“Winter’s Gate” is the seventh record by
melodic death metal gods Insomnium, and takes a considerably different form
from any of their previous work. This album is simply one 40-minute song. It is
composed of 7 different parts, but as they form one track, it is more difficult
to tell them apart. There are clear beginnings and endings to each of the 7
parts, but you’re much more likely to recognize this album as a single song.
Though this is a bit of a strange tactic, it makes sense for Insomnium. Their
albums have always had songs that blend into one another, so having one song
simply increases the cohesion of the record.
Musically, “Winter’s Gate” is exactly what
you’d expect from the band. They still are far better than any other band at
writing music that is both depressing and uplifting at the same time, catching
a variety of seasons, moods, and atmospheres. This record has crushing riffs
abound, blasting, catchy melodies, and introspective instrumental passages. It
manages to succinctly summarize everything the band has done in their previous
work. The only real problem is… it’s just one song. Though this album is filled
with memorable sections, there’s nothing to latch onto. You can’t say “that one
riff in the bridge of this song is awesome” because instead you’ll have to say
“the part at 16:49 is really cool”. Except nobody does that because nobody
watches the clock while an album is on. That doesn’t devalue what Insomnium has
done with this record; it just means that you can’t reach for parts of the
record, and will end up listening to it less as a result.
One slight change on “Winter’s Gate” is
that it feels like the clean vocals are slightly less prominent than they were
on “Shadows of the Dying Sun”. They still show up on this album, but don’t
really dominate the record that much. This is both good and bad: on the one
hand, Insomnium’s clean vocalist isn’t all that technically skilled, but his
approach works for a band that is based on creating intense emotions. At the
end of the day, however, Niilo Sevänen’s growls are potent enough to do this as
well, so it’s not a major loss.
The fact that Insomnium is not bound to
conventional song structures on this album works for the band. It might not be
as effective for the listener to follow along, but every second of this album
is enjoyable, and it never feels like the band is retreading another chorus in
order to write a song in a particular way. As a one-off experiment, “Winter’s
Gate” was a good way to generate some discussion about a new Insomnium record.
Overall, I prefer a more song-based approach, but this record is a nice change
of pace too.
Highlight
All of it
Final Rating
4.2/5 or 84%.
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