One For Sorrow

I have been a fan of Insomnium ever since hearing Above The Weeping World and it is still my favourite album of all time. Across The Dark was a good album, but didn't come close to matching Above The Weeping World. I sort of expected the same of this album, where it would improve on Across The Dark yet still fall short of Above The Weeping World's standard.I have been pleasantly surprised as it well exceeded all my expectations and is beginning to contend with Above The Weeping World in my favourite album spot. The clean vocals are really well used and add a little bit of variety to a couple of songs. Insomnium also seem to have made songs that are heavier and faster than their previous works. Only One Who Waits or Every Hour Wounds are prime examples. The real selling point of this album, for me, is that the album varies from these faster songs, to the typical Insomnium melodic gems, and a few songs that revisit the sound of their albums before Above The Weeping World Too.All in all I would say it's a must have for any Insomnium fan, any Melodic Death Metal fan and any Metal fan at all really. There isn't a single song I could call disappointing and the album as a whole is consistent, varied and brilliant. The packaging of the special edition looks really good and comes with a couple of really cool accessories. The album is well worth the cheapish price and a must have.

Great album feels like its up there with the early stuff.

Brilliant album.

Love this. Meoldic, heartfelt fanstasy metal feel with everything you want to here from a band like this. A Must!

I kid you not when I say that this is without doubt the best album that I have ever heard.

Great price, fast international delivery. Thank you.

When I first got this album I was not to keen on it for some reason I believe it may have been because I had just got a copy of up the downstairs from porcupine tree on the same day so was more excited for that than insomnium.The special edition is very good as you get the black box with the window cut out on the front with a wrist band and some cool but small pin badges. The cd is a digipack case and you get one extra song. The extra song is amazing like the album. the songs on this album have a similar pattern to the previous album across the dark with the soft intro kicking into more heavy songs and this album they have experimented with soft vocals so there is still allot of heavy but the soft vocals are more up front than on across the dark which for some will suck over's will be ok and for people like me I like the mix but that is only on some tracks. Some tracks are traditional insomnium and will please most of the fans. The album is 50+ mins long so is a good length for your cash and when you get into the album it gets better on each listen.As I said at first I was like its ok now it's amazing.

2011 has been quite a beastly year for metal. Great bands like Moonsorrow, Nightrage, Suidakra, Symphony X, Rhapsody, Septicflesh, Primordial, Absu, Vintersorg, Protest the Hero... the list just keeps on going... have released quality offerings. Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, Finland's finest Insomnium are back for another round of melancholic melodic death metal to tug your heart strings till tender once again.Insomnium have been one of my favourite bands for a while, with In the Halls of Awaiting and Above the Weeping World being two of my most beloved albums of all time. However, while Across the Dark was by no means a bad album, it felt, to me anyway, like a slightly average offering from an otherwise spectacular band. Perhaps they played it a little too safe, as I feel like that album was in need of some new ideas to spice things up a little. Thankfully, One for Sorrow certainly sees the band playing their A game once more.The first thing that really hit me about One for Sorrow is the different style of production. The band has gone for a much more rock/prog rock sort of production, with a warmer, dare I say stonier guitar tone that reminds me of bands like Mastodon or Ghost Brigade. It brings out a new depth to their sound by almost giving it a very prog/post-metal vibe. But it's not just a fancy new production that make One for Sorrow so great. The band seems to have found their creative thinking caps again and brought a whole host of new yet subtle influences to their usual sorrowful and folk-tinted mix of melodic death metal. Overall, I would say the new album has much more of a rock/prog-rock feel - not really reinventing the wheel in any terms as the album is still ripe with their signature sound, but it sounds to me like things have been mixed up a little. The guitar work in general is a bit simpler, and there's more use of chord strumming than riffs than ever before. The quite sections are also a bit more shoe-gazy then folky this time round - again not a huge difference but still note-worthy. There are also lots of little touches, such as forays into quasi-black metal segments and sub-cookie monster growls in Song of the Blackest Bird, stop/start riffing on Inertia and Regain the Fire, or the brilliant decent into full on prog rock in Lay the Ghost to Rest . However, what really wins the day over for me are the two riff monster tracks, Only One Who Waits and Every Hour Wounds, which almost sound as if they could have been lifted from In the Halls of Awaiting. Fast, melodic and complex, yet still with that little bit of a rockier feel that defines One for Sorrow in my eyes. Actually, the more I think about it Only One who Waits might be my favourite Insomnium track ever (close competition with Black Waters and Ill-Starred Son). My edition also features a bonus track with Mikael Stanne on guest vocals, which is pretty far out as well.Now, a lot of people make a big fuss about the inclusion of clean vocals on Across the Dark, and they're back on One for Sorrow. However, the clean singing is so seamlessly integrated that it barely needs to be mentioned. It's infrequent and subtle... nuff said. Haters will hate, but personally I didn't think it was that big a deal.Insomnium are band who, over the course of successive albums, have forged their own unique sound, and One for Sorrow is not a huge departure from that on any account. It's still the enchanting, visceral combination of sombre melodies, harmonic riffing, bison growling and meanders into beautiful acoustic soundscapes that earned the band their top spot in the world of melodic death. But by broadening their horizons a little and adopting more of a prog-rock sound,the band has added that subtle but essential dash of variety that Across the Dark was, in my view, missing. Again, the newer and more organic production style really brings all these elements to life in a way that, for me at least, re-energizes Insomnium's sound and has revived my interest in them again.Ripe with melancholy and a yearning for times gone by, One for Sorrow is the perfect album for walking through dark autumn forests or cold snowy mornings, and as the majestic tones of epic title track fade out, the only thing I want to do is play the damn thing all over again. A fine album from a great band and certainly a top 10 album for the year; don't hold back. One for Sorrow is a great album for fans of the band or those checking out Insomnium for the first time