Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 10/17/2006
When bad boys mature, they don't necessarily quit being bad boys, but they do become more complex and multi-faceted. They may evolve into the deep-thinking
Pedro Almodóvar of
All About My Mother,
Talk to Her and
Bad Education rather than the younger
Almodóvar, who had so much fun with screwball dark comedies like
What Have I Done to Deserve This and
Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. They may evolve into the
Marlon Brando of
The Godfather, instead of the punky young
Brando of
A Streetcar Named Desire. And in
death metal, that quest for maturity has given us the nuanced world of melodic
death metal -- a world that
death metal's stubborn, myopic purists denounce as watered down, but a world in which engaging albums like
Above the Weeping World are created. Anyone who doubts that
death metal has more than one flavor (ultra-fast, amelodic and consistently vicious) needs to give this 52-minute CD a very close listen.
Insomnium's sense of melody and harmony is striking. Exquisitely crafted, the songs on
Above the Weeping World demonstrate that the term "melodic
death metal" is no oxymoron for
Insomnium. The most extreme thing about this Finnish band continues to be
Niilo Sevänen's lead vocals; some singers in melodic
death metal (and its very close relative
symphonic black metal) offer an extreme-vocals/clean-vocals contrast, but the vocally uncompromising
Sevänen sticks to a straight-out-of-hell type of growl. Unfortunately,
Sevänen still makes the lyrics hard to understand; that was a problem on
Insomnium's 2003 recording
Since the Day It All Came Down, and it remains a problem on their follow-up
Above the Weeping World. For that reason, this 52-minute disc only merits a good rating instead of an excellent one. But even so,
Above the Weeping World is an enjoyable, worthwhile effort that fans of melodic
death metal need to be aware of.
~Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
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