Insomnium - Winter's Gate

Masterpiece!

Very surprised by this. Insomnium were becoming incredibly stale and this is certainly more varied than any of their past releases. At the same time, I don't find that this album does as great a job of establishing atmosphere as Above the Weeping World or Since the Day it All Came Down.. but maybe this it will start to sink a bit more with more listens. It's a strong release, but it almost feels to me like they're trying too hard to do something completely different here and it almost becomes too structured and loses the allure of the single song, multiple movement release. They do a great job of breaking away from their melodeath formula and incorporating doom, prog and even black metal elements, but they don't really spend enough time or have enough depth in any of them to really explore and show off what they can do. This sounds negative, but it is a very solid release and I'm impressed by these guys for the first time in years. More importantly, this shows that if they keep going down this path of experimentation and continue to breaking away from their previous formulaic approach, I think they have the potential to make something truly monumental...something I never would have guessed based on the 3 albums before this.

Holy crap. Never been into these guys but this is way above anything else they have done. I don't usually go in for these one track albums either.

Written by The Melting Snow on 23.09.2016 at 14:32

It's much more diverse than their previous efforts. I'm not exactly sure, but I think I felt a very clear touch of black and death metal in some riffs, and towards the end there were a couple of doom-ish leads.

Stylistically, I find this album to actually be less diverse than Shadows of the Dying Sun. It has more obvious post-rock influence than any other Insomnium album before it, and several people have made Agalloch references. This album is darker (and at the same time crucially more inspired than One For Sorrow), which I think is why many people here like this more than SOTDS. Both albums also have a slight black metal influence.

So I listened to it but I can't remember a second of it. I don't think it was bad... I don't think it was good...

As i'm writing this i'm listening to the album for the first time. After 1 listen I can honestly say this is WAAAAAY more of an interesting listen than Shadows of the Dying Sun. In my opinion certain parts of that album were boring, and was 7/10 at best, but this album is on another level, I think it deserves a 9/10 at least. Excellent work Insomnium!

Written by moe5512 on 24.09.2016 at 13:00

So I listened to it but I can't remember a second of it. I don't think it was bad... I don't think it was good...

I had the exact feeling after the first 2 listens!
After listening to it 6-7 times it grew on me more on more and now I can't get it out of my head, just give it a chance and you'll see.. for me this is the best effort the have done in years.. and I'm proud to call them my favorite band of all time

Written by [user id=142921] on 24.09.2016 at 16:42

One could probably find enjoyment in being run over after the 6th or 7th time too...

hahaha right on

Multiple listens can turn a good impression into a very good one, or a very bad one to a bad one. But I dont think it could turn a bad one into a good one. The first time tells you enough about song structures and instrumentation etc

Should give it a listen, I hope it's not another overrated album by Insomnium fanboys!

Too short... Looking forward to their concert to see how they can play Winter's Gate on the scene !

Still below to "One For Sorrow" and definitely goes below some of the earlier work as well.

I believe, "One For Sorrow" is one of the best work to be showcase as Insomnium's modernized sound. This goes way below to what i expected, heard receptacle sound surrounding "Winter's Guide" which further evaporates to create different atmosphere. Looks formidably easy playing while everything looks glacially.

Written by The Melting Snow on 24.09.2016 at 19:24

Multiple listens can turn a good impression into a very good one, or a very bad one to a bad one. But I dont think it could turn a bad one into a good one. The first time tells you enough about song structures and instrumentation etc

I have many experiences of changing a bad opinion of a bad into a good one. One example is Cult of Luna with their Salvation, which is now my all-time favourite band. Another prominent one would be Ghost's second album.

Regarding this album, def. their most experimental one so far, and reaaaally enjoyable.

Written by Jannik on 20.05.2016 at 02:00

Quote:
40-minute-melodeath song produced by dan swanö

aka: crimson 3?

Band was in winter cabin, many people don't understand what is winter in that parts of world, like Floor Jansen says in Finland its snowing, life goes on, in Ned while traffic would be paralyzed.
Anway band said they were in winter cabin and listened to Edge of sanity - Crimson album ... it was inspiration to wrote one long song
You lads must read a subtitles in trailer what bands makes even its rare for Nortdic band speak in Finish not English for media

And awesome album , one song albums are well depends, this is good, but I need read a lyrics to get deeper, because its process, cabin, feelings . Musical its awesome, I know it will be rejected in ms awards because of some stubbornness, but actually this is better as AA (or was it last year ) , one of rare albums in genre and I think its good one.

Masterpiece!

Don't get me wrong, I think this is very good, but I have to say melodeath is very overrated on this site. A very limited and repetitive genre.

Written by BloodJuNkie on 24.09.2016 at 20:35

Should give it a listen, I hope it's not another overrated album by Insomnium fanboys!

Of course it is.

Written by Nicko's Nose on 26.09.2016 at 03:37

Don't get me wrong, I think this is very good, but I have to say melodeath is very overrated on this site.

It's not only this site that is acclaiming Winter's Gate so far, regardless of the genre's usual confinements. Critical reception is almost similar to Wintersun's self-titled right now, we'll see how long it lasts (that album has more praising reviews than average, from what I've seen).

Damn, maybe they really did it this time. The average rating definitely makes me curious.

Written by [user id=160508] on 26.09.2016 at 12:53

Damn, maybe they really did it this time. The average rating definitely makes me curious.

I recall it always being this high for Insomnium's albums. Until they hit the top 200 and start sinking further and further down.

Yeah any popular melodeath album gets insane high rates at first, then gradually sinks to like 8.7 or something.

Probabaly, people rates high intially with the sound so much fresh and energetic and then they start downsizing votes with number of spins they give to melodeath albums.

At least that's what I saw. I know it wouldn't have that much swing of votes as my post makes but still it's pretty weird to see people do this.

Have you ever had that feeling, when you just didn't want the song to end? Epic journey through time and space. Some moments in the song are just extraordinary.

Written by [user id=160508] on 26.09.2016 at 19:08

Oh, didnt know that. Well normally I dont trust in peoples voting methodes anyway, so a high average rating doesnt influence me. But over a 9 could be at least a bit of an indicator for a great album.

There can be variables to it such as vote abuse, but I didn't notice any blatant voting patterns so far. That considering, there's an indication of considerable acclaim present in the rating to votes amount ratio. The latest Ne Obliviscaris album collapsed from 9 to like 8.4 after the staff nuked a pile of what were considered abuse votes

Excellent album! Love it! Was a big surprise for me.
Usually i'm not much into most of these 1 song concept albuns, they tend to be too boring.

But not this one! Their best work so far, along with One For Sorrow imo!

Completely hooked on it!

Just hope they come play it to Portugal anytime soon ...

Still waiting for my artbook to come before listening to this! I doubt it will be up in the alley of Since The Day It All Came Down and Above THe Weeping World, but I'm sure it will be an interesting listen

Written by Fallen Ghost on 27.09.2016 at 15:04

I doubt it will be up in the alley of Since The Day It All Came Down and Above THe Weeping World, but I'm sure it will be an interesting listen

Good to keep your expectations relatively low, huh? This hardly has anything negative in it and I'm tempted to increase my rating.

I bought the standard edition today, and it's nice that the actual 18 page short story comes also with that. Even if the print is a bit small.

Take notes, Jari.

Written by MétalNoir on 27.09.2016 at 20:30

Take notes, Jari.

This.

Not surprised to hear that many people are loving this over the band's last album. I wouldn't dare call this ground breaking, but it explores sounds that Insomnium have yet to ventured to. At the same time it baffles me that people think that Insomnium is a band that is "one of many". In all my musical obsession, I couldn't name one band that sounds like this one - whereas vice versa you might get a few matches