INSOMNIUM

Heart Like A Grave CENTURY MEDIA

More windswept glory from Finnish melodeath heroes

With all their albums seemingly conceived and recorded on a mountainside overlooking Scandinavia’s most breathtaking scenery, Insomnium are always reliably heroic. While there’s the odd flash of power metal synth in Valediction and folk in And Bells They Toll, the Finns’ vast guitar melodies and Niilo Sevänen’s mighty roar remain the overwhelming core of this eighth album. Returning to the traditional format following 2016’s 40minute-long single Winter’s Gate, Heart…’ s high points are the most epic they’ve sounded since 2006’s colossal Above The Weeping World. If the nine-minute saga of melancholy and strings that is Pale Morning Star, Twilight Trails’ building drama or Mute Is My Sorrow’s

gallant twin leads don’t inspire you to charge up the nearest peak with your battle standard unfurled you need to have your metal credentials revoked.

Stirring stuff as always. ■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Amon Amarth, Wolfheart, In Mourning

ADAM REES