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[b]Overview[/b]
Over the last decade Insomnium has slowly but surely made itself a household name among the melodic deathsters. Formed in 1997 in a somnolent town of Joensuu, in eastern Finland, these stern men have ever since redefined the boundaries of the genre. Two highly acclaimed demos already set the standard and in 2001 the band signed to UK label Candlelight Records.
At this point the founding members Markus Hirvonen (drums), Ville Friman (guitars) and Niilo Sevänen (vocals and bass) attached guitarist Ville Vänni to the band. The triumphant line-up had been born. Debut album In the Halls of Awaiting (2002) introduced a young and fierce band that combined aggression and violent riffing to melancholic atmosphere. Marriage of Scandinavian death metal and traditional Finnish tunes, catchy but progressive, melodic but brutal – these have been the Insomnium trademarks ever since. Debut was praised all over the metal world but the band still remained the Finland’s best kept secret.
With Since the Day It All Came Down (2004) the band moved further from the beaten paths of the genre. Album was darker, more challenging and the songs took meandering pathways: a rewarding journey for those who dare to take it. Exaltations followed, the prestige grew. In 2005 Insomnium made its first real tour outside Finland as they hit the shores of UK. The road had been long, narrow and rocky, but now things started to roll.
Third album Above the Weeping World (2006) was the breakthrough. Compositions and arrangements had reached a new pinnacle and the overall sound was heavier and richer. Album was tighter, meaner and more menacing than ever. Long-time friend Aleksi Munter did the epic keyboard parts which added a whole new layer to the songs. Album took the 9th spot on the Finnish album charts, Mortal Share video blared in MTV and Insomnium made long tours in Europe and North America with bands like Amorphis, Katatonia, Enslaved and Satyricon.
New album Across the Dark (2009) shows a band that knows its strenghts but isn’t afraid to evolve. Crux of the music is still melodic death metal but nuances are giving it a unique flavor. Keyboards are overwhelmingly epic and there are some stunning clean vocals by Jules Näveri. Bit of folk metal, pinch of doom, some thrashing, a whole lot of timeless melodies and progressive twists and there you have it: ingredients of the masterpiece.
[b]Albums[/b]
[b]In The Halls of Awaiting[/b]
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[list][*]1. Ill-Starred Son
[*]2. Song of the Storm
[*]3. Medeia
[*]4. Dying Chant
[*]4. The Elder
[*]6. Black Waters
[*]7. Shades of Deep Green
[*]8. The Bitter End
[*]9. Journey Unknown
[*]10. In the Halls of Awaiting[/list]
[b]Since The Day It All Came Down[/b]
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[list][*]1. Nocturne
[*]2. The Day It All Came Down
[*]3. Daughter of the Moon
[*]4. The Moment of Reckoning
[*]5. Bereavement
[*]6. Under the Plaintive Sky
[*]7. Resonance
[*]8. Death Walked the Earth
[*]9. Disengagement
[*]10. Closing Words
[*]11. Song of the Forlorn Son[/list]
[b]Above The Weeping World[/b]
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[list][*]1. The Gale
[*]2. Mortal Share
[*]3. Drawn to Black
[*]4. Change of Heart
[*]5. At the Gates of Sleep
[*]6. The Killjoy
[*]7. Last Statement
[*]8. Devoid of Caring
[*]9. In the Groves of Death[/list]
[b]Across The Dark[/b]
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[list][*]1. Equivalence
[*]2. Down With The Sun
[*]3. Where The Last Wave Broke
[*]4. The Harrowing Years
[*]5. Against The Stream
[*]6. Lay of the Autumn
[*]7. Into The Woods
[*]8. Weighed Down With Sorrow[/list]
[b]Some Songs[/b]
At The Gates of Sleep [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-6YTW427Io[/media]
Against The Stream [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu4VXehnieU[/media]
In The Groves Of Death [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9QCK6l6gKg[/media]
[b]Band Members[/b]
[b]Niilo Sevänen | Vocals/Bass[/b]
I was born 1979 in Turku, the oldest town of Finland, located in the south-western coast. But soon I left the tumults of the sea behind me as my family headed towards the heaths of Karelia in the east, and we settled in Joensuu when I was about 5 years old. As a child I was a quite ordinary boy, I enjoyed football, computer games, comics and adventurous films - like the first Star Wars movie which I watched dozens of times. Since my father worked at the department of literature in the university and my mother was a librarian I grew up in the middle of books. I read many kind of books, from children´s books to historical works – already at the age of six in kindergarten I was enthusiastic about Napoleon, who was my hero (probably just because our names started with the same letter). In kindergarten I also had Iron Maiden´s ”The Trooper” –shirt, because it looked so cool. Older boys had shown me some dangerous-looking pictures of Maiden, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, W.A.S.P. and Twisted Sister but I didn´t have any clue what their music was like. I was maybe seven when I recorded my first heavy-songs from the radio – probably Kiss or W.A.S.P. But something strange must have happened because I lost my interest in heavy metal for the years to come.
I was quite young when I found the books of Tolkien, and from that point on I was frequently cast into some strange and enchanting fantasy worlds. I played a lot of role-playing games with my friends and dreamt of becoming a fantasy-novelist myself. From about the age of 11 onwards I wrote a lot of stories but they all would have been such a massive tales that I never got very far with them. Afterwards it´s of course hilarious to read the writings, but back then I took them quite seriously. Anyway it made me enjoy the writing very much, which has been very useful ever since. And it also gave me the spark to create something new, something of my own.
I was maybe 12 when I became interested in music again. Queen and Aerosmith were the coolest bands I knew then, and their stunning videos could be seen from the music channels. Then once I saw the video of ”Enter Sandman” from the tv, and afterwards it kept haunting my mind. I think I had only seen the video once and maybe heard some songs from the radio when I wished Metallica´s black album for Christmas present in 1992. That was one of the crucial moments of my life. I remember as I sat alone in my grandparents´ kitchen on a Christmas eve and listened the album. Black was the night outside, and dark and strong was the music, stronger than anything I had ever experienced before. Nothing remained the same after the Sandman.
I had to have all Metallica´s albums of course. ”Ride the Lightning” was the one I learned to love most. And for me the one song still above all the others is ”For whom the Bell Tolls”. I spent all my time listening the albums, banging my head and ”playing” imaginative guitar in my room. I heard Paradise Lost´s ”Remembrance” from the radio and soon I had to buy the album ”Icon”. Ever deeper I fell when I bought Sepultura´s ”Chaos A.D.” without hearing it beforehand. First I was terrified by Max´s vocals, but soon I learned to like them. I think people in general need some kind of adaptation time before they can understand growling singing-style or appreciate its ability to represent extreme feelings - hate, frustration and sorrow.
I think it was February 1994 when my schoolmate Tapani Pesonen and I thought that we should form a band with a couple of other guys. Tapani had played drums and guitar for some time and he could play many Metallica´s songs, but I had never ever played anything – so my fate was to take the bass. In the first rehearsals the bass was given to me and then we were suppose to play ”For whom the Bell Tolls” which starts with a bass lead! I bet it sounded just great. Well, the beginning is always difficult, but I wanted real hard to stay in the band and so I practiced with my friend´s acoustic guitar at home. During the spring we played once a week some Metallica´s songs and little by little I learned to play bass so that it wasn´t utterly horrible. In the summer I finally got my own bass and our band got a “steady” line-up and a name, Paise (“Abscess” or “Furuncle” in English – scary, isn´t it?). Along with Metallica we played songs of Nirvana, Sepultura and some poxy Finnish punk bands so it was quite a mishmash. Our own works were some kind of strange “funny” punk-songs, and we surely dominated the underground punk-scene in Joensuu during the next winter. The climax of our short career was the “Shittiest Band” –contest, where we were the best band and thus the last in competition. Soon after that success we broke up because of some personal and musical disagreements. At least the glorious times of Paise taught me that playing in a band was the best hobby a young man could have and that drinking booze could be extremely nice in good company.
In autumn 1995 me and Tapani started in upper secondary school (or senior high school) and we were eager to form a new band. Soon we found some guys from the school who had similar plans. The first name of our new band was Disharmony and that describes pretty well what we sounded like. It was some kind of “light-grunge” what we played, since our singer, who did most of the songs, was an eager fan of the Seattle-genre. Soon we changed our name to Stonecrow, but unfortunately our style didn´t change in the process. In March 1996 we went to a real studio to record a demo-cassette. Working in a studio was a nice experience, but the outcome wasn´t that great. Then we made a video from one of the songs and our music teacher showed it to the whole class, so for a while being in a band was still cool. Unfortunately our style became lighter all the time and when the vocalist started to make Finnish lyrics we sounded like some crappy Finnish alternative pop/rock band. In that point playing in the band was not nice in any way, so I started pondering what could save me and Tapani from that awkward situation. Months passed slowly and it became the spring 1997 until something finally happened.
I had noticed that there were some younger metalheads in our school, and I knew that one of them at least could play guitar quite well. I had composed an acoustic song which I wanted to perform in our school´s spring-concert, and so I asked these younger dudes, Markus Hirvonen and Ville Friman, if they could join me and Tapani to play this work. The guys agreed and soon we had a song for four acoustic guitars and another one for two guitars and a piano (which was played with four hands!). Our show in the concert wasn´t that great since one guitar was badly out of tune and we were not that good playing the piano - I have never been more nervous on stage when playing that damn thing. But that didn´t matter since now we finally had a band where everyone enjoyed the playing! We had a great time together and we all wanted to play same kind of music. In the beginning it didn´t sound that marvellous but we had lot of motivation to practice. And now for the first time I had a band that could play exactly the kind of music I wanted to make, so I composed a lot and learned all the time more from songwriting. Soon Ville and I figured out what kind of music we wanted and were able to make together: furious and yet melodic metal with many acoustic passages - catchy music which still had many layers and some complexity so it was fun for us to play. From that finally grew Insomnium as it is known today.
At the moment I am living in Turku and looking forward to graduate in the near future. I´m studying and working at the same time but music is definetely my priority at the moment. We´ve been given the chance to make albums which will be released around the world, and I´m very grateful for that. Demo-bands, no matter how good they are, need always a lot of luck to get a decent deal from a reliable label, so we must consider ourselves fortunate. The guys in the band are my best friends and we are having a lot of fun together all the time – and that is the most important thing: to enjoy this and have a good time. If one day this begins to feel like hard and arduous work it´s the end of the band for sure. Which does NOT mean that one should give up after facing some troubles, no. We´ve had some difficult times too but making music has been still the only thing we have really wanted to do. I have no idea what I will do when I retire from playing metal, hopefully something related to my ambitions: history, music, literature and movies. Who knows, maybe I´ll begin a hugely successful career as a fantasy-novelist...
[b]Ville Friman | Guitars[/b]
I was born 30.04.1980 in Kristiinankaupunki (west coast of Finland). When I was age of four me and my family moved to the city of Joensuu (eastern Finland) where I spent my youth. In college I met my band mates and you can read the rest of this detailed event from our biography. I got into metal music when I was in elementary school mainly through our drummer Markus's influence. Metallica and Sepultura were the first bands that hit me hard. After them I found melodic Swedish death metal: In Flames - Subterranean, Amorphis – Tales From the Thousand lakes, At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul and Dark Tranquillity - Gallery. Music that these bands created was something magical and unique. From these bands I got the spark to learn to compose music myself.
I started to play guitar at the age of 16. I've never taken any lessons and that can be heard from my playing in both good and bad. I personally see myself as more of a songwriter than “technical player”. There's nothing more ear-pleasing than harsh and accurate riffing, beautiful melodies combined to inventive harmonies and soothing acoustic passages = unbelievable songs! I consider music as an expression of utter passion and hopefully I am able to deliver this to songs I create. That's at least my uppermost ambition. So basically most of my free time is spent with my computer and guitar exploring the fascinating aspects of music. Music gives solace to my life and I feel succeeded if I'm able to transmit this beyond myself to the ears of listeners.
Besides Insomnium I play guitar in Joensuu based dark/thrash/black-metal outfit Arrival and bass in Jyväskylä based melodeath-act Enter My Silence. We have made one album with Arrival titled “An Abstract of Inertia” and it was released in the spring 2002 through Edgerunner records. Check it out if above described style interests you! We are currently rehearsing songs for the second full length album and hopefully we're able to enter studio during this year. New songs we have already written sounds very good! We have also completed almost all the songs for the Enter My Silences second full length.
Nowadays I live in Jyväskylä (central of Finland) and study biology and geography at the local university. My main subject is ecology and my special interest lie in the field of evolution. I've just started doing my thesis in which I study microbial prey-predator interactions. This is very fascinating area of research (at least in my opinion…) because you can actually see the evolution directly in front of your eyes since the one microbial generation lasts about 20 minutes. After a month microbial species have gone through about 3000 generations. For example with humans this would take about 50 000 years. Besides being good studying place Jyväskylä has one of the best metal scenes (Swallow the Sun, Funeris Nocturnum, Alghazanth, Enter My Silence for example…) and indoor gig place in Finland: Lutakko. To keep it short Jyväskylä simply rocks! Everything I've revealed in here is just small part of me. Hopefully we get chance to get known better in gigs. Metal on!
[b]Ville Vänni | Guitars[/b]
Ville Vänni forms the other half of Insomnium’s dynamic guitarist duo. Prior to playing in Insomnium he made name in Turku-oriented melodic death metal band Watch Me Fall, in which Niilo also used to sing. Mr. Vänni became a full-blooded Insomnium member in 2001 taking his musical ambitions to a new level and putting previous projects to ice. Before achieving the guitarist’s office in Insomnium his musical training included four years of lessons in violin and five years of lessons in guitar.
Likewise his fellow musicians this hippie has an academic education to compensate the poor economic income of an average death-metal musician. He surprised himself by graduating from Turku’s University’s medical school in 2006, and makes living as a specializing surgeon in North-Karelia’s central hospital.
Two tough jobs require the special skill of scheduling his every movement for months ahead, and it actually works every now and then. Usually it doesn’t, and merely results in few weeks of sleep-deprivation. Sadly this man lacks the sense of fatigue and can hence be mistaken to a panda bear during those abysmal times. That is due to blackening circles around his eyes. Or maybe due to blackening in his head in general.
Whenever Vänni has spare time from musical and medical duties, can this jovial misanthrope be found in Lapland or Karelian wilderness hiking, fishing or hunting. Actually he can’t be found, as those activities serve as an oblivion and sanctuary from hectic urban life. His other weaknesses include reading, watching good movies and cooking.
Generally this member of the Insomnium-pack is quite harmless and mild-tempered. Nevertheless, if seen, proceed with caution, because this man could dissect you within milliseconds!
[b]Markus Hirvonen | Drums[/b]
I was born 1980 in Espoo, Finland's second largest city, just beside Helsinki. I Lived there for about five years before we moved to Joensuu, capital of the North-Karelia. My mom and dad were born in Northern Karelia and decided to return to their "roots". It turned out to be an excellent move. You could say that my childhood was rather normal. Lot's of bike riding and some skateboarding with friends at the time.
At the age of ten or eleven I discovered the exciting world of metal. My friend introduced me to a band called Metallica. It all started with song called Welcome Home (sanitarium). I remember listening to that song in the library, especially the intro was into my liking. After listening all metallica records intensively for few years, I saw Sepultura's live performance from a video and decided to get a copy of Arise, one of the greatest albums in the history of metal. I suddenly noticed that I had became an eager metalhead! Years later when I was introduced to band called In Flames I really got into melodic deathmetal. After listening to Swedish death-acts for a while, I was thrown into whole new direction. I found a band called Dream Theater. Since then I have bought almost all of their releases and also few rarity. Honestly I can say that DT is the band that has influenced me the most so far. My music taste has been expanding ever since to a variety of directions. Nowadays part of my favourite artists are quite far from the basic metal. Don't get me wrong I still dig metal very much, but sometimes it's refreshing to listen other styles of music. Before I got into this whole metal thing I was listening to my big brother's records.
My first musical performance took place in elementary school, where I remember singing alone in front of the whole school in the schools closing before summer break. At the time I was about 1.2 meters tall and weighted 19.5 kilos, it must have been extremely impressive sight! I got my first guitar at the age of ten. It was a legendary small Landola that is actually still holding up fine. I learned the basics of guitar by playing those legendary Metallica intros, that are actually rather good exercise for beginning guitarist in my opinion. I remember those great feelings that I got from playing along with songs like Fade to Black and One. I have been playing guitar ever since. The way that I got involved in playing drums is my small brother's fault, who got drums of his own when I was about fifteen. I remember when we tried to play Slayer's Dead Skin Mask's intro, and thought that it was way too tricky to be handled at the time. Drums are the instrument that I have always liked. I am very pleased that I had the chance to play both guitar and drums! My first band experience was when Niilo Sevänen and Tapani Pesonen asked Ville and me to play acoustic performance with them in high school's spring-concert, I won't get into details here but I can tell you it was hilarious. The same four men troop decided to continue playing together, this time with electrical instruments, and you probably know the rest.
Future will remain as a mystery for me. I have some plans for the future, but the more you plan the more likely your plans will get fucked up one way or another. At the moment I am studying environmental technology in the Lappeenranta University of Technology. Graduating will hopefully take place somewhere in the future? Besides studying I also want to spend time with my hobbies and activities I like the most.
[b]Most of this was copy/pasted from their site. I take no credit for this. Just spreading the music around.[/b]
Amazing melodic metal band, though sometimes when the lead singer sings he looks like he has down syndrome just a tad
Man, Insomnium are a fucking incredible band. My favourite melodeath band, definitely. The singing style is fantastic, the guitar riffs are the best I've ever heard, quite genuinely. Love the style. I have their latest two albums, Above the Weeping World and Across the Dark. Prefer Above the Weeping World though.
[QUOTE=mikeyt493;20937420]Man, Insomnium are a fucking incredible band. My favourite melodeath band, definitely. The singing style is fantastic, the guitar riffs are the best I've ever heard, quite genuinely. Love the style. I have their latest two albums, Above the Weeping World and Across the Dark. Prefer Above the Weeping World though.[/QUOTE]
I prefer Across The Dark, just sounds better because of their tuning.
I might prefer Above the Weeping World because it's the first I listened to, and listened to it the most. I've not listened to Across the Dark, perhaps I should give it more of a chance.
I will do so now I think
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