Well, this one was entirely unexpected.

It looks like Candlelight Records are throwing a card into the metalcore hat by way of Norway’s (yes, Norway) now seven year-old Insense, and their new album ‘Soothing Torture’, a disc that is anything but soothing. In fact, it’s a little angering, and even more so, puzzling. It sounds like these four guys are trapped in some bizarre nu-metal alternative reality where the rest of the world hasn’t heard of Soulfly or MachineHead yet. Quite perplexing, to say the least.

The disc begins with a calm and serene introduction that deceives the listener into thinking this will be an artsy affair, but it quickly becomes obvious this is far removed from anything produced from Norway that you may be used to hearing. Breakdowns run rampant among urban beats, displaced rhythms, and hoarse, shouted, hardcore-influenced yelling (’I, Deviant). Occasionally, an errant blastbeat, or math metal styled off-timed break is thrown in to break things up, but otherwise, a great deal of this album reminds me of Fear Factory’s ‘Digimortal’, and MachineHead’s ‘The Burning Red’, just brought up to date, and heavier.

I’ll forego all the dull “how, when, what, where & why” questions that pop into my head when I hear this album, but still, I’m ambivalent about their choice in stylistic direction. The riffs are so basic, it’s hard to determine if these guys are good musicians or not, due to the rote songwriting on display. It’s a little unnerving that music like this suddenly seems to be trying for a comeback under the “metalcore”, banner. If anything, this is aggressive nu-metal, mixed with very basic hardcore influence, and wrapped in an oddly overproduced shell.

The only thing that sounds metalcore other than the massive breakdowns, is the departure from yelled vocals to either a clean and polished croon, or a rather poorly executed mid-ranged, and barely in key Rob Flynn inspired half sung/half screamed *ahem* “melody” (’Gasping For Air’). Everything else, from the spacey downtuned staccato riffs, to the whammy bar/feedback/hammer-on leadwork has pretty much been done before, and burnt itself out years ago. Strangely enough, the best part of this CD are the closing moments of the final track, ‘Fallout’, which features a really cool, genuinely heavy crunch breakdown, with a simple, wailing lead woven among the thumping riffs. It’s a shame they put the best part on the end of the album, because it does have quite a nasty groove to it.

I really don’t know what else to say. Even by nu-metal/metalcore standards, this is a terribly average album that makes the longevity of Insense appear questionable. Admittedly, there’s a lot of energy and volume to be heard, but the songwriting is underwhelming, the delivery shows little individual personality, and the musicianship holds little promise to the possibility of expansive instrumental progression in the future. I probably won’t be replaying ‘Soothing Torture’ anytime soon, but if you’ve been disappointed with the last 3 Sepultura albums, you might give this one a try.

This entry was posted by Dekompoze on Wednesday, 8th February, 2006 at 18:54 and is filed under Reviews, Insense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response below. You may view a   printable version of this page. You may download this page in   PDF format.