On February 24 2023, Finnish metal melancholists Insomnium will release their ninth full-length album Anno 1696, via Century Media Records.
This time around, Insomnium tells us a tale based on a short story by Niilo Sevänen (bass/vocals), woven with sorrow and the last crumbling vestiges of hope, plus wrath and morbid lullabies. Welcome to 1696. Welcome to hell. This is an age of unrest. The age of great famine in the North. The witch hunt is in full swing all across Europe, and the gruesome witch trials have even reached the remote and majestic landscapes of Finland and Sweden.
“The Torsåker witch trials were a horrible source of nightmarish inspiration,” Sevänen says of his ghastly muse. “All that talk about 70 women beheaded in this small Swedish parish? It’s real stuff from history!” he groans. “And as if that weren’t enough, there are also some very dark tales of cannibalism and child murder from the years of the great famine.” Stories don’t get any more metal than this.
For a first preview of Anno 1696, the video for the new single, Lilian, can be seen below.
