INSOMNIUM Anno 1696 | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Century Media Records on February 24th, 2023

Quick Background

Insomnium is a melodic death metal band from Finland. The sound and lyrical themes of their music portray darkness, sorrow, loss, pain, and nature. They are primarily a melodic death metal band with occasional elements of doom metal and progressive metal. The band line-up has been quiet stable with the changes happening only for the guitar players. Niilo Sevänen on bass and harsh vocals founded the band with Ville Friman − guitars and Markus Hirvonen − drums in 1997. They release their first LP In the Halls of Awaiting in 2002. They have a very strong discography and I particularly like their 2016 concept album Winter's Gate. The album that followed it,  Heart Like a Grave in 2019 was also very good. So I am looking forward to this new one.

Anno 1696

Their 9th studio album is centered around a short story by bassist and vocalist Niilo Sevänen. With 50 minutes in 8 tracks, it is a shorter and tighter album than its predecessor, but there's no lack of memorable melodies and a massive choruses. Despite the slow build up from acoustic guitars and spoken words, the opening track, once it reaches  the 2 min mark, sounds more aggressive and fast paced than I come to expect from those guys. It's a good song to start the album and a sample of the picks and valleys of this album. We constantly go from anger and aggressiveness to sadness and melancholy. 

A notable moment on the album "White Christ" featuring Sakis Tolis from Rotting Christ is a groovier song, with a distinctive drum beat. Given the song lyrics and dynamic, Sakis was the perfect guest singer to add texture to the album. It's almost like a tribute to the Greek band. Vocal wise, the band rarely uses clean singing this time around, sometimes some spoken words, but given the theme of the album and how dark and heavy it is, there's little room for more polished melodic clean singing. So I do appreciate the use of guest singers to add variation to the album without loosing its overall direction.  Johanna Kurkela is the other guest singer, and she brings this melancholic folky flavor to "Godforsaken" which is the longest song on the album. But as with the title track, it's a diverse song that goes into very heavy territories.    

Guitar work is strongly based on guitar licks during verses and choruses which creates an overall epic feel or sometimes using more tremolo picking to give a black metal flavor. With that said, the use of acoustic guitars is also very prominent often given a more atmospheric and folk sound to the album. The culmination of that is the fully acoustic dark ballad "The Unrest". The single "Lilian" starts with this beautiful acoustic guitar intro and then goes into a sort of folk metal territory. It is probably the most traditional Insomnium hit song on the album. "Starless Paths" is a very dynamic progier song (going from super heavy sections into acoustic guitars). In addition, I appreciate the guitarwork and vocal delivery giving me an epic vibe that reminds me of early Amon Amarth. I enjoyed the production quality with excellent mixing and mastering that highlights these dynamic sound choices by the band and overall delivering rawer sound than in previous releases.

The Picky Guy

There's no specific moment that I dislike on this album. So I guess my only criticism is that it's not very innovative and fully consistent with the latest albums.  

Wrap Up Opinion 

Overall, Anno 1696 is a solid addition to Insomnium's discography, with the band continuing to deliver their unique brand of melodic death metal. While the album may not necessarily break new ground, it certainly delivers on the expectations of Insomnium's fans. It's a more cohesive and easily digestible statement and yet very dynamic between sadness and anger and diverse. A very good melo death album deserving 83/100 proving further why Insomnium are at the top of their class. 

SCORE: 83/100

Genre: Death Metal

Released by Century Media Records on February 24th, 2023

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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