Review Summary: Going home in another direction
It was not hard to guess what kind of album
One for Sorrow was going to be simply by reading interviews with the members of this now-veteran Finnish melodic death metal band. Guitarist Ville Friman was adamant about his aggressive approach to the songwriting here, and it is impossible to listen to the album without realizing that Insomnium have removed heaps of the downtrodden, slow-moving arrangements in favor of a more streamlined approach to their music. Fortunately for them,
One For Sorrow contains enough songwriting power to clot the wound created by axing, in large part, a critical aspect to their sound. The direction taken here is not a surprise by any means; in fact it seems a logical next step in the band’s course, a fix for those who like their melodic death metal aggressive, quick, thunderous, and most importantly, complex. The pieces are two sides of the same coin; the unabated ferocity taken out in “Only One Who Waits” complimenting the grandeur of “Song Of The Blackest Bird”, the latter of which was written by vocalist Niilo Sevänen in epic fashion but persuaded towards a more aggressive edge by Friman (“Only One Who Waits”, actually, had about two minutes lopped off the end by Friman in an attempt to also bring aggression to this track as well). Whether this is a wise decision is a matter of taste, but regardless of how you look at it Insomnium did the best they could possibly have done with the sound they chose.
Sevänen’s deep bellows benefit clearly from the attitude of the songwriting, and bite with a pressure not felt before in Insomnium’s past work – in part a testament to the excellent production placed on all of the instruments. “Decoherence” is a wonderful acoustic instrumental that fits in its spot with perfection, which makes it surprising to hear that this track was almost scrapped from the final cut of the album and demoted to a bonus track. Indeed, the acoustics throughout the album are well done and provide contrast to the loudness of the songwriting, but lack memorable hooks or don’t seem to be written to flood with emotion, at least in relation to their role in the band’s prior works. The acoustic-driven title track is a sorrowful (pun intended) piece that is the odd-man-out on the album in terms of composition, and is the best use by far of the new voice on the album: the clean vocals provided by Ville Friman. The clean vocals are partly used to my disdain as half of the cliché clean chorus, harsh verse pattern that comprises the single “Through The Shadows”. The difference between songs on
One For Sorrow such as “Through The Shadows” or “Regain The Fire” and “Where The Last Wave Broke” from
Across The Dark in this regard simply comes down to the competence of the vocalist, to which Jules Näveri has a massive advantage. Friman’s vocals, as much as it pains me to say, are simply not what are needed for soaring choruses to achieve their desired effect. Similarly, his voice pales in comparison to Näveri during verse singing, and despite their decency during “One For Sorrow” and “Lay The Ghost To Rest” one cannot help but think how much better two already great tracks could be had they used a better vocalist, or even referred back to Niilo’s whispering that used to be used in place of singing.
The presence of clean vocals are only a relatively small part of the album, though, and on the macro scale the band does a great job in securing an atmosphere through the use of countless winding guitar melodies, crushing chords, subtle synths and sweeping leads. Simple as many of their riffs may be, Insomnium know how to wield them to their fullest potential, and one only has to listen to the intro to “Unsung” and the ensuing onslaught of perhaps the heaviest verses Insomnium has ever written to realize the brilliance at hand. The band has cast aside grandiose melodic leads in favor of more intricate layered riffing that carries a wave of fresh air into the atmosphere, but unfortunately these riffs cannot match their counterparts in terms of sheer emotion – a crucial aspect of Insomnium’s allure. The decaying of their plodding, doom-influenced epics (this is the only Insomnium album without a song over eight and a half minutes) is partially avenged by the inclusion of the album’s clear nod to this sound in “Lay The Ghost To Rest”, as well as a tightening of their faster riffing that had appeared at times sloppy in the past; the album does not falter in providing copious amounts of well-written material to digest in a short period of time. There is a very out-of-character guitar solo provided by Dark Tranquillity bassist Daniel Antonsson at the conclusion of “Only One Who Waits” and a surging orchestral arrangement courtesy of Aleksi Munter of Swallow The Sun during the interlude of “Every Hour Wounds” to add character to an album that at times leaves no room for it.
Given the strength of the songwriting, the direction taken by Insomnium on
One For Sorrow isn’t as big of a problem as it may have been had they taken a more two-dimensional approach. There is hardly any filler present here, with only “Regain The Fire” standing out as a subpar inclusion. Every other song has a purpose in relation to the whole, and in a sense the ferocity of the album makes the elegant portions that much more impacting. “Lay The Ghost To Rest” and “Decoherence” play beautifully off each other, and the deep snarls gain traction between the rhythm’s heaviness and the interwoven melodies.
One For Sorrow may be bereft of a tangible soul, but whatever faint heartbeat lies at the core of these compositions is displayed when taken in from a distance – this is a cohesive unit, an
album in the sense that it sounds different, sounds shallow, when taken in pieces. I can’t say that the third-dimension added to Insomnium’s sound on
One For Sorrow benefits the emotional impact of the record, but I can say that it slyly changes the sound of a band that aren’t ones to forsake their roots.
