Insomnium - Netherworlds (Century Media Records)
The intro track to Insomnium's tenth album, Cold Song, could have easily come from Markus Vanhala's other project Cemetery Skyline, it's synth led and gothic but as soon as Shadowlife begins we're back on familiar territory, a blend of gothic doom and melodic death metal that Insomnium have been dealing since their inception in 1997.
From those days, bassist/harsh vocalist Niilo Sevänen, drummer Markus Hirvonen and guitarist Ville Friman are still the core trio of the band with guitarists Markus Vanhala and Tomy Laisto joining later, Laisto only this year, meaning that Netherworlds features a triple axe attack, all three guitarists weaving the sonic tapestry switching between the metallic riffs and anthemic cleans.
They all share the clean vocals too, giving massive gang choruses against the harsh screams, as the drumming moves between ferocious double kicks and nuanced melancholic phases such as on Arch Of The Sky. These complex layers, mean that the songs can take many different paths on this record, from the atmospheric Ethereal Sleep, to the modern Remembrance, the aggressive The Banished and the epic Journey's End.
Insomnium deliberately looking back to their earlier releases where their blistering melodeath had gothic doom and folksier tones that are found on tracks such as The Hour Grows Late, where acoustic guitars bleed into light speed riffage, along with guest features from Tomi Joutsen, Tomi Koivusaari and Santeri Kallio of Amorphis.
By looking back it feels like Insomnium have reclaimed themsleves, after a few albums that upped the directness and historical lyricism, they now address more personal and societal issues, songs about love and death but written now with more life behind them than in front, approaching these themes with a lot of life experience.
The band say that Netherworlds is a 'best of' featuring new songs and it's difficult to not agree. This is about as perfect of an album you'll get from Insomnium, guaranteed to be on your end of year list! 9/10
Shores Of Null - Homesick (Dusktone)
For fans of: Paradise Lost, Amorphis, Swallow The Sun, Katatonia, Borknagar, or so the PR proclaims and that's spot on. Shores Of Null's new album takes them further into the melodic realms of melodic doom metal, with Paradise Lost and Amorphis the biggest influences I can hear on Homesick.
It's melancholic, intense, grief stricken and emotionally resonant, a ten song musing on "emotional states (such as) longing, loss, anger, vulnerability and the search for a place to belong." Its a record that deals with nostalgia, what really is home and how does our upbringing shape us? Filtering these ideas through some anthemic death doom which features melodic moments and big choruses fit for bigger stages, with the performance of vocalist Davide Straccione a particular high point.
Not that the band have tried to create an album of singles, the opposite actually as Homesick is a record meant to be heard in full, each track thematically driven by the last, the collaborative writing in the pre production phase alongside producer Marco “Cinghio” Mastrobuono allowing them to shape theses songs exactly how they want them, so the whole record flows well, the depth of the production meaning you need to listen repeatedly to discover everything going on.
It means that with this fifth studio album Shores Of Null showcase their maturity as band, emerging from their death doom beginnings with a more refined and focussed style that is driven by a melancholic intensity, especially The Numbing Void which features vocals from Natalie Koskinen of Shape Of Despair and violin from Shaun MacGowan of My Dying Bride to bring more legitimacy and a wider sonic approach.
If you liked Shores Of Null before, Homesick is not a massive departure from their past record but it's aimed at getting them more recognition in the death doom world, sounding more, immediate and poignant than on their early records as they mature into their position as one of melodic death dooms modern flag bearers. 9/10
Great Falls - The Bite That Grows Up (Neurot Recordings)
With their debut for Neurot Recordings compared to Ken Mode and Chat Pile, there's going to be a lot to get your head around with Great Falls.
Objects Without Pain saw them play Roadburn, be the support to Botch's final European tour and do US tour with the equally crushing Primitive Man, but soon they were back in the studio with producer Scott Evans to record a follow up, one that was supposed to be a calmer offering but somehow is more intense, aggressive and downright terrifying than their last album.
Chaos is the one word review I can give this record, A Small Weakness tumbles noisily into the frantic blitz of Pinned Against Time, the drumming is Nick Parks never taking any traditional patterns while the bass of Shane Mehling on tracks such as Worse Than Sleep can't decide whether to work with or fight against the angular riffs of Demian Johnston.
The 25 year friendship of these two integral to the fervor of these off-kilter, eccentric cuts of brutality, driven by non linear time signatures, weird tunings, percussion with anyhting they can find and pained often single sentence vocals, with Hailstone Numbers having Johnston sound like he's being tortured, against the thick bass, bristling atmospheres and then that inevitable erruption of volume.
The Bite That Grows up is sheer force, there's going to be those that absolutely hate it, warranted for sure as the music here is very niche, nihilistic math metal is the closest I could get to explain it. However if you're devotee of the fringe bands that play Roadburn or Arctangent then you'll find a place in your listening for Great Falls, but let's be honest you'll probably already have everything on vinyl.
Erratic, explosivity from the Pacific Northwest on The Bite That Grows Up. 7/10
Generation Steel - Steelmachine (Fireflash Records)
It's always telling how dedicated to a musical genre a country is when they get their own genre tag, over in the extreme side the Swedes have melodeath, the Greeks and Scandinavians take black metal but over on the cleaner side there's of course NWOBHM from the UK and Teutonic metal from Germany.
Bands such as Accept, Running Wild and even Halloween all encompass this style and so to do Generation Steel, despite only being formed in 2019, founding member Jack The Riffer, looks to the leather and studs wearing heavy metal of the 1980's with his musical output.
They've already released two albums and now with album three Steelmachine, they look to sharpen their attack as Jack and drummer Marc Laukel are joined by some new blood with veteran experience.
Bassist Fabian Watermann (Mad Max) locks down the rhythms with Jack and Marc while Swede Mike Stark (Stormburner) joins on vocals and the extremely experienced Thilo Herrmann who has played with Running Wild, Grave Digger takes lead guitars for this record.
The latter two also contribute heavily to the songwriting, making for some of the toughest metal Generation Steel have put to record, such as, the snarling Witches Cross, the relentless The Priest (who I assume is named Judas) or the swaggering Wings Of Steel where the melodic side comes in.
Generation Steel fire up the Steelmachine and smelt some more anthemic Teutonic metal on album three. 7/10
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