Insomnium Return With Melodic Death Metal Epic 'The Conjurer'

When Finnish melodeath exemplars Insomnium last left listeners with an album, it was 2019's Heart Like a Grave. This month, at long last, the band is back with "The Conjurer," a new song and music video that make for an entirely epic experience in, mm-hmm, melodic death metal.

Directed by Vesa Ranta, the clip combines a stylized Insomnium performance with spectacularly snowy scenes of some dramatized quest, complete with aerial photography and visual effects. The song itself condenses Insomnium's nearly 25 years of brutal riff mastery into 7 minutes of mesmerizing death metal twists and turns. Taken together, the combination is an unbeatable beast.

Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.

"We haven't been idle during the [COVID-19] pandemic," Insomnium bandleader Niilo Sevänen said in a statement provided by the band's label, Century Media. "'The Conjurer' is a tragic tale of jealous and searing love that opens this new chapter for Insomnium. Monumental composition by [guitarist] Markus Vanhala that reaches its peak in the soaring dual guitar solo. The wintry music video was shot in the dreamlike landscapes of northern Finland by director Vesa Ranta and his team. More shall follow…"

Elsewhere in the message, the band lamented the "absence of severe headbanging" since "mid-March 2020 when the good old world abruptly closed its curtains. As of today, when wintry Northern darkness seems to be slowly giving a way to blooming flowers, Insomnium return with … 'The Conjurer.'"

Due to circumstances surrounding the pandemic, guitarist Ville Friman was unable to participate in the video shoot. Listeners looking to get official Insomnium merch can check out nightshiftmerch.com.