Incomnium – Since the Day it All Came Down

Every week I receive multiple CD’s from multiple bands, covering many different styles of rock. Occasionally, I receive CD’s from bands like Insomnium, who do me the favor of combining multiple musical styles on to one disc.

Since the Day it all Came Down is the second album from Finnish rockers Insomnium. While at its roots the album is Swedish melodic death metal, the band begins throwing curve balls right out of the gate. In fact, the first few minutes of the album contain more piano than blast beats. In the long run, Insomnium does little to add to the style of music that fans of Opeth and In Flames are already familiar with. But what they do manage to do is crank out a solid album that neither embarasses the genre or the band in any fashion, and give us just a little taste of a band that’s beginning to break out of a mold and begin creating their own.

For those not familiar with the term “melodic death metal”, I’d describe the sound as “death metal plus”. All the basics of death metal are there: duel guitar leads, blast beats and kick drums galore, and plenty of screaming. On top of the that, the band adds plenty of extras, like keyboards intros and a varied pace. It’s almost like mixing death metal with doom metal. It’s heavy, but it’s not 100 miles per hour straight forward the entire time. There’s plenty of growling and screaming, but there are some (gasp) harmonies here too. The guitars can be exchanging leads one minute, and acoustic the next.

Insomnium’s first album sounded like every other Swedish band playing melodic death metal. While Since the Day it all Came Down doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, it does show that the band is beginning to develop their own style and sound. The longer these guys are together the more original they are going to become.

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