As a relative newbie to the music of Imminence, I had few expectations of their new film Axis Mundi, named after their new album released on 2 October 2026, when attending the premiere in London tonight. The film turned out to be an accomplished piece, with a higher budget than anticipated.
Axis Mundi, the film, was entertaining with a philosophically coherent and highly watchable story. This is no extended music video but instead a short film which marks Imminence out as a band flying high in creative ambition and potential.
“Imminence is meant to be discovered, not predicted,” the band said. “After all these years in our career, we’ve created our own path, our own sound and brought something new to the genre. And this will always be our way.
“With Axis Mundi, we have worked more ambitiously and thoroughly than with any other album before. We have expanded the boundaries of what our art form is and how it is perceived. We have spent countless hours not only crafting the album, but also understanding what it means and says about ourselves as artists and individuals. And we could not be more proud of what we have achieved. We’ve given you everything with this record.”
Without providing any spoilers, at its heart this film is an antiheroes/heroes journey, a corrupted character who makes a mythological passage through challenges to a form of redemption. The medieval scenes and the puppet theatre device, which mimic events in the film’s world, are outstanding, as are the palette and landscapes of the movie.
There are echoes of some very different films. With Imminence being a Swedish band, it is very hard to ignore reminiscences of Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, which explores death, fate and the search for meaning.
The same is true for the British movie Excalibur, with its language of Knights and doomed heroes, and Robert Eggers The Witch in the threatening, folk-horror feel of the forces of nature, the supernatural and the interplay with the human character.
In other words, Axis Mundi has a thematic timelessness about it.
It is so much more than a vehicle for Imminence’s new album, but the crowning glory is the way the sweeping, atmospheric, beautiful melodies from the Axis Mundi album are interwoven in the movie, providing emotion, depth, darkness and light which transcend typical movie scores.
For fans this is a must-see but it should hold interest for all the Metal community and beyond and the best place to see it is the cinema if you get a chance. Axis Mundi feels like a genuine piece of cinema and a perfect accompaniment for the fantastic new album.
Imminence released Axis Mundi on 2 October 2026 via Sumerian Records. For more details, visit sumerian.lnk.to/axismundi.
