Review Summary: Insomnium try to go the DT way.....and ALMOST pull it off...
Insomnium is pretty much a band that seemed content with their tried and tested formula of mixing some good melodies with the odd heavy riffs. Even though their songwriting matured on their sophomore effort SINCE THE DAY IT ALL CAME DOWN, and they tried to go the epic way on ABOVE THE WEEPING WORLD (which for me seemed to fall short sometimes), the core of their music never changed. Having said that it's not like all of their albums sound the same, though it's a given that both this album's predecessor as well as, this album itself have certain, "WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT BEFORE" moments. But, these moments don't stem from the band ripping itself off (at least not always), rather I believe that on this album the band tried too hard to emulate one of their favorite band Dark Tranquillity, more on that later.
Now, as I sat down to listen to this album today I had this feeling of dread that this album could actually be the one where Insomnium try a bit too hard to be different and lose that touch that makes them one of my favorite bands. But, after going through this disc over 4 times and there being no signs of this album wearing off of me, I'd say that this album could be the next step in evolution of Insomnium, much like Haven was for Dark Tranquillity. I feel this way because there is almost a fascinating symmetry to both DT and Insomnium's releases from when they started out. Dark Tranquillity started to get exponentially more melodic and added a new dimension to their music with Haven (where, I feel the electronic pyrotechnics were a bit overdone) and the same thing kind of happens on this album. As soon as you start the disc you're hit with a very beautiful acoustic intro (instead of the usual keyboards), which gives you a taste of things to come. This intro fades into the album opener titled DOWN WITH THE SUN which along with those trademark metaphorical lyrics and Edgar Allen Poe inspired lines rends itself nicely to the kind of atmosphere that this band has always wanted to create. DOWN WITH THE SUN, along with the almost stupidly catchy poppy chorus of WHERE THE LAST WAVE BROKE, the bass performance on LAY OF THE AUTUMN, the beautiful acoustic intro mentioned beforehand and the extremely DT-esque keyboard outro to AGAINST THE STREAM, are the highlights of this disc. I, for one felt that this album had a few bouncy, almost happy tunes every now and then, but as far as I'm concerned, the overall consistently dark and broody atmosphere more than makes up for a fallacy here and there. Another plus point in this album's favor is the surprisingly good and very audible bass performance of bassist Niilo Sevanen, who's performance(including his vocals) along with the combination of the guitarist duo of the two Mr. Villes is very consistent and is very much the sail that keeps the Insomnium boat sailing the high seas without too many man-overboard incidents on this album.
Till now, I've done nothing but praise this disc, but even though this disc is very good, it just isn't a 5/5 material, mainly due to the aforementioned problem of feeling of DejaVu every now and then. I for one had a feeling that I'd heard one particular riff in DOWN WITH THE SUN on CHANGE OF HEART, so I went back and listened to it, but the riff was more of a case of similarity than congruency. After I realized it I did have a temporary urge to lower the rating of this album but well, I guess if you've been a fan of Dream Theater for as long as I have been, you get used to such similarities. Moving on, another flaw in this album is the over-usage of the new elements (akin to Dark Tranquillity's Haven). Sometimes I feel the clean vocals are just put in to give the album a more mainstream appeal or just because the songwriter had an urge to do it regardless of whether or not it fits the structure of the song, the most prominent example being clean vocals on THE HARROWING YEARS. Also, even though Insomnium have taken a step forward after deliberating for almost 10 years, some songs like INTO THE WOODS (which I absolutely hate) and WEIGHED DOWN WITH SORROW (which I kinda like) sound unashamedly like cut, pasted and digitally reworked versions of something this band had done earlier. And lastly comes the flaw that stems from the band members' hero-worshiping of Dark Tranquillity. By no means do I consider, Mr. Munter to be ripping off DT's Mr. Brandstrom but sometimes the keyboard arrangements feel distinctly DT-esque, which if observed only sometimes is not a bad thing, but the stunning regularity of it only serves to remind the listener where these guys get their inspiration from. Try some more interesting structures next time Insomnium.
Lastly, I'd only like to add that the amount of negativity being piled on this album may be justified sometimes, but this album is certainly NOT all bad. Yes, this record is a bit more poppy than the rest of their discography and sometimes Insomnium do go overboard with the hero-worshipping, but who knows, maybe 6-7 years down the line this album maybe considered the foundation upon which this talented bunch of musicians went on to build their own little metal legend.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:
DOWN WITH THE SUN
WHERE THE LAST WAVE BROKE
AGAINST THE STREAM
LAY OF THE AUTUMN
