''Anno 1696'' is the ninth studio album by

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band

Insomnium Insomnium is a melodic death metal band from Joensuu, Finland. The sound and lyrical themes of their music portray darkness, sorrow, loss, pain, and nature. They are primarily a melodic death metal band with occasional elements of doom metal and ...

, released on 24 February 2023 via

Century Media A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

. Insomnium began working on the album shortly before the release of ''Argent Moon'', in 2021, with the album originally planned to be released in 2022. Like their 2016 album ''

Winter's Gate ''Winter's Gate'' is the seventh studio album by the Finnish melodic death metal band Insomnium. It was released worldwide on September 23, 2016 via Century Media Records. It is a concept album said to be about “a group of Vikings who set out t ...

'', the album is based on a short story by vocalist/bassist

Niilo Sevänen Niilo Sevänen (born 19 August 1979) is a musician from Joensuu, Finland. He is best known as the current lead vocalist/bassist for the melodic death metal band, Insomnium. Background Sevänen grew up on the coast of Finland in the town of Tur ...

, first hinted on October 24, 2022, less than two weeks before the album's official announcement.

Release and promotion

In April 2023, the band embarked on a North American tour to promote ''Anno 1696'', together with Enslaved, whose album ''

Heimdal Heimdal is a borough in the city of Trondheim in the municipality of Trondheim in Trøndelag county, Norway. It covers the western and southwestern parts of the municipality. The village area that is also called Heimdal is located in the southe ...

'' released a week after the release of ''Anno 1696'', with support from

Black Anvil Black Anvil is an American black metal band from New York City. It formed in 2007 with Paul Delaney, Gary Bennett and Raeph Glicken. When asked, Delaney said “Gary actually came up with name, which is a cross between a Black Sabbath reference a ...

Track listing

Personnel

Insomnium

– bass, lead vocals *

Ville Friman Dr. Ville Friman (born April 30, 1980) is a Finnish musician. He is one of the founders, main composer, and guitarist of the melodic death metal band Insomnium. Although Insomnium is his main band, he also plays guitar for the dark/thrash/black-me ...

– guitars * Markus Vanhala – guitars, clean vocals *

Jani Liimatainen Jani Allan Kristian Liimatainen (born 9 September 1980) is a Finnish musician, songwriter and backing vocalist, currently a member of melodic death metal band Insomnium. He is the former guitarist and one of the founding members of the power m ...

– guitars, clean vocals * Markus Hirvonen – drums

Additional musician

Sakis Tolis Athanasios "Sakis" Tolis ( el, Αθανάσιος "Σάκης" Τόλης; born 29 June 1972) is a Greek musician best known as the vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Rotting Christ. He is also known as Necromayhem. He has recently produced som ...

– guest vocals (track 2) *

Johanna Kurkela Johanna Kurkela (born 25 April 1985) is a Finnish singer. Her first published work was a duet ''Tahdon tanssia kanssasi'' with Tomi Metsäketo in 2004. Kurkela released her first album ''Hetki hiljaa'' in 2005. She got a lot of publicity in the ...

– guest vocals (track 3) * Coen Janssen – keyboards

Production and design

* Insomnium –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Teemu Aalto –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

(acoustic guitars, bass, vocals) * Jaime Gomez Arellano – recording (drums, acoustic guitars), mixing * Coen Janssen – recording (keyboards) * Ville Friman – recording (electric guitars) * Markus Vanhala – recording (electric guitars) * Jani Liimatainen – recording (electric guitars) * Tony Lindgren – mastering * Sami Makkonen – artwork * Terhi Ylimäinen – photography * hafensatz.de – layout

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2023 albums Century Media Records albums Insomnium albums