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Insomnium - One For Sorrow review




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Reviewer:
7.8

936 users:
8.54
Band: Insomnium
Album: One For Sorrow
Release date: October 2011


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 [Special Edition bonus] [Japanese bonus]
12. Beyond The Horizon [Japanese bonus]

One For Sorrow: the old children's nursery rhyme about counting up to ten birds in a tree. Makes sense for an Insomnium album to be inspired by it; after all, they've had these birds flying around in their album art for a while. Their fifth full-length respectively adapts to the rhyme with ten tracks of fairly varied Gothenburg metal in that trademark Insomnium sound.

What has been clear to me from the get-go is that this album doesn't run out of fuel at any point, even though it can't keep pace without little exhaustion at times. If you're familiar with their earlier work there's not that much you would not expect to hear from them; a highly atmospheric and mostly instrumental opening track, some slightly thrashing numbers, and some longer tracks with a doomier and more progressive vibe. I'm not particularly fussed about some of the heavier riffing which is hard to put a finger on. It's like Ville Friman used an unwanted spice for my tastes this time around. Another slightly annoying thing on occasion is the production that sounds like it cannot always deal with everything that's coming through the system. This is particularly evident later on in "Lay The Ghost To Rest".

Clean vocals have gained a little more prominence compared to their previous album. If you're a big fan of Niilo Sevänen's growls you should not worry though - death vocals still dominate the registry. The cleans are performed by Friman this time, who fits the band's sound well, giving the songs a nice lighter contrast. The despair-ridden title track is the furthest expansion on the use of clean vocals with a leading role in the verse.

The overall conclusion is that the album is solid but there are less true highlights here than in their impressive back catalogue. Niilo Sevänen contributed a mere two songs in the composition department, which I find a bit unfortunate because there's a small ingredient of inspiration missing. I don't call these two guys the dynamic duo of melodic death metal for nothing.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 7
Production: 7

Written by Risto | 03.12.2011




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Staff review by
Dream Taster
Rating:
8.8
If I were to ask you what makes a great Metal band, the answer should be pretty much the same across the board: great albums. In truth, a series of great albums that follow the same structure yet manage to be different enough to be individual works while being similar enough to create a unique trademark sound. Do you see now how fine of a margin bands have to operate? Finland's Insomnium have established themselves as a juggernaut of Gothenburg Metal with a trilogy of sublime releases 2002's In The Halls Of Awaiting, 2004's Since The Day It All Came Down & 2006's Above The Weeping World. Then they managed to cleverly modernize their sound with 2009's Across The Dark. With a growing fan base and so many solid works behind them, their new release One For Sorrow has been one of the most anticipated albums of the year, and for good reasons.

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published 01.11.2011 | Comments (28)


Comments

Comments: 4   Visited by: 142 users
03.12.2011 - 13:31
Rating: 8
Milena
gloom cookie
You have a very nice style of writing, please continue writing reviews I agree with some of your points but I obviously haven't gotten enough of Insomnium to rate this less than a nine, and most of their back catalog has impressive grades in my book
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7.0 means the album is good
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03.12.2011 - 14:19
Rating: 8
Risto
Wandering Midget
Written by Milena on 03.12.2011 at 13:31

You have a very nice style of writing, please continue writing reviews

Thank you I have an album or two in mind, I'll see when I can get some thoughts down.
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03.12.2011 - 16:35
Rating: 10
WorpeX
Made of Metal
The only other Insomnium album I have is Across the Dark and I wasn't into it nearly as much as I am One For Sorrow. I think this CD is incredible. Its so atmospheric and beautiful that I can just get lost in its sound for hours.
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03.12.2011 - 20:35
Rating: 6
AngelofDeth
Cyborg Raptor
Yea its nice review, great job. i experienced the same thing with "Lay the Ghost to Rest" the sound came thru fine on my headphones and they keyboards were prominent enuff to hear well but when i re-listened on speaker(both home and car) the keyboards can just faintly be heard.. strange.

i also think that this is their most uninspired album, though its not terrible, the songs dont have the same impact as their earlier albums. these last 2 albums feel more formulaic than from the heart. maybe with how well their career is now they arent actually full of somberness and depression anymore.
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pewpew.. gotcha
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