Credits:

Insomnium

Description:

This is the latest studio album from INSOMNIUM, who have now become one of Finland's leading veteran melodic death metal bands, after a three and a half year absence since their last album. The band has also officially welcomed former SONATA ARCTICA guitarist Jani Limatainen since their last album, "Heart Like a Grave" (2019/not released in Japan), and the band's range of expression has expanded even further than before. This is a concept album based on an original story written by vocalist Niro Sevanen.The album's title, "Anno 1696," refers to the year "1696," the year of the Dark Ages, a time of mass loss of life due to witch trials and famine in Europe at the time, including in Finland. Anno 1696 deals with this dark chapter in Finnish history and at the same time pays homage to the legendary Finnish novel "Sudenmorshan" by Aino Karas, one of the stories about a werewolf. This is the best novel Finland has ever produced. It has a very dark and tragic tone that I wanted to capture when I wrote my story." He said.The band expresses this tale of woe with their trademark melodious, grandiose, melancholic melodies and dramatic songs that weave in and out of each other, creating a unified worldview in a single album that is reminiscent of a movie soundtrack. The Japanese version of the album is the full-length version of the story. In addition to DISC 1, which tells the main story, the Japanese version of the album includes the EP "Songs of the Dusk" as DISC 2, which delves deeper into the story and describes it in detail, so that the entire story can be grasped.