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Insomnium: One for sorrow
21/12/11 || The Duff
My recent foray into this band’s latest two albums has rekindled my love for melodic death metal of the Scandinavian ilk; looking forward to “One For Sorrow” over say Mastodon’s “The Hunter” would’ve been a completely bananas notion to me four months ago, yet here we are. So, while “Since the Day it All Came Down” was an ace album, it did seem to drain heavily on the Opeth/In Flames influence. Not until “Above the Weeping World” and especially “Across the Dark” did the band start to forge its own way in a sub-genre dangerously close to offering sweet-fuck-nothing.
Where “One for Sorrow” might come as a bit of a surprise is that they’ve taken a step back in their ability to carve their own niche to truly steal the melodeath crown. While the melodeath crown is about as rewarding an achievement as a trophy for being able to masturbate blindfolded, I thought with “Across the Dark” these guys truly had something they could call their own – “One for Sorrow” poaches some anew from In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, and I’m not just talking about single “Weather the Storm” for which DT’s Mikael Stanne makes a guest appearance. Other influences include as expected Amorphis, Sentenced and more Amon Amarth than I’ve ever heard from Insomnium in the past, but of course where AA are spuds and boobies, Insominium are sweet caresses in an Autumn forest.
Stylistically “One for Sorrow” pretty much continues along the same path as “Across the Dark” in that the formula from their absolute breakthrough album “Above the Weeping World” has been tweaked yet the track lengths kept comfortably compact. Insomnium have always been entirely in the know as songwriters, very complete in their structuring, but a touch oblivious as to album-flow. Proof of this is in the bonus tracks on “Above the Weeping World” and “Across the Dark”, where the former could have done without and the latter couldn’t as to otherwise leave the album to these ears incomplete.
“One for Sorrow” doesn’t need “Weather the Storm” to be tied off appropriately, but it doesn’t hurt, but from the beginning of the record we have an intro, suitable as ever, an epic, followed by two lackluster tracks that mix punch and grandiose, as well as middle-of-the-road a touch too haphazardly; from such a solid-footing opening, the band appears to falter quickly. Anyways, they don’t take long to double back, and on a general note we have an album that is likely to please if only a digression from the last two or three records which were burdened by nary a flaw.
Minor gripes include instrumental “Decoherence” being entirely unnecessary; it leads into “Lay the Ghost to Rest” quite well, but kills the album’s pace. The aforementioned “Lay the Ghost to Rest”, its main lead, sounds suspiciously like the lead off “Disengagement”, but noticeably different enough to be overlooked.
With the exception of some real cheese-music which I suppose is a given if you’re influenced by Sentenced, everything else is packaged off nicely; leads that evoke sorrow and swinging goddamn fucking battle-axes, folk cleans, catchy choruses galore, clean vocals (“Unsung” really sounds like a guest appearance from Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved), epicness, traditional melodic death-fare (although nothing like bettering In Flames in their heyday with a track like “Devoid of Caring” off “Above the Weeping World”), we have quite the ‘grey’ effort from these guys, a by-the-numbers album from a seasoned outfit that has tried to integrate a new feel into its sound resulting in a rehash despite real solid music.
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Century Media
- Website: www.insomnium.net
- Band
- Niilo Sevänen: vocals, bass
- Ville Friman: guitars, vocals (backing)
- Ville Vänni: guitars
- Markus Hirvonen: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Inertia
- 02. Through the Shadows
- 03. Song of the Blackest Bird
- 04. Only One Who Waits
- 05. Unsung
- 06. Every Hour Wounds
- 07. Decoherence
- 08. Lay the Ghost to Rest
- 09. Regain the Fire
- 10. One for Sorrow
- 11. Weather the Storm (bonus)
