Finnish melodic death metal pioneers INSOMNIUM have released a new single, “The Antagonist”. The track, along with previously issued singles “The Conjurer” and “The Reticent”, will appear on the band’s upcoming EP, “Argent Moon”, due on September 17 via Century Media Records.
INSOMNIUM frontman Niilo Sevänen stated about the “Argent Moon” EP: “When the corona outbreak forced us to cancel all the tours and shows, we pretty soon adopted a mindset that we better do something and keep ourselves in motion. We wanted to try how the streaming shows might work. We wanted to see what kind of new music might grow in the darkness and misery of the quarantine. And soon these vibes were channeled into songs that came to be the ‘Argent Moon’ EP. We wanted to try something a bit different so all the four songs on this release represent the softer side of INSOMNIUM. The ballads and the mellow tunes. Acoustic guitars and clean vocals. The sorrow and agony that creeps into your heart when the nights grow longer. But fear not, we haven’t changed our style. Next album will be something different again. We used all the ballad ideas here so maybe it will be pure blast beats. We shall see. ‘The Antagonist’ video is something new and fresh too, since we worked with director and mastermind Ville Lipiäinen for the first time ever. The result is a bit different kind of INSOMNIUM montage.”
After reaching pole position on official Finnish album charts and hitting German Top 10 with the acclaimed album “Heart Like A Grave” in October 2019, INSOMNIUM was once again supposed to entertain the legions of metal addicts all around the world. And that’s what these gentlemen did for the time being: there was definitely no absence of severe headbanging… well, until mid-March 2020 when the good old world abruptly closed its curtains.
Drummer Markus Hirvonen previously told Sonic Perspectives about “Heart Like A Grave”: “In my opinion, this is easily the strongest INSOMNIUM record we have ever done. There weren’t any plans for diversifying or anything. Maybe the recording of the [2016] ‘Winter’s Gate’ [album] kind of opened the gates in a way for us that we could prove to us that, ‘Okay, there are no boundaries in a way. We can explore all the directions we want. I’m not saying we went like full-on to some weird directions, but yeah, it kind of opened the treasure box for us in a way that we can expand tempo-wise and the timings of the songs, we can play slower and faster and so. Also, maybe explore with the time signatures a bit more, but still keeping the INSOMNIUM [feeling] behind it. It wasn’t like a decision that we were going to diversify our material, but it came up.”
INSOMNIUM is:
Markus Hirvonen – Drums
Ville Friman – Guitars
Niilo Sevänen – Vocals, Bass
Markus Vanhala – Guitars
Jani Liimatainen – Guitars, Vocals
