Insense Soothing Torture
Candlelight Records CDL253 February 7th, 2006
By Jason Jordan
These guys are from the wrong country. Norway is supposed to be the home of black metal, and nothing else. Despite signs littering the countrys borders (Black Metallers Only, Trespassers Will Be Sneered At Mercilessly, and The Children Thank You For Obeying The Speed Limit), Insense manage to thrive in such a state. Soothing Torture the second output from this quartet is a 37 minute hodgepodge, relaying an interesting mishmash of styles. In the end, however, I couldnt find a reason to revisit the disc once it concluded.
Ill start with the most favorable comparison, and move down the line from there. There is a small amount of Meshuggah/Gojira influence to be found, as some of the riffs draw from said Swedes and French, while an occasional snippet of Soothing Torture is flavored with the grooves of the South especially Texas and Louisiana. As they say, things come in threes, so with that being said we move on to the final likening. Perhaps youll be chagrined upon digesting the news, but Insense have liberally powdered their sophomore full-length with shavings of metalcore and Killswitch Engage leanings. Whats that? You want examples of this stuff? Dont I do enough around here?! All right then, Ill try my best. Helplessness is almost a misleading first impression since it gives no indication as to what the remainder of the album will sound like. A thrashy Making up for Lost Time struts across the runway next, and after about a minute and half, glints of Southern U.S. influence start to file in, along with lofty riffs typical of Meshuggah. The commencement of I, Deviant lends credence to the prior statements. Theres evidence in Constriction, too. Whenever Hjelm sprinkles his clean vocals about and when all instruments combine for a breakdown, or whatever the metalcore vibes just ooze out.
Therefore, even though Soothing Torture waves the good-production-coupled-with-well-played-music flag, Insense come up shy of dominating the prospective listener. This definitely isnt a pell-mell attempt at mixing genres, simply because theres a cloud of precision hovering over this outing. Still, though, I wasnt swayed by anything this Norwegian four-piece had to offer. Essential? Not hardly. Candlelight has much better things on the way .
6/10
Official Insense Website
Official Candlelight Records Website
Candlelight Records CDL253 February 7th, 2006
By Jason Jordan
These guys are from the wrong country. Norway is supposed to be the home of black metal, and nothing else. Despite signs littering the countrys borders (Black Metallers Only, Trespassers Will Be Sneered At Mercilessly, and The Children Thank You For Obeying The Speed Limit), Insense manage to thrive in such a state. Soothing Torture the second output from this quartet is a 37 minute hodgepodge, relaying an interesting mishmash of styles. In the end, however, I couldnt find a reason to revisit the disc once it concluded.
Ill start with the most favorable comparison, and move down the line from there. There is a small amount of Meshuggah/Gojira influence to be found, as some of the riffs draw from said Swedes and French, while an occasional snippet of Soothing Torture is flavored with the grooves of the South especially Texas and Louisiana. As they say, things come in threes, so with that being said we move on to the final likening. Perhaps youll be chagrined upon digesting the news, but Insense have liberally powdered their sophomore full-length with shavings of metalcore and Killswitch Engage leanings. Whats that? You want examples of this stuff? Dont I do enough around here?! All right then, Ill try my best. Helplessness is almost a misleading first impression since it gives no indication as to what the remainder of the album will sound like. A thrashy Making up for Lost Time struts across the runway next, and after about a minute and half, glints of Southern U.S. influence start to file in, along with lofty riffs typical of Meshuggah. The commencement of I, Deviant lends credence to the prior statements. Theres evidence in Constriction, too. Whenever Hjelm sprinkles his clean vocals about and when all instruments combine for a breakdown, or whatever the metalcore vibes just ooze out.
Therefore, even though Soothing Torture waves the good-production-coupled-with-well-played-music flag, Insense come up shy of dominating the prospective listener. This definitely isnt a pell-mell attempt at mixing genres, simply because theres a cloud of precision hovering over this outing. Still, though, I wasnt swayed by anything this Norwegian four-piece had to offer. Essential? Not hardly. Candlelight has much better things on the way .
6/10
Official Insense Website
Official Candlelight Records Website
