These Norwegians Put the “Sense” in Insense

I can’t be certain why I ignored Insense’s new album the first time it landed in my inbox, but it’s probably because of dat late ’90s-style, intentionally misspelled, nu-metal band name (unless they meant this rarely used transitive verb, but coming from a bunch of non-native-English speakers I kinda doubt it. If they did, though, bravo!).

Boy was I wrong to write these guys off. Because as soon as I pressed play on their new track “Meandering” I heard all of what I’d been missing; Insense’s appeal is evident from note one. There’s definitely some heady prog stuff going on here, but it’s toned down in favor of accessible and memorable songwriting; the closest touchstones in that regardare Textures and Extol, though that doesn’t quite get to the heart of it. Some listeners will probably be turned off from the start by the clean singing but, well, if that describes you, congratulations, you’re an idiot (not to mention you’re missing out).

Based on just this this one track I’m incredibly excited to dig into their new album De:Evolution, set for release on May 23 through Mas-Kina Recordings and distributed in Europe by Indie Recordings. I’ll let you know how it goes. You can download “Meandering” at Insense’s Bandcamp for a price of your choosing right now if you so desire.