Unsung Out!

Insomnium have released a new track from their upcoming album One For Sorrow. This track, Unsung has quite much raised my expectations from this album. It is available for download for free for those who are registered to their newsletter, so sign up RIGHT NOW! Maybe it’s on torrents but this way is legit :D. Nearly five and a half minutes long, it is pure bliss.

About the track, an overall fast paced and intense song. I love the strength with which this song starts and the way with which it continues is amazing. It is so refreshing to hear a new Insomnium track, even though Weather the Storm was quite recent too.

Something that struck me was the firstly the lack of the typical acoustic element in a majority of their songs. The songs just entered into a heavy melodic riff with Niilo Sevanen’s vocals just blending in with the soundscape (one of the few bands that have pulled that off successfully). No fancy acoustic guitar of atmospheric keywork. Secondly, this clean vocals section that pops in somewhere in the middle (3.30, i checked). I still don’t know whether I like that. But yes, It does not hinder the fact that this song is amazing trailer to whats eems like another epic album.

\m/ Insomnium!

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Rain Without End. Like a wave.

I was in the mood for some slow/sludge/doom like genre today. And October Tide is the best remedy for this sudden obsession. It was sad that the band did not continue for long (I have heard it is reformed with a new line up, but I haven’t really checked, so) otherwise this band has the potential to put me in a beautiful state of monotone, I love it.

So here is reviewed their first album Rain Without End. The brainchild of Jonas Renkse, the famous persona from Katatonia and member of the Bloodbath super group, this band showcases exactly how diverse one man could be. The soundscape of this album is a million shades depressing than Katatonia and more than just a tad less extreme than Bloodbath. A very audible bass line with acoustic tones supplement to the effort of the creation of this state of nothingness. A nice lightheaded buzz is retained, probably an echo of the patch used in a majority of the tracks.

The vocals have a quality of being dead depressing and hollow, like the voice out of the depths of an ancient oak. Not overly exerted, not too stretched, just the right amount of it to keep you interested and buzzed. A slight monotony makes this album, something I thought was not possible.

The guitars and the bass envelop the drum’s fickle rhythm pattern, creating the ultimate soundscape. Unpredictable, clear and an audible bass line did it for me. As I write Sightless’s mind blowing intro struck me, so different from its precedent. And now it has come back to its frequency, a shift in soundscapes so smooth and yet so strikingly different amazes and impresses me.

I had always considered Die Verbannten Kinder Evas as the kinds that I would consider Doom but this album has opened a whole new wave of music that I could listen to when I require nothing more than a doobie and solitude.

One can see that Katatonia could be heading this way, specially due to some familiar sounds in tracks likeLosing Tomorrow and others. This albums is a like watching a certain scat viral video, it takes time to build up, all nice and mellow, but when it does hit, it leaves a lasting impression.

This album is a beautiful production and I’m looking forward to reviewing their more recent works. Let’s hope they indeed have reformed, because I won’t give Rain Without End a score less than 8/10.

Don’t judge it’s title. New Moon it is.

So this band popped up on my music recommendations list on last.fm. Judging on its similarities to Insomnium and Ghost Brigade (according to the site), I decided I’d give it a try. I acquired their latest album (not so late), New Moon, 2009. The title got me thinking of vampires and bad actors, I don’t know, I must have had some bad dream :D. A little background research on the band made me realise it’s been in the circles for a fairly long time with quite a strong fan base. Anyhow I started my day with “These Woods Breathe Evil” (coincidence? I was hoping at that time not :D).

Having heard the album in its entirety and having heard this band for the first time I could very easily relate to the not-so-happy-about-this-band crowd. The album has all the makings of successful studio hit and yet it lacked the punch during its intro as well as the outro, nothing that would’ve left me still grooving to the beat I heard or air drumming like a nut. No, it clearly did not leave me wanting to hear more. I sense that this is one of those grow-on-you types of album. Cutting things short, if you’ve been a fan, you’ll like them because you do. One could relate this to Amon Amarth’s Surtur Rising. Yet there are instances where this album does prove itself to be far more progressive and occult than Surtur. One’s who never liked this band have no reason to start liking it again. As for someone who’s looking for something new read on.

The music itself was quite refreshing, seeing as I have been indulging in a lot of jazz recently. The tracks are well layered, the song-writing highly impressive. It was not like what I was thought it’d be, a fancy catchy riff with vocals merging into the backdrop of the soundscape created by the guitars.

No these vocals were good. Some of the clean parts had very striking resemblance to Katatonia’s Night is the New Day. Dashes of death riffs with keys  interlacing created quite an doom-like atmosphere. And then there are tracks that really reflect their Finnish roots (metal-wise), good old blackened death riffs with deep growls. Contrary to this sombre image, there are places where Mikko takes clean vocals with acoustic backing showcasing the mastery of minimalism that is so distinctive of doom metal.

I would also further go on to say that this album seems progressive in a lot of places, something towards which I’m highly biased to. Had they only composed this one bombastic intro or this orphic end to the album, I would’ve most probably be raving about this album. I’d be looking forward to something new from them nonetheless.

For shitty extremes a 6/10.

Cheers!