Four years ago I found on line an album titled Further Nowhere, under the name Cold Insight, which had intrigued me because it was the solo project of Sébastien Pierre, keyboardist of the excellent but just dissolved French death doomsters Inborn Suffering, as well as partner of Jari Lindholm in the magnificent Enshine. The music contained in those tracks of an exclusively instrumental nature struck me favorably, so much so that I decided to write two lines about it, well aware of the fact that it was a pre-production put into circulation on the web to test the ground, as the French musician also wanted to clarify, although flattered by the positive feedback. Approached to a label specializing in dark and quality music such as Naturmacht / Rain Without End, Pierre has finally given the final version of Further Nowhere to the presses and, as was predictable, the inclusion of the voice makes a magnificent work what in 2013 had appeared an already remarkable sketch. Sébastien’s growl lends further pathos to an enthralling and melodic sound that oscillates seamlessly between atmospheric death doom and melodic death, going on to complete a work of rare completeness and depth. Obviously, the tracks that at the time had already impressed me for their beauty are enhanced in this new version, enriched by the guitar contribution of Lindholm himself and of his compatriot (as well as partner in Exgenesis) Christian Netzell on drums: so, melodic frescoes and irresistible groove as The Light We Are, Above and Even Dies A Sun (just to mention those that I prefer) are offered within a project that finally finds a well-defined outlet, and it would have been a real crime if this had not happened. The only track that has retained its instrumental guise is just the title track, and it’s right so because, after all, is among all that expresses the most poignant melodies and that, perhaps, would have been affected by the inclusion of vocals, but the closure is entrusted to Deep, the only song not present in the first draft and has a chorus that leaves no escape, as indeed happens in almost all other songs, in which this ability by Pierre is perpetuated with an approach not unlike that of the best Amorphis. Listening to this actual first full length by Cold Insight confirms once again what I’ve always said about the widespread tendency, emerged in recent years, to publish entirely instrumental works: having, for once, the opportunity to compare the same work in both versions, you can objectively see how there is no competition between the two solutions, especially when the vocal lines are incisive and expressive as those of the Parisian musician. At the end of the review written four years ago, I said that an album like Furter Nowhere lacked only the word: now that it has found it, it’s really a good feeling.

2017 – Rain Without Ends Records