Band:	Insomnium
Album:	One For Sorrow
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	October 12, 2011
Guest review by:	Risto

01. Inertia
02. Through The Shadows
03. Song Of The Blackest Bird
04. Only One Who Waits
05. Unsung
06. Every Hour Wounds
07. Decoherence
08. Lay The Ghost To Rest
09. Regain The Fire
10. One For Sorrow
11. Weather The Storm [Special Edition bonus] [Japanese bonus]
12. Beyond The Horizon [Japanese bonus]

One For Sorrow: the old children's nursery rhyme about counting up to ten birds in a tree. Makes sense for an Insomnium album to be inspired by it; after all, they've had these birds flying around in their album art for a while. Their fifth full-length respectively adapts to the rhyme with ten tracks of fairly varied Gothenburg metal in that trademark Insomnium sound.

What has been clear to me from the get-go is that this album doesn't run out of fuel at any point, even though it can't keep pace without little exhaustion at times. If you're familiar with their earlier work there's not that much you would not expect to hear from them; a highly atmospheric and mostly instrumental opening track, some slightly thrashing numbers, and some longer tracks with a doomier and more progressive vibe. I'm not particularly fussed about some of the heavier riffing which is hard to put a finger on. It's like Ville Friman used an unwanted spice for my tastes this time around. Another slightly annoying thing on occasion is the production that sounds like it cannot always deal with everything that's coming through the system. This is particularly evident later on in "Lay The Ghost To Rest".

Clean vocals have gained a little more prominence compared to their previous album. If you're a big fan of Niilo Sevänen's growls you should not worry though - death vocals still dominate the registry. The cleans are performed by Friman this time, who fits the band's sound well, giving the songs a nice lighter contrast. The despair-ridden title track is the furthest expansion on the use of clean vocals with a leading role in the verse.

The overall conclusion is that the album is solid but there are less true highlights here than in their impressive back catalogue. Niilo Sevänen contributed a mere two songs in the composition department, which I find a bit unfortunate because there's a small ingredient of inspiration missing. I don't call these two guys the dynamic duo of melodic death metal for nothing.