Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Entry 1044 - Insomnium - Winters Gate


Style: Melodic death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: A singular forty minute long epic - the pinnacle of their art

Thoughts: One album, one song. This concept has been done before with various degrees of success. Of all the bands to attempt this though, Insomnium was about the last on that list. Sure they have done 10 minute + songs before.. but a 40 minute epic? That's another level all together.

I think instead of trying to dissect the entire opus, I'm just going to go through the series of emotions and reactions that I had the first time listening to the album.

"Holy shit is that a blast beat?"

"Wow these guys, brought the melody back a second, wait... third??? time."

"I'm shocked how well this all fits together."

"This really feels like a complete song."

"This may be one of my favorite epic songs since Crimson..."

Needless to say I was highly impressed with the album the first time I heard it, and that impression has remained with me for nearly ten years since the album's release. I can't think of another moment in Insomnium's long and storied history where they sounded this consistently good or this powerful. 

That said this is still not my favorite Insomnium album (song yes, not album though). That still falls to Since the Day it all Came Down... and that is purely because that was the first album I heard from them. This one though, this is truly something special... a monumental testament to how good of songwriters these Finns are.



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