slower than the tracks before but still something you don’t mind hearing after that great start, followed “Jahi”, the longest track from the album and it has a different construction. It kinda reminds you of Myrath, the Tunisian progressive metal band. The second half of this song is more symphonic with slow riffs and faster solo comes right after it. Personally I find this song a perfect or a complete one and definitely one of the highlights of this album. “Halves Rupture” is track no. 6 and it’s at the same level as the first half of the album, “Last Chosen by You” is a short 3 minutes track with great intro including the catchy riffs and clean vocals. “Alga” is track number eight and it’s the 2nd track released before their debut, another very good and strong track, along with “Petrichor” they are the reason why I got into this band, and you should too.
“How I Hate the Night” is track number nine, and it’s more soothing and symphonic than the rest of the album. A very good time to listen to such track after what you experienced before. “Leviathan” is a symphonic power metal track with harsh vocals. Personally I prefer this track to be in the first half because of how energetic it is, but it’s so good that you wouldn’t even mind its placement here. “Sputnik” is the last track, and it’s a 3 minutes symphonic instrumental track that end such a great album.
Generally, if you are a fan of Middle Eastern music or when it’s mixed with metal music you should definitely give this album a listen, my overall rating is 8.6/10.
Highlights: “Alexandria”, “Petrichor”, “Jahi” and “Leviathan”.
Album Track-list:
1. Şeytanu Akbar
2. Alexandria
3. Petrichor
4. Theatre of Denial
5. Jahi
6. Halves Rupture
7. Last Chosen by You
8. Alga
9. How I Hate the Night
10. Leviathan
11. Sputnik (Xes Dreams Version)
Nabil Hossam/MHF Magazine
