What defines the beauty of an album? Now what comes to mind first is that we are not talking about Brutal Metal. We are talking about beautiful music; beautiful, but still Metal nonetheless. In September 2009, the world gets a new taste of beautiful Metal; the Finnish Melodic Death Metal band Insomnium has released its fourth full-length album. For those of you who don’t know Insomnium, the band draws much influence from Doom and Dark Metal, displaying emotion and feeling in their music.

Following their tradition, Insomnium releases its much awaited fourth full-length album. At first listen, the easiest thing to pick out is that the acoustic melodies that once had a place in every song are now gone. Although possibly disappointing to some, it is quite common for bands to switch up their sound after 2 or 3 albums of similar instrumentation and arrangements. However, even without the acoustic melodies, the band still stays true to its roots by having many slower melodic parts; what has come to define the Insomnium sound. Emotion and beauty have always defined Insomnium and with this release we see yet another chapter of their saga with completely original material.

The guitar work has definitely improved on this album as compared to their last 3 albums. More complex harmonies and more interesting rhythm guitar are evident; while the lead can often be a simple but beautiful melody. Simple lead melodies are common in many Doom and Dark Metal bands for a good reason. Complexity is often distracting when dealing with softer Metal, as opposed to more Brutal Metal where complexity is necessary.

The vocals are superb as ever, capturing the sheer power and emotion of the music. That is one thing that has always been great about Insomnium. The vocals reflect the emotion of the music; when the music is reaching a climax, the entire band feeds it. This is something rare with vocals these days as many vocalists are more refined and smooth in the studio.

The bass (which is also done by the vocalist) is spot-on as always. However, one thing that is missing in this album is the bass solos that were present in almost every song or every other song in the past albums. This is something that shocked me upon the first listen. Nevertheless, the bass is still quite out there in the album and you can definitely hear the beautiful harmonies. The bass does not always follow the rhythm guitar, which is a very nice change.

The song structures are similar to what we have had in the past albums. Insomnium has always liked to climax in almost all their songs. Some would say that this makes every song predictable; however I believe that it allows every song to tell a story and really show the sheer power and emotion. Every song and every story is different, and allows for the album to flow like a book, having different chapters displaying different emotions. This is a very unique trait for a band, and not an easy one to pull off.

The overall recording of the album is decent as always. Insomnium has never released an album that was absolutely superb sounding, but they have always been perfectly decent. There have been a few improvements on this album however. The guitars definitely sound a bit more clear and refined. The drums sound great and do not over-power the guitars. The only downfall is that the vocals are too quiet, especially in heavier parts of the music. This quite surprised me considering this has never been a problem before. Being a Sound Engineer myself, I find it astonishing that a mixing engineer/mastering engineer can let something like this slide.

On the whole, what we have is a solid album that is a step forward in their growth as a band. I say growth because this band is evolving, but not becoming a different band altogether. If you have followed Insomnium since day one, or at least since the last couple albums, this will feel like a new domain for an already accomplished band. If this is your first listen to the band, I recommend you check out their previous albums to hear a slightly different, but always beautiful Insomnium.

On the Metal Scale, I give this album 9 out of 10. \m/