Insomnium Live Review From The Camden Underworld November 15th 2011
What were you doing last Tuesday? If you weren't one of the several hundred people inside an almost sold out Camden Underworld for a night of quality melodic death metal, then you seriously missed out. Insomnium's first ever headlining tour across Europe has been an event long awaited by their deservedly growing fanbase, so after seeing them once in a support role (with Swallow The Sun) and after missing them with Dark Tranquility due to a family emergency last year, as soon as the headline tour was announced tickets were swiftly snapped up.
Before Insomnium took to the stage for their first headline performance in the UK we were treated to two support bands of high quality. First up were Mygrain, a six piece band who like Insomnium hail from Finland. Like their Finnish touring partners, Mygrain unleashed a very effective brand of melodic death metal across The Underworld and the ever swelling crowd were into Mygrain from almost the word go. Having never seen, heard of even heard of Mygrain before they put on a very absorbing half hour set and I think by the end of the set they had made themselves a lot of new fans. I for one will definitely be checking out their (newly researched) three albums. If you're an Insomnium fan there's a very high chance you will enjoy Mygrain, so give them a listen.
Mygrain: Definitely not a headache for those in attendance
The main support for this evening were a band called Before The Dawn, who completed a trio of Finnish bands on the tour lineup. Before The Dawn's musical style is slightly more of a straight up (very) heavy metal band than Insomnium or Mygrain but there's still elements of melodic death metal (or melodeath for short) in their style. Before The Dawn's main man Tuomas Saukkonen (Rhythm Guitar / Vocals) has a very distinctive vocal style and also an impressive stage presence which help carried their band through an entertaining 45 minute set. At the mid point the audience was asked to put away their iPhones and cameras because the band were going to play four new songs from Before The Dawn's upcoming new album (of which I didn't manage to hear the title). Anyone who violated said request would result in "many murders occuring".
In what must be a first (at least for gigs I have attended), all the members of the audience within my eyeline complied with the rest and I didn't see a single camera or phone out for the four new songs, which were equally as impressive as the older material that had gone before. Another band who are definitely worth your attention if you haven't heard them before.
Before The Dawn: Don't Mess With Them
Main event time and due to how busy I'd been recently I hadn't gotten around to acquiring or listening to the latest Insomnium album, One For Sorrow so I hoped that wasn't going to be a handicap on the enjoyment factor. After hearing the awesome album opening track Inertia kick into the first main track on the album Through The Shadows, I knew not enjoying myself wasn't going to be a problem as the new songs sounded fantastic.
After the initial three song blast from One For Sorrow the setlist started to vary through Insomnium's back catalogue and continued that way for the rest of the evening. The fantastic Where The Last Wave Broke incited the evening's first huge singalong for the chorus and there was long hair flying everywhere around me. Old favourite The Killjoy from the magnificent Above The Weeping World album caused the first real moshpit to break out, and old meshed with new very well with The Elder being followed by another one of the top notch new tracks Song Of The Blackest Bird, by which time I was really regretting not having heard the album beforehand and making a mental note to get it ASAP.
The show seemed to pass by incredibly quickly as Insomnium have that rare quality with their music that can really absorb the listener and tonight they were performing at the height of their powers. After closing the main part of the set with Weighed Down With Sorrow, the encore that I think just about everyone would have wanted kicked in with The Gale and it fed quickly into Mortal Share, causing the occupants of The Underworld to collectively 'lose their shit', for lack of a better explanation. At this late stage I unfortunately had to leave to catch a train, but as I was headed out the door they'd just launched into Every Hour Wounds and they finished off with the title track to the new album to crown off a fantastic night.
The full Insomnium London setlist was:
- Inertia
- Through the Shadows
- Only One Who Waits
- Where The Last Wave Broke
- The Killjoy
- The Elder
- Song of the Blackest Bird
- Down With the Sun
- Unsung
- The Day It All Came Down
- Weighed Down With Sorrow
- ================================
- The Gale
- Mortal Share
- Every Hour Wounds
- One for Sorrow
Based on tonight's evidence it almost defies belief that this is Insomnium's first headline tour of Europe nearly a decade after the formation of the band. Insomnium may not be on everyone's radars but the awareness of them and their popularity is steadily growing and with a live show like this it's not hard to see why. They are arguably the finest active melodic death metal band currently going, having learnt incredibly well from their scandanavian peers such as Dark Tranquility and the earlier In Flames material to name but two. Hopefully this is the first of many headlining trips to the UK because on this evidence there are few better live bands anywhere today, particularly if melodeath is your cup of tea.
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