INSOMNIUM — Heart Like A Grave (review)

INSOMNIUM — Heart Like A Grave album cover Album · 2019 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Kev Rowland
Formed as long ago as 1997, since 2011 the band has had a consistent line-up of Markus Hirvonen, Ville Friman, Niilo Sevänen and Markus Vanhala, during which time they released ‘Shadows of the Dying Sun’ and the very highly rated ‘Winter’s Gate’. However, (2016) which elevated the band to the headliner status all over the globe. However, guitarist Ville Friman, who is one of the three founder members still with the band, was finding it more difficult to commit to heavy touring schedules due to his day job of being a lecturer at York University. So to ensure there is no problem with meeting whatever commitments they have, they decided to become a quintet by bringing in Jani Liimatainen (The Dark Element, Cain’s Offering, ex-Sonata Arctica) who had already been a live guitarist on several tours.

Having three guitarists in the studio has not really made a huge difference to the overall sound apart from extending the writing ability by now having four composers. This, their eighth album contains all the elements one has come to expect from Insomnium, and while they are still within the melodic death spectrum there are times when they actually move away from the death scene and become far more of a melodic metal act. There is always a huge feeling of atmosphere within their music, something normally far more associated with black metal acts, and with a real feel of melancholy while they have drawn inspiration from some of the bleakest tales, lyrics and poems of the north to get again produce something which is full of power and passion. They are not afraid to drop an acoustic guitar into the middle of a song, stop everything dead and then return in a different time signature and mood while switching between death and clean vocals. Passionate and immediate, this dark album also has plenty of soaring light which at times has more than a nod to the likes of Borknagar. Must be something in the beer up North.
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