Finnish Melodeath

Since most of the early Swedish melodeath bands have been declining in quality over the last decade, there needed to be a new wave of melodeath bands to take their place. Enter the Finnish scene. And no, I am talking about Children of Bodom, Kalmah, Norther, and their clones.

INSOMNIUM:
I discussed Insomnium earlier this week. Their take on melodeath features some influences from doom metal and gothic metal, but is still clearly more on the melodeath side of things. Their music is often done in a much more somber tone, which is the doom metal influence shining through. Think My Dying Bride playing melodeath and you will have a pretty good idea what this band is all about. In addition, the music has an epic, emotional atmosphere that a lot of other bands struggle with. Insomnium is an extremely impressive band and the only one of these three that made my Top 100.

MORS PRINCIPIUM EST:
Mors Principium Est sounds a bit like early Soilwork but with a lot more keyboard effects. Unlike a lot of other bands who use keyboards though, Mors Principium Est does not overuse them and they actually accentuate the music quite a bit. It has the effect of an almost industrial/techno melodeath. The vocals are fairly similar to Bjorn Strid's vocals on early Soilwork as well, but with some deeper growls thrown in once in awhile. The songs are all catchy as hell. Mors Principium Est comes closest of the three bands here to sounding like Gothenburg-style melodeath.

OMNIUM GATHERUM:
Omnium Gatherum sounds a lot like The Gallery-era Dark Tranquillity combined with Insomnium, with some more melodic sensibilities. Omnium Gatherum is a little poppier than a lot of the other melodeath bands. They would almost seem to be a fit for modern rock radio, were it not for the death growls utilized by their vocalist. Other than that though, I could see them breaking through to mainstream metal quite easily. That is not to say the quality of their music is not good, in fact they are quite impressive.