Insania - Agony Gift of Life
Black Lodge - BLODPR 057CD - 15 June 2007
By Michael Koger
Here we go again with more cookie cutter power metal. The malaise of mediocrity and unoriginality is prevalent in all subgenres of metal, but I think it's especially prevalent in power metal. The problem is this: The musicians are talented, and this is strikingly obvious, but the confines of power metal are pretty tight and aren't that conducive to (successful) experimentation. Enter
Insania, a power metal band from Stockholm, Sweden. At one point, Sweden was pretty much one of the most fertile breeding grounds for innovative and ground breaking metal acts. Unfortunately, as what tends to happen, a slew of bands following in the footsteps of those before them arrives. If you've listened to at least five different power metal bands to emerge within the last ten years, then you've heard what
Insania sound like.
Agony - Gift of Life starts off with your typical epic, orchestral track. It's actually composed and pulled off rather well. I enjoyed it. A keyboard fades in towards the end of the track which immediately segues into the second track,
'Facing My Destiny'. Heavy, thick guitars and wall vibrating drums join the keyboards. There's still hope. Then the vocals come in. The vocals seem to be the deal breaker with the other reviews of this album. They're just not that good. One exception may be the acoustic ballad
'Time Passes By'. For the majority of the album, he sounds like
Dream Theater's James LaBrie on one of his bad days but still trying to conjure up the good ol' days. The falsettos make you wince and cringe. The tracks that follow are what you'd expect: Epic, rolling, powerful and make you want to storm the castle and slay the dragon. You have your expected ballad at the halfway mark of the album only to be followed by another double bass pounding number. There's the power ballad a few tracks from the end that seems to be something of a retrospective piece. Then the album ends with the big, flashy closer. The curtain comes down, the lights go down for a moment, and the crowd remains silent.
I wanted to like
Insania. I really did. As I stated earlier, unless if you're Helen Keller, you can tell the members of
Insania are very talented musicians. The riffs are well played, the drums are pounding and the keyboards are done nicely. So what's holding
Agony - Gift of Life back? Vocals and lack of originality. If the vocals had more balls and the songs sounded different from each other and everything else, then we'd have a candidate for a great album. Fans of power metal will most likely eat this album up, but I doubt it'll stand the test of time. If it does, more power to the band. If you're not big on power metal, chances are this won't convert you into a power metal fan.
Official Insania website
Official Black Lodge Records webite
