Review: "Since the Day It All Came Down" by Finnish Melodic Death Metal Band Insomnium

Insomnium is a melodic death metal band from Finland that I got into several years ago. Their 2^nd studio album called Since the Day It All Came Down was released in 2004 and it is pretty good. Which melodic death metal bands in Finland are not good? Very few of them that I have heard could be considered bad. Insomnium plays melodic death metal that sounds like early Amorphis with a touch of Dark Tranquillity. I would say that as 2004 went into 2005, my love of Finnish rock and metal bands increased to the point where I bought Lullacry’s Vol. 4. These were two pretty good years in the life of this writer.

After the instrumental called "Nocturne" is the melodic, heavy and hard hitting song called "The Day It All Came Down." Vocalist and bassist Niilo Sevanen makes a sharp growl before his vocals make their entrance. He sounds like Antti Haapanen of Noumena except his growls are even harsher. I can also hear a Tomi Koivusaaari influence in these vocals. But we cannot even compare Insomnium to Amorphis. Their melody just isn’t as good as the bands that I mentioned. The song however is no less melodic. The middle of the song has beautiful acoustic guitar and this is a tradition that Finnish metal bands have used to their advantage to catapult themselves on top of the death metal genre. The song is about someone who is having a very hard time coping with winter as the icy air has made him forlorn and bitter. He has put himself into a sort of perdition where he feels that he cannot escape from.

"Daughter of the Moon" lyrically continues in the tradition of the previous song. People journey along a long, winding path and they are met with snow on the trees and icy air. Such temperatures in Finland are very common in the winter months so Finns must do what they can to stay active and warm during these months.

Even so, it would not be proper to compare Insomnium to In Flames because they are just not on the same level. The song "Bereavement" starts with some piano before the melody kicks in. This may be one of the other very good songs besides the second song. The song is about someone who is in a constant state of mourning because the darkness has swallowed all the light and hope that he had. If you have never had to deal with sorrow or sorrowful moments, you may be one very fortunate person but in life, grief and sorrow is a very common emotion experienced when we suffer personal losses such as the death of a family member.

Insomnium is also lyrically similar to Noumena. "Resonance" is a pretty relaxing instrumental kind of song that Sacred Reich would have been proud of. The song has a little bit of that "If Only" feeling in it. The most unusual thing that I really cannot understand is why do so many Finnish bands focus on lyrics having to do with despair, sorrow, and death? This is one of the reasons why this album won’t quite get a 90 points. The vocals which are not always audible will also effect the score of the album. I would be willing to give this album 85 points out of 100.

It can be of no surprise to me that this album is as good as it is because adding to the creativity is the fact that former guitarist Ville Vanni is a general surgeon. Being a surgeon also requires lots of skill and technique just like being a guitar player does. Whatever Insomnium does on this album, it seems to work.