Style: Melodic death metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: The perfect combination of sorrow and beauty wrapped in an epic framework
Thoughts: Melodic death metal is a strange beast. It started off exceptionally strong in Sweden, but over time the founders of the genre either stopped putting out albums, started experimenting with different styles, or just became a shell of themselves. For a long time there was nothing that caught my interest, until I randomly found a new band at Tower Records. The record was Since the Day it all Came Down, and the band was Insomnium.
That album showcased a band that had the influence of the early Swedish bands but had ingrained a sense of sorrow and epic scope that simply was not present in the Swedes music. Maybe it was the Finnish origins of the music? Maybe it was their way of making a significant contribution to the genre? I'm not sure what it was, but I know it worked.
Years later Insomnium released One for Sorrow, an album that is possibly the single best representation of their sound as a whole. The instrumental Inertia starts the album off with a slow but steady build that resembles a rainstorm starting. Single notes drip down from the sky until they are joined by multitudes of others eventually cascading down into a full on downpour. Just as the song climaxes Through the Shadows starts and shows the listener exactly what Insomnium's sound is.
Full powerful guitar chords, melodic leads that are blinding in both their intensity and emotional impact, backing keyboards that add just enough to bring out that little bit extra to the music. The powerful vocals of Niilo mixed with the cleans of Ville are something that the band has perfected by this point, and they are again used to near perfection here. The way that the two duet with each other gives me pause... I feel compelled to stop what I'm doing and listen to the music.
Through the Shadows sets up the blueprint for the album, and while every song has it's own identity the DNA has been set here. You get some songs that take it in a more extreme direction like Song of the Blackest Bird with its powerful riffs and brief moments of blasting. Lay the Ghost to Rest comes right after the incredible instrumental Decoherence and together they combine to create one of the most epic songs in the history of the band.
One song though stands out, a bit above the others. Insomnium has always known how to close out albums, and the title track here may just be the best example of that. The song lives up to its track name in that I feel the weeping come from every note that the lead guitar plays. This builds up until the final emotional climax of the album, and the song then fades into oblivion with the rest of the album.
One for Sorrow is not my favorite album from the band, but it may be the one I come to the most when I need to hear the Inomnium sound. They have mastered melodic death metal, they have mastered sorrow, they have mastered their sound. They are no longer paying tribute to the Swedish bands of yester year, they now have a sound of their own.
One of the highest compliments that I can give to a band is to use them as a reference point. "Oh wow that sounds like In Flames" or "That sounds like Opeth" is now joined proudly by "That sounds like Insomnium."
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