Remember Children of Bodom‘s 1997 debut Something Wild? The Ukraine’s Instorm, front man Will Right and founder/guitarist Maarri Talovainen sure as shit do, or have just recently heard it, as Madness Inside is a pure mimic of that release as well as the other decent early COB albums (Hatebreeeder, Follow the Deathroll) before they started going downhill. They play a bouncy form of shredding melodeath, laden, and I mean LADEN with neo classical aspired solos that do a perfect Alexi Laiho down to a ‘T’ as well as the high high pitched rasp. And the thing is, despite the utter rip off, it’s an enjoyable, nostalgic journey to Lake Bodom (the band was even formerly called Dead LAKE and have a song called “Lake of Shadows”) that makes no bones about the sound.

Granted, all of the songs follow a pretty rigid formula of upbeat, galloping riffs, some synths and shredding solos, lots and lots of them, often a whole songs worth behind the riff, but there is a wide eyed energy and enjoyable simple honesty to the sound. None of the tracks really stand out due to the repetitive formula, but I did find myself enjoying the likes of “Silent Hate”, “The Rage in your Blood”, “Phobia” and impressive closer “The Withering” with a foot-tapping air shredding sense of childlike glee.

And while many of their label mates also went for plagiarizing known tropes (Deathemeber Flower, Ungrace, Forceout) or went completely out of the box (Aruna Azura), Instorm still said ‘fuck it, we are copying Children of Bodom note for note’ and pulled it off with the label’s best release to date. Though if I’m being honest that isn’t saying a lot. But they are persistent at least and who knows if they can uncover an undiscovered gem amid this Eastern European underground metal rebirth.