Canadian melodic metal act Borealis has announced the release of their fifth studio album, entitled Illusions, that will be out on 7th October, via AFM Records.
Ahead of Illusions comes new single ‘Ashes Turn To Rain‘, alongside a new video available for you to catch right here at RAMzine.
“It’s only taken us 15 years, but we’re finally releasing our first official music video for our next single off of Illusions called ‘Ashes Turn To Rain’,” said guitarist Ken Fobert. “Being our first video, we wanted to do something a little special for it. It’s not only a band-performance video for ‘Ashes Turn To Rain’, with the help of our director, Jeremy Tredenick (JReelVisuals), we also incorporated a storyline and visuals to accompany the self-titled opening track for the album.
“The video features Scandinavian film composer and vocalist, Christine Hals, who not only contributed her unique primal scream vocals but a stunning mountaintop performance as well. Ya! It’s pretty epic and we can’t wait for everyone to see it!”
“We are so excited to release this new record, considering how long it’s been and what the world has been through over the last 2 years!“ Marinelli said recently. “With the extra time we had with this one, we feel like these are some of the best songs we’ve ever written. Some of the songs were written way back in 2019 so we’ve had time to really perfect them.”
Following their debut release in 2008, Borealis would open for several metal greats, including Epica, Sonata Artica, Saxon and Kamelot. Now, four years since 2018’s The Offering, they return with a brand new magnum opus, arguably their most complete album to date while adding more orchestral elements and darker themes.
The album not only introduces composer and multi-instrumentalist Vikram Shankar (Silent Skies, Redemption, Lux Terminus), who was brought in to compose all of the orchestra and synth elements, but Illusions is also a continuation of the story from The Offering, taking place years later through the eyes of the children and how the traumatic events they experienced has shaped their lives.
“We are so excited to release this new record, considering how long it’s been and what the world has been through over the last 2 years!“ Marinelli commented. “With the extra time we had with this one, we feel like these are some of the best songs we’ve ever written. Some of the songs were written way back in 2019 so we’ve had time to really perfect them.”You can also check out the lyric video for first album single ‘Pray For Water’ here at RAMzine. Martinelli said: “We wanted a textbook Borealis song on the album, something where, as soon as you hear it you know it’s us,” going on to say, “Using the continuation from The Offering, this album is about the surviving children and how they’re coping years later. This song in particular is about one of them praying for the sacrifice to be stopped.”
About the band’s sound development and their cooperation with Vikram, guitarist Ken Fobert explained: “We had been fans of Vik’s music and content for years and with this album, we really wanted to bring it to another level. We didn’t want to do the same old thing this time around with just adding strings and orchestra.
“We did do that, but we also wanted to incorporate more synth elements and weird futuristic sounds to give these songs a bit of a different vibe and character than what you would typically expect from us. I think with the phenomenal composing that Vik did for these songs, we were able to achieve that.”
Illusions was produced by Borealis, engineered and mixed by the band’s drummer, Sean Dowell, and mastered by Thomas ‘Plec’ Johansson.
Rounding the band out is bass player Aiden Watkinson, and together they perform on the following album tracks: ‘Illusions feat. Christine Hals’, ‘Ashes Turn To Rain’, ‘My Fortress’, ‘Pray For Water’, ‘Burning Tears feat. Lynsey Ward’, ‘Believer’, ‘Light Of The Sun’, ‘Face Of Reality’, ‘Bury Me Alive’, ‘Abandon All Hope’ and ‘The Phantom Silence’.
Illusions is available to pre-order here.
