Review Summary: It's beauty and brutal, exciting and relaxing. Insomnium hits the right atmosphere and fulfils this masterpiece with their own and non-revisable style.
Hey Metal-Guy, searching the perfect album for rainy and lonesome autumn-days ? Here it is !
"Across the Dark" is the perfect Soundtrack for the third season. It's clouded by big walls of heavy riffs. Soft Arrangements of strings and keyboards are raining on your ears while Niilo Sevänen's voice achieves The scene explodes with a big thunder out of nowhere. It's beauty and brutal, exciting and relaxing.
Insomnium hits the right atmosphere and fulfils this masterpiece with their own and non-revisable style.
"Across the Dark" starts with a melancholic intro. Soft guitars introduce
"Equivalence". You hear
The bass appearing in the background and voices whispering. Drums and the keyboard fluently get involved in the jamming. Black Clouds came over and then out of the sky a thunder strikes with full force into the forest. This is really an awesome intro and one of the best songs on this album. This epic atmosphere, created by those great guitar riffs, stunning bass lines and minimal but adequate drums are flowing into the next song.
"Down with the Sun" is one of the best songs on
"Across the Dark".
These are those incredible riff-walls. It's heavy, coltish and adrift. The lyrics are great. Nillo does adjure autumn to open the doors for the coming songs.
"Rock here in the birch's lap
Swing in the manor of wind
Lay down your weary head
Let the blue stars darken"
This song is like a continued intro literally. The listener is welcomed in the world of
Insomnium. You get catched by the spoons but don't wonnaget free.
"Where the Last Wave Brokes" starts with a nice rhythm-riff and Mr. Friman continuous with a short melodic solo. Niilo's Thunder has no end. He smashes the lyrics into your ears. Then the surprise. Clean Vocals dance with the guttural vocals. Jules Näveri (
Enemy of the Sun) was invented to do some fresh changes within the style of the band. It's a very brave move. This will bring some new fans but I suspect that they'll also loose some of the die-hard fans. In my opinion it's a great idea. With a very dramatically finish from
"Where the Last Wave Brokes",
"The Harrowing ears" begins.
A typical
Insomnium-Riff, a short shout and then there was silence. Thought so ;) On this Album there is never silence. No boring parts and no parts to be ashamed of. It's pure Melodic-Death Metal and
Insomnium is about to get a fixed parameter in this genre. On this song there's Jules again and sings full of ache following words.
"In vain I try to forget - In vain I try to forgive"
He's a great clean vocal singer and a big enrichment for this album. Hats off!
"The Harrowing Years" is a good song, nothing very special but definitely no filler. (A song with those lyrics, could never be a filler ;-)) After a chilling jam-session in the end-parts of the song with acoustic-guitars, the electric-guitars assume the baton and the song ends with a fulminant finish.
"Against the Stream" has some
In Flames Riffs in it, but when the vocals and the melodic-guitar starts to tab the notes you recognize which band is blowing over the place.
"Against the Stream" is my favorite song on this album. Not at least because I'm an
In Flames fan but for shore because I think it's the only song which REALLY fascinates me from the first second. It's brutal and elegant. It's fiery and chilling. It has the best instrumental part of the entire album.
"Down we go just the same
Into the ocean of sorrow
Towards to sea of despair
This river runs relentlessly
And this river runs deep
Not in cycles but in lines"
The journey through the dark is truly just at his best!
"The Lay of Autumn" is the longest track and the most epic one. Starting with typical
Insomnium Riffs in a folkish style. The distorted guitars become cleaner and contemporaneous the growls and clean vocals finish this song.
With
"Into the Woods" Insomnium catch some
Amon Amarth feeling. With this song it's no problem to do some great Headbanging. All over the album you feel this finish coolness. Like a cool breeze from the north. It's awesome. Just close your eyes when your out at some rainy day in your local forest. It's like real Finland. You feel the presence of
Amorphis,
Sentenced and maybe some good old
Ensiferum.
"Now close your eyes
And open your weary heart
Let me soothe away the woes
Of fiendish world..."
It's getting amorous with the last song on this wonderful piece of music.
"Weighted Down with Sorrow" reminds me a little bit of the Masters of Depression
Katatonia. But this is by far better. It's very melancholic with all those strings and keyboards.
Paradise Lost it's greeting. You can here all those influences but it's still ***in'
Insomnium and this is what makes this record so incredibly awesome.
Insomnium still grows and is getting better and better. I never thought this could beat
"In the Halls of Awaiting" but it does!
Standing Ovations to these guys!
Pro's:
- Awesome atmosphere
- You can't find another band like Insomnium !
- Growls and clean vocals do match very great
- Great Sound / Production
Con's:
- You can feel this awesomeness just in autumn (and in winter)
- Sometimes a little bit protracted
Overall a great 4,5 because I think if the band does this "jump" from one to another album another time it'll get easily a 5!
![http://jamie-online.com/random-jamz/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/facepalm.jpg[/img]](http://jamie-online.com/random-jamz/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/facepalm.jpg[/img]){kind=link}