[Machine Translation] INSOMNIUM has become one of Finland's leading veteran melodic death metal bands, and this is their latest studio album, their first in three and a half years since their last album. The band's range of expression has expanded with the addition of former SONATA ARCTICA guitarist Jani Limatainen, who joined the band on their last album, Heart Like a Grave (2019/not yet released in Japan). This is a concept album based on an original story written by vocalist Niro Sevanen. The title of the album, "Anno 1696," refers to the year "1696," the year that marked the dark period of the witch trials and famine that claimed many lives in Europe at the time, including in Finland. Anno 1696 deals with this dark chapter in Finnish history and pays homage to the legendary Finnish novel "Sudenmorshan" by Aino Karas, one of the stories about werewolves. This is the best novel Finland has ever produced. It has a very dark and tragic tone, which I wanted to capture when I wrote my story. '" he said. The band has managed to create a unified worldview in a single album that is reminiscent of a movie soundtrack, using their trademark melodic, epic, and melancholic melodies with a slow and dramatic build-up. The Japanese version of the album is the full-length version of the story. In addition to DISC 1, which tells the main story, the Japanese version of the album includes the EP "Songs of the Dusk" as DISC 2, which goes deeper into the story and describes it in detail, so that the whole story can be grasped.