Review: Insomnium – Shadows of the Dying Sun

Insomnium - Shadows of the Dying Sun[avatar user=”James” size=”50″ align=”left” /]Some of you may be wondering why I’m reviewing this. The simple reason is that I listed it as my number one album for the year and I felt as though I should explain why. In what is probably my longest article to date, I’ll be reviewing the Bonus edition of the album.

Aside from saying this album is amazing, it was one of the surprises of the year. Trying to outdo the previous album, One for Sorrow was never going to be easy. When I first heard that album, I couldn’t stop listening to it for weeks. I was so taken by it. This album however, nearly 7 months after release, is still in my regular listening list. It blows me away every time I listen to it.

Mosh did an article on Insomnium about 22 months ago, being impressed by them live. I’ve sadly not had the chance to see them live yet. If they come back to Glasgow, I’ll be one of the first in line to get tickets. Enough rambling though, time to get on with the review.

The lineup for the album is a little different to the previous’ at it shows. New(ish) guitarist Markus Vanhala shows off his skills performing expert solos and even writing one of the best songs on the album.

Production wise, it’s a much more polished product than the previous album. One for Sorrow wasn’t badly produced, it just sounded much more raw. If you read my previous review, you’ll know that I don’t mind raw sounding albums, if it fits the style of the album. The clean and polished production fits the style of this album perfectly.

Starting off similar to the last album, a slow somber introduction in the form of the song “The Primeval Dark”. This expertly leads into the single from the album, “While we Sleep”. Featuring clean vocals more prominently than any other track in their history, it pairs ludicrously catchy riffs with Niilo’s (Bass/Lead vocals) customary low growls.

The album expertly flows from song to song, so much that quite often I’ll end up being lost in the experience. In my opinion, that’s what Melodic Death metal should be like. It should create an atmosphere such that you can get lost the music and not have to worry about anything. Songs that are good for this are “Lose to the Night” and “The Promethean Song”. The slower songs of the album, they create the atmosphere expertly and I can often get lost in the music whilst listening to them.

Prior to “The Promethean Song” is possibly my favourite melodic Death metal track, “Ephermeral”. The song was released as a single a couple of months before the album came out, however it’s been ever so slightly changed. The production sounds much crisper and the new intro fits it better than the single versions.

The bonus version of the album features 4 additional songs on a separate disk. Starting with “Out Of The Sea”, it sets a slightly different tone than the one of the album. It’s more reminiscent of the One for Sorrow album, not that that is a bad thing. It’s just a little different to the rest of the album. The other three tracks are instrumental tracks, much more in line with the opening acoustic part to “Down with The Sun” off the album Across the Dark.

If you are fan of Melodic death metal or you want to try out something new within the more extreme side of metal, give this album/band a listen. I’m sure you will not be disappointed.

Tracks:

  1. The Primeval Dark
  2. While We Sleep
  3. Revelation
  4. Black Heart Rebellion
  5. Lose to Night
  6. Collapsing Words
  7. The River
  8. Ephermeral (Album Version)
  9. The Promethean Song
  10. Shadows of the Dying Sun

Bonus Disk

  1. Out to the Sea
  2. The Emergence (Instrumental)
  3. The Swarm (Instrumental)
  4. The Descent (Instrumental)

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April 12, 2015 5:05 PM

[…] had a chat about how the tour was going, the most recent album Shadows of the Dying Sun (Review here) and about the band’s song-writing […]