Label: Century Media Records
Date: 9/17/2021
Production: Insomnium and Teemu Aalto
Album length: 23min
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Rating: 9/10
While the exact meaning of ‘insomnium’, at least in connection with the Finnish band, has never been properly explained, Insomnium are the proud flag-bearers of blue-and-white melodic death metal on the metal scene. Over the last nineteen years the band have put out eight full-length albums, defined their melancholic and incredibly infectious melodic sound, and convincingly earned their place among the giants of the Finnish metal scene. It’s been exactly two years since their last album, ‘Heart like a grave’, and in these corona times the guys have put together a four-track EP that’s meant to work as a bridge between the previous album and the next one.
With this “corona” EP, Insomnium decided to try out slightly different, calmer sonic territory; you could even say they played around with just how gentle their songs can get while still belonging to their core melodeath genre. Sonically, even though they’re ballad-like in character, all four draw on the sound the band built up on the previous album and so continue that sonic story nicely, though according to the band members it’s supposedly going to get heavier again on the next album. It’s also interesting that all four songs were released, along with their music videos, before the EP itself came out.
Opener ‘The Conjurer’ is an almost eight-minute epic journey through the dark expanses of the Finnish mind, sorrow and loss, starting off acoustic but quickly morphing into the band’s gently distorted sound, with Niilo’s growl vocals that sit perfectly on ballads and heavier compositions alike. The transitions between distortion and acoustics, backed by string arrangements and piano, plus Markus’s and Jani’s solos toward the end, create a complex weave of sonic feelings in which time just flies by.
“For all this life I’ve waited you, Below the argent moon”
‘The Reticent’ is a calmer ballad that skillfully plays with contrasts, both between clean and distorted guitars and between clean vocals and growls. While the clean vocals used to be sung by Ville, this time, to the surprise of many, they were entrusted to the “newcomer” in the band, Jani. But in my humble opinion there’s a solid reason behind it: because of his professor job at the university in York, Ville rarely performs live these days, and Jani is filling his spot.
“Through it all, we love, we fall, We hope, we fear, we fight, we crawl”
‘The Antagonist’ follows the contrasts of ‘The Reticent’ but takes things a step further, with Niilo’s “recital-style” clean vocals, Jani on the clean choruses with an acoustic guitar (which shows up on every track on the EP), and a growled chorus that even features Hammond organ, all of it wrapping up with an epic climax and a Markus solo.
“No song resounds, No wail will rise, No tear will flow, When curtain falls”
‘The Wanderer’ is the other longer track on this EP. The combination of acoustic guitars and layered vocals brings to mind summer evenings spent by a campfire with an acoustic guitar. The string synth backing only adds to that layered feel, which gradually builds, with extra drums and cymbals from Markus too, and hits its peak a little past the halfway mark, when the electric guitars kick in and all the sounds so far merge into one homogeneous and supremely melodic whole.
“And still I roam, With broken knees I wander, And still I roam (on and on), ‘Til the end of days”
With this EP, Insomnium have definitely whetted our appetite for more. Four superb tracks with a crafty mix of contrasts, slow builds to a climax and infectious melancholic melodies so typical of a ton of Finnish bands, paired with dark, depressive lyrics that fit this pandemic era we’re living in so well. Haluamme lisää, perkele!
Author: Sebastijan Videc
Tracklist:
1. The Conjurer
2. The Reticent
3. The Antagonist
4. The Wanderer
Lineup:
Niilo Sevänen – growl vocals, bass guitar
Ville Friman – guitar, vocals
Jani Liimatainen – guitar, vocals
Markus Vanhala – lead guitar
Markus Hirvoinen – drums
