Insomnium – Anno 1696 Review

[Artwork by Sami Makkonen]

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but melodeath is enjoying a heck of a resurgence of late. To be clear, the offshoot never fully left the arena, but it’s probably been about 20 years since we’ve had as many new bands jump into the PR circuit that sound as if they were yanked right from a Century Media label sampler circa 2003. Need a bump beyond the obvious Dark Tranquillity / In Flames concoction that produced The Halo Effect and last year’s Days of the Lost? Jump on board with the growing hype behind Majesties and Foretoken, or slip into the recent output from big hitters such as Countless Skies, Deadscape, Brymir, Descend, et al. In short, it doesn’t take a lot of digging to discover an ample source of new melodeath bands right now, and metal fans just love being on the frontlines of pushing something brand new before the masses get their grimy mitts all over everything.

As fun as “boldly going where no one has gone before” (or at least “where as few people as possible have gone before”) can be, though, you are doing yourself a disservice if you do so while omitting the melodeath bands that got us here in the first place, many of which have been consistently kicking out bangers for more than two decades. Finland’s Insomnium, for example—a project that landed at the most opportune time with the release of their debut 2002 walloper In the Halls of Awaiting, right alongside fellow-melos / Finnish kinsmen Noumena, Omnium Gatherum and Mors Principium Est. All of these bands remain active today, and together they’ve generated an impressively consistent body of work, with perhaps a sly nod toward Insomnium for being the strongest of the pack.

Consistency has a tendency to walk hand-in-hand with complacency, though, so even a band that continues to produce good music over the years needs to be vigilant about finding interesting ways to reinvigorate / revamp their sound. For their part, Insomnium wisely conjured a revitalization back in 2016 with the release of Winter’s Gate, a single 40-minute track that curved and coiled a beautifully intense brand of melodic death metal around an equally extravagant short story penned by bassist / vocalist / chief engineer Niilo Sevänen. It still exhibited that unmistakable Insomnium stamp (that palpable Finnish gloom), but everything felt re-energized under that bold maneuver, ushering in what felt like a new era for the band. The 2019 follow-up Heart Like a Grave followed suit by switching gears even further and bringing a more straightforward and perhaps even “commercial” aspect to forefront that wasn’t too far removed from, say, modern Amorphis. And now, with full-length number nine, Insomnium has once again molted into yet another slightly shifted exoskeleton—one that combines the principal tactics of the previous two records into something that’s easiest to describe as “a best of both worlds.”

First and foremost, Anno 1696 finds the band returning to the short story form, this time focused on a narrative (again penned by Sevänen) that underscores—surprise!—life & times in Finland circa 1696, a period rampant with grim famine and brutal accounts of witch trials and cannibalism. And spicing the cauldron even further, Sevänen fuses an ode to Aino Kallas’ Sudenmorsian (a 1930-ish tale concerning a forester’s wife being transformed into a werewolf by Satan) to the yarn to maximize the overall grimness to a level befitting of the Land of the Thousand Lakes. The lyrics of course fully pertain to the storyline, but the deluxe 2CD art-book AND LP version (and those versions alone) contain the full short story in both English and Finnish, plus a fully illustrated representation as depicted by album cover artist Sami Makkonen.

Sound wise, Anno 1696 feels like a very logical step in the modern era of the band. The cold darkness and aggression bordering on black metal featured throughout Winter’s Gate is used judiciously here, counterbalanced by an abundance of mellow shifts that feature grandpa’s guitars and stretches of moody / drifting atmospherics. It’s a dark record fit for the notably grim narrative, but it still manages to capture the more straightforward framework at the crux of Heart Like a Grave in the way it strongly emphasizes a deep, recurring vocal hook. “Lilian,” for example, is likely the closest the record comes to crossing paths with the band’s early days, but it also delivers that modern Amorphis edge that sounds vaguely—and here’s that word again—“commercial.” Sure, that’s not a very acceptable word to use when describing metal, particularly death metal, but it’s the simplest way to convey the sense that it wouldn’t seem like such a stretch to hear “Lilian” played during commuter hours on Yle Radio Suomi. It’s golden and reflective and pretty, but above all else, the song is an imminent and utter earworm, which is something Insomnium has become particularly adept at executing.

Anno 1696 also comes across pretty strongly as a true vocalist’s album. That’s to be expected when the narrative plays such a critical role, but just know walking into the record that it puts a heavy emphasis on the vocal element (even more so than on Winter’s Gate), sometimes to the point where choruses and refrains eclipse a particularly crushing riff or melodic fret run. Honestly, that might be something to grumble about more if Niilo Sevänen’s voice wasn’t so holy shit great. How he’s managed to NOT lose an ounce of bite off that notably stirring growl across two decades of howling is a true wonder, and a record like Anno 1696 makes use of his impressive vocal capacity to the utmost degree. That’s not to say the other members don’t get opportunities in the spotlight—they most certainly do—but Anno 1696 clearly has an involved story to tell, so every track is teeming with growls, whispers and prudent use of clean vocals, the latter of which is largely shifted to the background. Well, mostly to the background—track three, “Godforsaken,” maximizes a driftier atmosphere across its fairly stretched 8.5 minutes, and guest vocalist Johanna Kurkela provides an appropriately dreamy element to offset Sevänen’s bark and the absolutely storming drum work from Markus Hirvonen that peppers the cut.

And speaking of guests, most anyone who’s been a part of extreme metal across the years will need little introduction to Sakis Tolis of Thou Art Lord / Rotting Christ fame. He provides the companion howls for “White Christ,” a dark and pounding stomper that’s sure to wedge itself into the grey matter long after the song draws to an end. It’s worthy of a highlight here not only due to the merit of the song and its, um, duet (why does that make me think of Lita and Ozzy), but because it might also be prudent to dispel any possible raised eyebrows concerning the song’s title. As I understand it, and apposite to the Pagan / Christian clash of olde, the term “white” attached to Christ was a way to imply weakness (compared to “Red Thor”), but it was also used as a reference to the white robes newly converted Christians were forced to wear. In short, “white” as it pertains to this particular song has nothing to do with skin tone. The song itself is a banger:

Again, the consistency Insomnium has sustained over the past two decades is nothing short of remarkable, and it’s something that not only speaks to the comprehensive skill level of all the players involved, but to their deep passion for sincerely emotional and pensive melodic death metal. These guys are masters of their medium, and they know how to strike an ideal balance between innovation and remaining loyal to that immediately recognizable sound that’s vaulted them to the level they are today. Longtime fans will find all the comforts of home here, but it’s still clear that Anno 1696 is a logical addition to the more modern direction the band initiated with Winter’s Gate and carried into Heart Like a Grave. Where the record ends up ranking amongst the three will require earnest time and attention, but it’s pretty much a given at this point that such an endeavor will be a very welcome and pleasant experience.