ION VEIN’s original lineup reunited to re-record three songs for Beyond Tomorrow – 25th Anniversary Edition, due November 20, 2026, through Majesphere Records. The Chicago progressive power metal band introduced the project with “Static Vision,” digitally released September 16, 2026, and accompanied by an animated music video created in collaboration with Freakshot.
The reunion grew out of a problem with the planned remix of the band’s debut. During digitization of the analog two-inch masters, the tapes for “Static Vision,” “Here Today Gone Tomorrow” and the title track could not be located. Rather than leave those recordings out of the project, the five musicians returned to the studio together.
Vocalist Russ Klimczak, guitarists Chris Lotesto and John Malufka, bassist Brian Gordon and drummer Scott Lang re-recorded the three songs in June 2025 at Rax Trax Studios in Chicago. They had rehearsed together just once before the sessions. As on the original recordings, the basic instrumental tracks were performed together and recorded live.
Jim Morris mixed the “Static Vision” single at Morrisound Studios. The announcement identifies his work with SAVATAGE and CRIMSON GLORY as an early influence on ION VEIN. It also describes “Static Vision” as a fixture of the band’s early live sets, combining a direct heavy metal foundation with melodic and progressive elements.
For the anniversary edition, Morris remixed the surviving original recordings, with BJ Ramone handling remastering at Morrisound Studios. The release will give Beyond Tomorrow its first vinyl edition: a black double LP limited to 250 copies, packaged in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves and new artwork. A gatefold CD edition is also planned.
The supplied running order begins with eight tracks designated “2025 edition”: “Horizons,” “Reflections Unclear,” “Fading Shadows,” “Heart of the Matter,” “Static Vision,” “The Bridge of Dawn,” “Here Today Gone Tomorrow” and “Beyond Tomorrow.” These are followed by eight “Live ‘99” recordings: “Reflections Unclear,” “Static Vision,” “The Power of You,” “Fading Shadows,” “The Bridge of Dawn,” “Heart of the Matter,” “Here Today Gone Tomorrow” and “Beyond Tomorrow.” According to the announcement, the previously unreleased live material contains no overdubs.
An accompanying online documentary is in development. Its announced subjects include the reunion, the Chicago re-recording sessions and the work at Morrisound Studios; no release date is supplied for the documentary.
Lotesto founded ION VEIN in Chicago in 1995 after playing in LATENT FURY from 1989 to 1994. The five-member lineup came together in late 1997 and first appeared together that November in Chicago. An August 1998 appearance at Baltimore’s Powermad Festival preceded the debut’s February 1999 release on the band’s own Majesphere Records.
Recorded in summer 1998, Beyond Tomorrow combined Lotesto’s primary songwriting with arrangements developed collectively in rehearsal. ION VEIN subsequently released Reigning Memories in 2003 and their self-titled third studio album in 2014. After the latter album’s release and promotional tour, the band entered a hiatus of about ten years. The anniversary sessions brought the original five musicians back together in the studio after more than two decades.
