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Band: The Insight
Album title: The Other Side
Release date: 31 January 2017
Label: Self-Released
Tracklist:
1. The Shout
2. The Sorrow
3. Come On
4. Le Silence Des Autres
5. Wait Out
6. Still Alive
7. This Day
8. Broken
The winners of Terra Relicta Dark Music Awards 2015 are back with their fourth album. Quite some things happened in those two years, beside the problems with their previous label, they also became a duo, previously were a trio, with two brothers, Gaets and Aurélien, in the line-up for this album. The two have decided to make things on their own now, so they started a successful crowdfunding campaign for making it happen. I don't know what is the reason but their new effort, The Other Side, is kind of a stylistical transition for them, showing the band into their darkest version until now, with sound that is much more oriented into dark electronics, new wave, dark pop and synth wave than into their emotionally driven trademark post-punk sound. If The Insight were on their previous two albums, White Noise (2015) and Hidden Things (2007) showing that The Cure and Joy Division might be their main influence and that the whole British post-punk scene had a huge impact on them, this time the things are quite different and I believe that this new album will find its audience mostly amongst fans of bands like New Order, Nine Inch Nails, How To Destroy Angels, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Ultravox and in a bunch of 80s wave/pop artists. The Other Side is maybe closer to their debut album Into The Fall, which was released back in 2000, than to anything they did afterwards. The Insight always used a lot of electronics in their music, but was more or less minimalistic and dominated by classic rock instruments, now it's contrary.
The Other Side is the boldest album The Insight ever did, it's very emotional, but ok, that's not something new as this band ever sounded that way and were capable of initiate their emotional side in quite an impressive way into their compositions and lyrics. There's still present a slight post-punk and cold wave vibration, also The Insight still sound more British than French anyway, but like I said before we should search for their influence somewhere else than before. The sound is throughout very melancholic and emotional, with the exception of the rather more upbeat track "Come On", which is in my opinion the weakest point in here. With captivating melodies, catchy pop refrains, haunting darkwave atmosphere and emotive, yet very expressive vocals the band delivers eight tracks of very high quality. Those who like 80s new wave sound with a touch of goth and some modern, but refined electronics will be impressed by tracks like is the opener "The Shout", on the other hand the one who likes to be taken away by the sorrowful and dreamy melodies will be embraced by the tracks like it's "The Sorrow", "This Day" or "Broken" to name a few.
If the guitars were dominant instrument in The Insight's music before, now the synths and reverberate bass lines took the leading role. Still there are many layers in this music, even if on the first listen it might sound a bit minimalistic, it's not, the sound is rich, mostly thanks to the huge wall of dark veiled sound that is often present in the background, just listen to "The Sorrow" and you'll understand what I mean. The band played a bit with psychedelic effects, cold wave and dreamy darkwave vibes in "Le Silence Des Autres" which stands out like a very special song, but it's impressive how nicely they use catchy pop elements without becoming too cheesy at all in "Wait Out" for example, rather than that the compositions gained in dynamics and drive.
The Insight released this time their most mature, solid and explicit album to date, but don't get me wrong, also White Noise was a great piece of music, but this one is much more of my liking if I'm honest. They have reached kind of unashamed and really personal style and that's the point after all. The one thing that bothers me is the rather disappointing front cover artwork, because the album like this deserves something more stylish, but it can be forgiven. The production, mix and mastering is very good, it's clear, powerful enough and it gives a lot of depth to the whole thing. If The Insight were rather underrated by media and larger goth/wave community before, now I think that times are finally about to change.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 8/10
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