Founded in 1997 in Joensuu, Insomnium first gained recognition in 2002 with “In the Halls of Awakening”. Quickly building on this with death/doom juggernaut “Above the Weeping World” (2006) or melancholic masterpiece “One for Sorrow” (2012), the Finns surprised everyone with their achingly forlorn “Argent Moon” EP in 2021, only to shed their skin once more. “If someone thought that we have grown soft with the Argent Moon EP, I think ‘Anno 1696’ shows that there is the same old spirit left.”

Mixed by Jaime Gomez Arellano and mastered by Tony Lindgren, “Anno 1696” is by far their most emotionally rattling achievement. Insomnium take us into a world woven of sorrow and crumbling vestiges of hope, deliver an album relying on the strengths of their beloved trademark sounds and a new sense of grandiose, melancholic storytelling. Welcome to 1696. Welcome to hell.

New York’s answer to black metal, Black Anvil have not only been a driving force for USBM, but have taken the black metal genre as a whole and made it entirely their own. Now, with full-length number five, the band has once again levelled up their game, presenting a “Regenesis” of black metal.