Album Review : Insomnium – Heart like a grave

Insomnium is a grest band from Finland people need to check out more.  They’re style is definitely melodic death metal, but quite atypical melodeth, being way sadder sounding than most.   By far my favorite melodeth band to listen to now, they are also one of the darkest and listening to their depressing lyrics about suicide, heartache, lovers dying, really gets me a little depressed sometimes. But it’s all good because their music is so amazing that it’s worth feeling a bit depressed after hearing their music.

Insomnium has amazing guitars. Their style is doom/melodeath and it has a lot of doom elements thrown in to their music.  It is also quite dark lyrically to fit that. Their latest cd “heart like a grave” is a total masterpiece! This cd is by far their best ever and their most depressing at the same time. Wail of the North kicks in with piano then some heavier riffs. Then you get valediction a catchy opener about suicide apparently. It’s dark but not as  dark as their later songs. it is great however, as most insomnium openers are, but isn’t the best on the cd either. The next song, “Neverlast” is amazingly heavy for an insomnium song and has a very sad guitar solo near the end. Then you get the best track on the cd, Pale morning Star!

Pale Morning Star, is the best song they’ve ever done, potentially, blending in black metal, prog metal, and death metal together. It’s also quite sad, about a guy dreaming about his dead girlfriend. Or trying to contact her in a dream This is kind of reminiscent of real life for me, long story short.  The song is dark and is quite depressing but is so good sounding that you don’t care. The guitar melody near the end of the song is downright Beautiful.

Then you get the song I always skip on the cd. This song is strangely not too depressing but is also very slow and ballady, and I always skip it for that reason. Not a bad song, because insomnium just doesn’t DO bad songs, but definitely not their best. The song is called “and bells they toll”

Then you get their next song (“the offering”) which makes me scratch my head. Number 1, It IS a good song but it’s just so heartachie that it makes me cry sometimes. Maybe the saddest song on the whole cd, it deals with someone sacrificing themselves for their lover’s health. Maybe in battle. And not just their body, their very soul!  The song is really well written though, so it isn’t bad, it’s just SUPER depressing, because NOBODY would do something like this, unless people in finland did this, I don’t know!

The next song “mute is my sorrow” is a great song about someone searching for someone he wanted to love him back but would not.  This song is actually quite proggy and is one of their best. I like it a lot, and it’s a favorite of mine on the cd. Then you get twilight trails. The song is great, don’t get me wrong, but I find it SLIGHTLY boring. Not a bad song, it’s got some epicness thrown in but I usually don’t like it nearly as much as stuff like the offering, Pale Morning star and neverlast. Still, I will give insomnium credit, it’s a damn good song, just not their best.

Then you get the title track and 3 bonus tracks. The 3 bonus tracks are ok but are kind of forgettable so I won’t review them. The title track, heart like a grave, is one of their most sad songs on the whole cd, dealing wtth someone who regrets causing a bad relationship and breakup afterwards.  This song is really dark sounding and it fits the mood the songs’s lyrics try to portray.  The music is top notch for the final track as well, with a really good melody in it too. Overall this is insomnium’s GREATEST CD ever – 9.9/10