Artwork by: The Kraken Artworks

Style: Symphonic Metal, Power Metal (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Nightwish, Epica, Xandria, Within Temptation
Country: Argentina
Release date: 18 September 2026

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I don’t listen to much symphonic metal these days, but it’s a subgenre whose fire I keep stoked in the home of my heart should they ever knock again. Albums like Once (Nightwish), The Divine Conspiracy (Epica), and India (Xandria) were essential to my growth as a burgeoning metalhead, opening me up to metal’s more dramatic and theatrical side¹—not to mention injecting a much-needed dose of femininity and beauty into my up-to-that-point “masculine” listening roster. Tarja Turunen and Simone Simons became important figureheads alongside the likes of Ronnie James Dio and Dave Mustaine, whose voices imprinted themselves upon my soul and buoyed me throughout high school and beyond. I wouldn’t be me without symphonic metal.

So, when Abstracted Mind came wandering in from the Autumnal chill, perhaps having seen the fire flickering warmly through the frosted windowpanes, and knocked on my door, of course I answered. Complimenting the requisite stratospheric synths and orchestrations with the gravity-inducing chuggery of modern metal, this far-flung quartet of youthful adventurers proffer a familiar if enticing tonic with debut Break Down Your Fears. Yet, symphonic metal, much like thrash, can feel overshadowed by the giants carved within the pillars of its pantheon, and so I wondered: does Abstracted Mind have what it takes to notch their own place in those hallowed walls? Or are they doomed to languish unseen in the shadows?

The tools are there, the requisite pieces in play, but the final result is uneven. “Where It Begins” is a rough slice, starting well enough with a weedle-y guitar line and accompanying strings / horns that provide plenty of head-nodding drive, but Juli Hope’s stop-start vocal melody matched against bare-bones chugging quickly pulled the plug on the momentum. Luckily, the band bounce back in the chorus and in the song’s bridge, where Hope’s voice opens up from a somewhat thin range to showcase some more operatic depths. Unfortunately much of the issues plaguing Break Down Your Fears can be isolated here and on follow-up “Despair”, when guitarist Yamil Ladner pulls out the expected death growls—and, like most symphonic metal bands who follow the “beauty and beast” approach—they’re simply okay. At best, they serve to add some danger beneath Hope’s cleans (“Eternals”); at worst, they end up sounding unremarkable and a slice unrefined (“Despair”). And those are all words we can use to describe the album as a whole. Now, I’m no chug-hater (I like metalcore, after all), but the band’s reliance on indistinct chuggy riffs leads to much of the instrumentation lacking momentum, while the weirdly thin production siphons impact from what should (and could) be a grand, baroque record.

Granted, many a symphonic metal band tend to have guitar players who can be nestled into similar compositional zones, leaving the orchestration and percussion (and a charismatic vocalist) to provide much of the propulsion. Hope thankfully feels more confident as the album progresses, exploring more ranges beyond her baseline (“Eternals”, “Shattered Mirror”, “Rise Again”), while Eva Levina’s drumming has just enough get up and go at times to escape the unremarkable framework established by the guitar. Sadly, outside of a small run on “Eternals”, Rutger Klijn’s bass suffers the usual fate of being buried beyond the point of recognition. The track starts with a robustness and epicness that frankly should have earned it the honor of opening the album; Abstracted Mind feel the most driven and composed here, balancing textural chugging with more expressive guitar lines, while the orchestration possesses a fullness of form absent elsewhere. Levina’s aggressive playing in the early moments, alongside the melodrama of the instrumentation and Ladner’s darker riffs, lit a spark in me that was absent in the previous tracks and just only held to a steady flicker beyond.

The best of symphonic metal is transportive, wielding the promethean grandeur of classical music in harmony with the modern edge of heavy metal to construct irresistible pockets of fantastical, sometimes philosophical, sonic storytelling. There’s a pull, a gravity to the compositions, the production, the performances that provide an undeniable measure of character and personality to titans like Nightwish and Epica, but also up-and-coming acts like Seven Spires. Abstracted Mind have the ingredients, they have the right tools to craft it, and on tracks like “Eternals” they come tantalizingly close. Individually, I felt a strengthening of talents as the record went on, but as a conclusive whole, Break Down Your Fears exists as a frustratingly banal offering that is only recommendable to the most die-hard of symphonic metal fans. The foundation for something greater is here, though, and I think Abstracted Mind, given time and exploration, possess the means to dig deeper. Should they come knocking again, I’ll certainly leave the light on for them.

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Recommended tracks: Eternals, Shattered Mirror
You may also like: Seven Spires, Moonlight Haze, Temperance, Visions of Atlantis
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Abstracted Mind is:
– Juli Hope (vocals)
– Yamil Ladner (guitars, vocals)
– Rutger Klijn (bass)
– Eva Levina (drums)

1. Not to mention probably my first introduction to harsh vocals / death metal-adjacent sounds. ↩︎