INSOMNIUM: Argent Moon (DEATH METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

While he had launched his tour to support the release of "Heart Like A Grave" (2019), Insomnium had to stop everything and return home because of the health crisis. Like many artists, the Finns then decided to embark on a new adventure with the composition of four tracks featuring as many characters. The result is this EP entitled "Argent Moon" with a cover representing a typical Scandinavian white night. This is what perfectly translates the melancholic beauty of the music that many bands from the country of a thousand lakes can offer.

And of melancholy, it is fully question here, but also of risk taking. The first mentioned feeling is recurrent with Insomnium and it is present on each of its albums under different forms. As for risk-taking, the quintet from North Karelia has never been stingy with it, and the best example was the magnificent "Winter's Gate" (2016) composed of a single track of 40 minutes telling a Viking epic. For "Argent Moon", Niilo Sevänen's band decided to offer compositions more oriented towards a relative softness, using acoustic passages, clean vocals, atmospheric lines and orchestral passages. These elements lead to epic pieces with a cinematic atmosphere accompanying a journey in four stages with characters sharing an infectious and bewitching melancholy.

Opening and closing the journey, 'The Conjurer' and 'The Wanderer' are longer in duration. The first one alternates acoustic and atmospheric passages with heavy and poignant protrusions carried by growls that are more heartbreaking than scary. The character seems to face the agony with a deep despair illuminated by blinding soli. 'The Wanderer' starts calmly and wanders in a more airy and enlightened atmosphere reinforced by orchestral lines before the whole accelerates and rises in intensity like a desperate race to escape from sadness and melancholy. Shorter, 'The Reticent' uses a clear voice reminding the compatriots of Swallow The Sun or Hanging Garden with which it also shares some raging impulses. Also in a format barely exceeding five minutes, 'The Antagonist' begins with ominous whispers before developing in a hypnotic slowness during which hope and anger clash.

Within the limits imposed by its format, "Argent Moon" is an overwhelming journey whose haunting melancholy takes hold of the listener in a dim but blindingly beautiful light. Always unpredictable, it is difficult to know if the Finnish band will dig this furrow on their next opus, but it is clear that this EP would deserve a long-lasting successor. In any case, it will leave a lasting impression on those who will listen to it and on the quintet's career. - Official website

INSOMNIUM

ARGENT MOON

AUTRE LABEL

DEATH METAL