Great album. No Crimson but still really good. Wonder if it will hold up after many repeat listens though.

Just checked this out, cool stuff, very enjoyable listen.
This is a band I'm not super familiar with, I've only heard bits of their music here and there. I liked this album enough that I'll probably go and check out some of thier older stuff.
Any suggestions?

Written by Cy Nide on 17.10.2016 at 18:49

Just checked this out, cool stuff, very enjoyable listen.
This is a band I'm not super familiar with, I've only heard bits of their music here and there. I liked this album enough that I'll probably go and check out some of thier older stuff.
Any suggestions?

Work your way backwards chronologically through their discography. This is one of those weird bands where they actually get better and better with every release, so once you can't be bothered to listen anymore, know that it will just go further downhill if you keep listening.

Quote:

Written by ScottyM on 18.10.2016 at 00:12

Work your way backwards chronologically through their discography. This is one of those weird bands where they actually get better and better with every release, so once you can't be bothered to listen anymore, know that it will just go further downhill if you keep listening.

Cool, thanks for the tip.

Quote:

Written by Cy Nide on 18.10.2016 at 01:17

Written by ScottyM on 18.10.2016 at 00:12

Work your way backwards chronologically through their discography. This is one of those weird bands where they actually get better and better with every release, so once you can't be bothered to listen anymore, know that it will just go further downhill if you keep listening.

Cool, thanks for the tip.

Must say that I disagree here. IMO, the best releases is the second and third album: Since The Day It All Came Down and Above The Weeping World. They both has a unique sound and atmosphere, and just very, very good songs. Across The Dark is also good, here's when they introduced clean vocals. One For Sorrow is the album with the worst production IMO, something is weird with the drums.. Still, there are some gems there as well.

Just wanted to throw in my opinion in case you didn't bother listen to the second and third one, as IMO is some of the best melodic death metal records ever made

Quote:

Written by Fallen Ghost on 18.10.2016 at 11:25

Must say that I disagree here. IMO, the best releases is the second and third album: Since The Day It All Came Down and Above The Weeping World. They both has a unique sound and atmosphere, and just very, very good songs. Across The Dark is also good, here's when they introduced clean vocals. One For Sorrow is the album with the worst production IMO, something is weird with the drums.. Still, there are some gems there as well.

Just wanted to throw in my opinion in case you didn't bother listen to the second and third one, as IMO is some of the best melodic death metal records ever made

I'll definitely check those out too, thank you!

Written by Fallen Ghost on 18.10.2016 at 11:25

Must say that I disagree here. IMO, the best releases is the second and third album: Since The Day It All Came Down and Above The Weeping World. They both has a unique sound and atmosphere, and just very, very good songs. Across The Dark is also good, here's when they introduced clean vocals. One For Sorrow is the album with the worst production IMO, something is weird with the drums.. Still, there are some gems there as well.

Just wanted to throw in my opinion in case you didn't bother listen to the second and third one, as IMO is some of the best melodic death metal records ever made

THIS ^

Although, I'll always have a soft spot for their first release even though it technically isn't as polished/refined as album 2 & 3. IMO, nothing is really worth digging into after Across the Dark. But for some reason the rest of the metal community hails their recent releases as god-like, I don't know maybe it's just cuz decent melodeath is hard to come by these days so standards are lower? Idk... But I rather just delve into another subgenre or band instead of getting the same watered down regurgitated crap over and over again.

Written by AngelofDeth on 23.10.2016 at 03:51

IMO, nothing is really worth digging into after Across the Dark.

Glad to see someone agreeing what's their best, however I wouldn't say it's not worth to listen to albums after Across The Dark, as there's still some great gems in the albums afterwards. Just out of curiosity, how come you didn't like this as much? If you haven't already, I would recommend to read Niilos novel and then listen to the record, it is so well made and the music really fits the story! I think this is an album Insomnium needed, experimental so they didn't fall in the "remaking the same album again trap"

Written by Fallen Ghost on 23.10.2016 at 13:13

Written by AngelofDeth on 23.10.2016 at 03:51

IMO, nothing is really worth digging into after Across the Dark.

Glad to see someone agreeing what's their best, however I wouldn't say it's not worth to listen to albums after Across The Dark, as there's still some great gems in the albums afterwards. Just out of curiosity, how come you didn't like this as much? If you haven't already, I would recommend to read Niilos novel and then listen to the record, it is so well made and the music really fits the story! I think this is an album Insomnium needed, experimental so they didn't fall in the "remaking the same album again trap"

I like a few songs here and there but overall I don't think it's worth sifting through the mediocre just to pull out a few decent(not even exeptional) songs. For example, compare any post Above the Weeping World song to 'The Elder' or 'Since the Day' and it will fall short imo.

To me this album is just more of the same, curious, how is it experimental? Their first three albums the songs had personality, definition and stood out from one another. This album feels like more of the 'one giant nebulous' song thing they've been doing of recent. To be fair, I'll listen one more time though just in case I'm missing something.

Written by AngelofDeth on 23.10.2016 at 22:21

To me this album is just more of the same, curious, how is it experimental? Their first three albums the songs had personality, definition and stood out from one another. This album feels like more of the 'one giant nebulous' song thing they've been doing of recent. To be fair, I'll listen one more time though just in case I'm missing something.

Winter's Gate is literally one long-ass song, so one of those sentences is pretty funny in that regard

The way I see it is Markus Vanhala has brought more depth into the compositions after joining the band. He seems to have an ability to arrange riffs and melodies so that they can be used many times without them sounding repetitive. This is particularly evident in a song like "The River", and "Winter's Gate" of course brings it into an extreme given how the few central themes re-occur during the song. The experimental nature of it simply becomes from the fact it's based on a novella and attempts to paint a musical landscape on it, depending on what chapter a movement represents.

In the Halls of Awaiting has good songs ("The Elder" bring one of the highlights) but the overall sound is most derivative out of their entire discography. Many of the songs on their first two albums have punchy melodic riffs, whereas on their later albums these melodies tend to have a bit more long-winded yet catchy patterns, combined with a slight post-rock influence. The changes have been subtle yet significant.

Written by Risto on 23.10.2016 at 22:51

Winter's Gate is literally one long-ass song, so one of those sentences is pretty funny in that regard

The way I see it is Markus Vanhala has brought more depth into the compositions after joining the band. He seems to have an ability to arrange riffs and melodies so that they can be used many times without them sounding repetitive. This is particularly evident in a song like "The River", and "Winter's Gate" of course brings it into an extreme given how the few central themes re-occur during the song. The experimental nature of it simply becomes from the fact it's based on a novella and attempts to paint a musical landscape on it, depending on what chapter a movement represents.

In the Halls of Awaiting has good songs ("The Elder" bring one of the highlights) but the overall sound is most derivative out of their entire discography. Many of the songs on their first two albums have punchy melodic riffs, whereas on their later albums these melodies tend to have a bit more long-winded yet catchy patterns, combined with a slight post-rock influence. The changes have been subtle yet significant.

Yes, which is why I was arguing that it isn't much different from their past two albums as both those sound like one long ass song as well

Derivative of what? I admit their debut isn't the most polished album(particularly production-wise) but I consider it among their best because literally every track stands out and is unique from the rest of the album where One for Sorrow for example has maybe one or two standout songs and the rest is a melodic blur.

Anyway.... I just listened to this album a second time and I think I agree now, I do think that they have done something new here. I think the prolonged acoustic elements are the biggest difference I can hear so far and an almost Swallow the Sun-esque Doomy atmosphere sets this album apart from their repetitive previous albums. I think I went in on the first listen with a confirmation bias to not like it but on second listen I actually mostly enjoyed it - not blown away but nonetheless was enjoying it. Gonna give it a couple more spins and re-review it.

Written by AngelofDeth on 23.10.2016 at 22:21
]
For example, compare any post Above the Weeping World, song to 'The Elder' or 'Since the Day' and it will fall short imo.

This is true

Written by AngelofDeth on 23.10.2016 at 22:21
]
To me this album is just more of the same, curious, how is it experimental?

I saw most of it was already explained, but as he said, making a 40 minute track isn't your typical Insomnium album, definitive not based on a novella written by the vocalist. I feel the mood changes quite often in this album, and how they used the keyboards in for example The Golden Wolf part sounds really different from what they've already done before. I can feel doom, heavy metal, death, some prog and even a touch of black towards the end. As I mentioned, the album had thw biggest effect on me after reading the actual novella and realizing how well it is composed out of that! I hope you'll enjoy this eventually, it's definitely better than One For Sorrow and Shadows Of The dying Sun

It's excellent. But i don't have feeling that I'm listening only one song the whole time

Written by Guest on 23.10.2016 at 23:15

And I still havent listened to this

Ditto. But I kinda want to though.

I like track 1.

Written by Guest on 28.10.2016 at 13:27

Then again maybe they improved their songwriting abilities this time, which I highly doubt.

They haven't. If anything it's even more boring and lifeless than anything they've made in the last 10 years.

I sense voting abuse in here!

Written by BloodJuNkie on 04.11.2016 at 02:45

I sense voting abuse in here!

Yeah, a sudden increase in rating. I reported a few suspicious profiles.

I'm heavily surprised by excitement on this one. It's so freaking boring. Still can't manage to listen to it till the end and not lose attention after ten minutes or so. It's better than their previous two, but still.
I mean, alright, music is mostly good. Even very good in a few places. I could distinguish the beginning of the second track, with this unusual killer riff (it really is, the only one interesting heavy riff on the whole record, thanks Dan), and post-rock/metal influenced parts like beginning of the third track are my favourites, they're just beautiful. The rest is just... not impressive, but technically good.
But guys, could you please just wipe fucking out all the vocal parts across the record? They just literally ruin everything. I can't handle the same lines being pathetically repeated four times, this is just ridiculous. Make it instrumental then.
And yet, I'm surprised that this record is still counting for one-forty-minutes-long-ass-song. Crimsons, both, definitely were, because their elements were short, self-contained, and transitions were mostly seamless. But this one doesn't make such an impression, it's sliced like a bread.

They could make brilliant post-rock/metal record in the future, and I hope once they will. But if this is novadays' high quality mdm, then nothing can save this genre anymore.

Written by Guest on 02.11.2016 at 19:06

Written by MetalDoomMaster on 02.11.2016 at 18:48

Written by Guest on 28.10.2016 at 13:27

Then again maybe they improved their songwriting abilities this time, which I highly doubt.

They haven't. If anything it's even more boring and lifeless than anything they've made in the last 10 years.

Oh well, looks like my excitement is gone now completely. But at least I have other good stuff to listen from this year.

Don't listen to him best since Above The Weeping World IMO, definitely worth a listen

I'm a little disappointed by this album, maybe I haven't listened to it enough. Still good but not great for now!

I get that they wanted to produce this and sell it as "one song" and I sure as hell appreciate the effort to try something new, but the song and the short story both have many distinct starting and stopping points and pretty much nothing in the song repeats later on so this could have just as easily been released as a concept album that was divided into separate songs for more casual listening. And even if there were a lot of repeating sections, a lot of concept albums repeat things in later songs to tie the concept together. Basically, not being able to skip the filler sections makes this a chore to listen to sometimes.

That being said, this is the best thing that Insomnium has done in years and there is some real inspiration and life in this album. It was great to hear them try different directions, but I'm definitely one of the people who thinks they could have gone further with each different thematic approach. There are dashes of jazz, black metal, doom metal, and other genres which did a really good job of making the dead horse that is Insomium's sound at least stand up again, if not walk. Honestly, I wish this band would just make half of their songs doom metal songs now because Niilo has the deep growls for it and when they did that section it sounded the most natural. Otherwise I wish they would experiment a lot more and to further degrees because otherwise I will consider this album as their ending point.

Written by Zyk on 23.11.2016 at 04:10

pretty much nothing in the song repeats later on

There's a few...

Theme 1: 0:20 (part 1) - 3:38 (part 1, chorus) - 17:14 (part 3, chord progression)
Theme 2: 2:02 (part 1) - 16:58 (part 3, sinister variant) - 33:50 (part 7, sinister variant)
Theme 3: 8:41 (part 2) - 18:45 (part 4) - 36:34 (part 7)

The short story doesn't really have several starting and ending points, it's several characters' point of view simultaneously. Sevänen admitted it didn't translate to music directly and they needed a little creative license.

Although I enjoyed their first two albums I find them so boring... They make great go to sleep music, though. After cutting some 10-15 minutes Winter's Gate would have made an excellent EP, but a LP... c'mon!

IMHO, either Be'lakor or Moonsorrow deserve the top album spot this year.

Idk, i get why people are against bands doing the same thing over and over, but in my case i actually quite enjoy songs of the like of "down with the sun" and "Revelation", so i feel like i've hit the jackpot with these guys, because their recepie(spelling?) for music is consistently inside of the spectrum i consider "great melodeath". Again, just a humble metalhead sharing his thoughts.

Came here to hunt down some possible trivia, got so much talk instead about their previous stuff...

I for one got to know them with One For Sorrow and I really like that record a lot, especially the title track. I liked Shadows Of The Dying Sun also when it came out, didn't really bother with it since. I tried Above The Weeping World but didn't click with me, maybe another time. This record seems rehashed almost entirely, it was a bit tiring to listen to the entire song in one sitting. Maybe they are just repeating themselves since day one but you only notice it 2-3 years after you first heard them? Dunno...

Musically to me this was more like "putting songs together and make bridges in between" rather than write an entire song. When it comes to classic one song albums, there are key moments you wait for, there are long buildups, intricacy, often changes in the atmosphere, rhythm, tempo - here, not so much.

Gave it a couple of spins. I honestly can't remember much of it at all. Nothing ever stuck out to be memorable. It sounded ok from a production standpoint. Overall it was just another forgettable album. I also despise the "single song" approach to albums that are obviously comprised of completely different ideas mashed together. It just comes off as overly pretentious.

Written by qlacs on 02.12.2016 at 21:08

Came here to hunt down some possible trivia, got so much talk instead about their previous stuff...

What kind of trivia?

Quote:

Musically to me this was more like "putting songs together and make bridges in between" rather than write an entire song. When it comes to classic one song albums, there are key moments you wait for, there are long buildups, intricacy, often changes in the atmosphere, rhythm, tempo - here, not so much.

It's definitely a common initial impression and not an entirely unjustified one, as the original story itself is divided into six chapters. It does have theme recurrence which warrants the one song approach. The music here tends to leave a theme be for a good while, until it's revisited with a significantly different execution and atmosphere.

Written by Risto on 07.12.2016 at 21:05

What kind of trivia?

Any kind, I'm the curious type Sometimes ppl post interesting stuff in the comments section, not just appraise or negativity.

Quote:

It's definitely a common initial impression and not an entirely unjustified one, as the original story itself is divided into six chapters. It does have theme recurrence which warrants the one song approach. The music here tends to leave a theme be for a good while, until it's revisited with a significantly different execution and atmosphere.

I guess it may be a grower in the future but as of now it just doesn't cut for me.

It's a good album, no doubt about it. But it definitely doesn't deserve first spot for best album this year. Moonsorrow, Vektor and Be'lakor have made better albums frankly, certainly more progressive. Here, aside from the 1 album track it's pretty much an Insomnium album through and through, nothing really new to it.

Still, warrants multiple listens, as I would never shit on Insomnium.