Insania
Agony (Agony Gift Of Life)

August 2007
Released: 2007, Black Lodge/Sound Pollution
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

Insania is a Swedish act that’s now about to release their fourth album and just like on their previous album the band sticks to playing 90’s power metal with a heavy layer of keyboard. You can sometimes hear influences from bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, Stratovarius or the metal opera Avantasia.



Even though the material and music is pretty good the album is too long with its 70 minutes of music. My main problems with the album are in fact the length and the un-even material. One can wonder why a band chooses to put three ballads that don’t fit into the rest of the material. Lead singer Ola Halén is another problem; he is definitely the bands weakest link. He’s got a weak voice that can’t carry the material at all and if he thinks he’s the new Michael Kiske he’s totally wrong.



Someone who absolutely deserves credit is guitar player Peter Östros and drummer Mikko Korsbäck, those two steps up when it all almost fails because of Halén. After a few listening I found a few songs that stood out, those are “Facing My Destiny”, “Hope”, “Fight For Life”, “Dreams” and “Alive”. All of them are keyboard based, melodic power metal with various tempo changes. The production feels solid and sounds like how a typical power metal album should do.



Insania doesn’t convince me but they sure have potential in the future if they only do something about the vocalist position. The album has it moments and I guess that fans of Stratovarius, Gamma Ray and Avantasia have something to look forward to.



http://www.soundpollution.se