Draconian – In Somnolent Ruin

• Country: Sweden
• Style: Gothic doom metal
• Label: Napalm Records
• Release date: 8 May 2026

Six years of silence, and then this: an album that moves like fog across still water. In Somnolent Ruin is Draconian’s eighth record and their first since Under A Godless Veil, and it feels less like a comeback than a slow awakening, the kind where you’re not quite sure the dream has ended.

The biggest homecoming is Lisa Johansson. Her voice returned to the band in 2022, and here it floats above the guitars like a lantern in a dark corridor, clear and fragile against Anders Jacobsson’s deep, cavernous growl. That old beauty-and-the-beast contrast has been done a thousand times, but few bands make it feel as intimate as Draconian do. When the two voices meet, it sounds less like a duet and more like a conversation between the living and the dead.

Running through the nine songs is Plato’s theory of the soul, a theme the band say emerged on its own rather than being planned. It suits the music. The riffs are slow and heavy as grief, the melodies circle back on themselves like memories you can’t let go of, and every so often a guitar line rises out of the murk and breaks your heart a little. Daniel Änghede joins on “Anima”, and a spoken narration drifts through “Misanthrope River” like a voice from an old radio.

The band produced it themselves, and Karl Daniel Lidén’s mix is warm and wide, giving the doom real weight without smothering the delicate parts. The cover art by Italian painter Agostino Arrivabene sets the mood before a note is played.

At times the pace is so unhurried that the middle of the record blurs into one long sigh. But that’s gothic doom for you, and Draconian have rarely done it better. Put it on late, turn off the lights, and let it sink in.

Best tracks:

Anima (feat. Daniel Änghede)
I Gave You Wings
Cold Heavens
Misanthrope River

Author’s rating: 8.5/10