GraemeSinclair
Member
- May 9, 2010
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Just realised it's been a year since hearing Foregone all the way through for the first time, so I decided to go back and revisit my first impressions. Overall, I don't think my perspective has changed significantly. I haven't had the moment where I've thought "You know what? Maybe I've been trying too hard to like this thing".It didn't -quite- live up to my highest hopes, but overall, I'm coming away from it feeling pretty positive. It's not above Come Clarity or SOAPF in my ranking, but it does some things better than both of them (mainly the harsh vocals, but also some of the instrumental work).
After listening through Siren Charms and Battles for the first time, I just... didn't go back and listen to them again, which was really the ultimate indictment. I didn't feel like I needed any more time with them to conclude they weren't for me and I've largely stuck by that conclusion. The same goes for the songs I didn't like on I, The Mask, I made a playlist with the six songs I liked and I've never really listened to the others again. I've listened to everything on Foregone at least twice so far, so that's a positive sign that even the worst songs on this album don't belong in the pit of despair.
For me, there's a lot to like on Foregone, but I'm not deaf to its problems. The overproduction of clean vocals is pretty egregious across the board, in lots of places during sustained vowels Anders sounds like a tape cassette being fast-forwarded, at points there are so many vocal tracks together that it sounds like "Some Nights" by Fun, which is not a comparison I ever thought I'd be making with an In Flames album. I love harmonised vocals, but quite often two or three voices is enough. As someone with synaesthesia, I can "see" two vocal lines (or guitar lines) moving next to another as streaks of colour - at times on Foregone, Anders sounds like he's vomiting a rainbow.
Sometimes he still tries to fit too many syllables into a line and loses the flow, but overall, the vocals and the music are meshed together much better than they were on Siren Charms and Battles.
For me, this is the best Anders' harsh vocals have sounded since Clayman, and I'm really happy that lower growls are so prevalent throughout the album (this might even be the most he's growled on a record since Colony). It's always been one of my favourite parts of the In Flames sound and I feel it's been criminally underused in every release since 2000, so that's a massive deal for me and really helps to elevate Foregone.
The Beginning of all Things - Deserves its place alongside Acoustic Medley, Pallar Anders Visa and Varmlandsvisen in the pantheon of gorgeous IF folky acoustic instrumentals. I did worry having heard YouTube recordings of it that I'd be bored by it, but hearing it on the record, it sounded lush and I enjoyed the little B-section with the low strings. It would have been nice to have a bit more of a segue between it and the start of SoSD, but that's really nit-picking. (8/10)
State of Slow Decay - Covered most of it when it came out, but it's nice to hear it in the context of the album. Could maybe be a bit more fleshed-out, but it's grown on me as it is. I enjoy the thrashy, chaotic feel, the harsh vocals (especially the pre-chorus), the harmonised solo. I wasn't familiar with Blinded by Fear before I heard SoSD, but I've listened to the two of them and it doesn't feel like a blatant rip-off for me, even if there are some similarities. (8/10)
Meet Your Maker - I like the verses, both instrumentally and vocally, although the lyrics are pretty basic. First overproduced chorus (although I do like the harmony on 'at the end of the masquerade' - I'd like to hear it sung live by a couple of good vocalists with no post-production). I love the dancing guitar melody behind the chorus. It definitely compensates for the vocal element. After a meandering start, the solo is solid, especially the end of it where it harmonises and meshes with the chords. (7/10)
Bleeding Out - At first, I was like "oh, okay, this is different, but potentially pretty cool". It had a kind of bouncy pirate vibe to me. There's a little leading guitar line at about 30 seconds in that's just signature In Flames and could be from any of their records. The harsh vocals sound good, but they don't entirely compensate for the issues with the clean vocals. Solo is a bit wheedly and directionless. (5/10)
Foregone Pt. 1 - I enjoy this song a lot. It feels excoriating, but in a good way. The chaotic verses remind me of Morphing Into Primal, especially the riff at 0:43. Probably the most unbridled aggression In Flames have had in a song in a very long time, but still retains a sense of melody throughout, with the three bar acoustic break and the solos from both Bjorn and Chris that have distinct voices but both feel like they're saying something rather than just noodling. (9/10)
Foregone Pt. 2 - I always liked the harsh vocals and the guitar melody on this one. The clean vocals on the verses have grown on me too, particularly where there's just one track. The solo could be a bit longer and more developed. It does give me -some- of the same vibes as Moonshield, but I think that's just time signature and tonality. (7/10)
Pure Light of Mind - I like the intro melody, it feels very In Flames. It was interesting hearing Anders try something approaching falsetto. The choruses are overwrought, as per. Instrumentally there are some nice things going on without it fully living up to the potential of that first melodic passage. As In Flames ballads go, it's somewhere above The Chosen Pessimist and the ones from SC/Battles, and somewhere below Come Clarity and Evil in a Closet. (6/10)
The Great Deceiver - Very solid, up-tempo slice of melodic death metal. The main melodic hook isn't the most inventive that In Flames have ever created (when it's competing with the likes of Swim, Resin, Jotun and Embody the Invisible, there's steep competition), but it does have that signature In Flames tonality to me. Reminds me a bit of the lead guitar in Dark Signs. I like Tanner's drum work a lot (actually he does really well throughout the record and they're mixed really well), and Anders sounds great here, with more of a mid-range scream, similar to the tone he used on Self vs. Self. The solo is just... there, but I do wish they had expanded the mellow section at 2:50 into something longer. It has a beautiful atmosphere (although melodically, it is very similar to The Attic). (8/10)
In The Dark - I LOVE THIS SONG. For me, Anders' harsh vocals here sound straight out of Colony. When I heard the growls on that clip a few days ago, I was quite hyped and I really hoped that passage wasn't the only use of harsh vocals on the song. I'm glad that all of the verses were growled. I'm fine with the basic Bottled-style riffing in 6/8 at the start, but I really enjoy it when that folky acoustic melody kicks in and the rhythm guitars get melodic. It does remind me of some of the 6/8 sections on The Jester Race (I know... I know... these things can be buried in there). I also enjoy the solo, and I agree with @ThePhobiac that the triumphant-sounding bit at the end is evocative of Clayman. It also has probably my favourite clean-sung chorus on the album. It has a good melody, feels mostly within Anders' range and the harmony vocal tracks are buried better in the mix. (9/10)
A Dialogue in Bb Minor - Instrumentally, there are some nice things happening here. Straight away, that verse riff is fun and reminds me of Reflect the Storm. There are some more cool melodic flourishes as things go on... But the chorus of this song is probably the biggest offender with the worst issue on the album and although I've tried, it's hard to look past it. It's just too much, too many layers. Especially that last chorus... Yikes. Acoustic outro is nice, for what it's worth. (5/10)
Cynosure - It's that kind of alt. rock that featured heavily on Siren Charms and Battles, and I feared would be their direction forever. It's not badly written music, it's just not really what I listen to In Flames for. The rhythm section did really well here. The chorus melody doesn't really work for me and the vocal overproduction is nearly as bad as Dialogue. (6/10)
End the Transmission - I'd say this one's comparable to Darker Times or Vacuum, a mid-tier song based predominantly on down-tuned riffing without much melody outside of its chorus. The chorus isn't the most stand-out melody they've ever written either. I like the growls, though. The fact that Anders sounds like this again blows my mind, and he does it with abandon throughout this song which livens up the verses. (6/10)
Become One - Feels like a filler track from Reroute, Come Clarity or ASOP, until the chorus... Jeez. (5/10)
Overall, I'm giving Foregone a first-impression rating of 7/10 which means it would fit into my album tier list as follows:
The Jester Race/Whoracle (10/10)
Clayman/Colony/Sounds of a Playground Fading (9/10)
Come Clarity (8/10)
Foregone/Reroute to Remain (7/10)
Soundtrack to Your Escape (6/10)
I, The Mask/A Sense of Purpose (5/10)
Siren Charms/Battles (2/10)
I still get where a lot of you guys are coming from with the criticism I've read on here. The plastic, over-layered clean vocal production is really unnecessary. I think if they had treated them like the clean vocals on Reroute, Soundtrack, Come Clarity or SOAPF, there could still have been effective, hooky, melodic choruses without sounding so artificial. Likewise, I feel like the lyrics are generally less creative and thought-provoking than they were during either the 90s or the early 00s. I also feel like some ideas are underdeveloped (for example, State of Slow Decay just being verse-chorus-solo-verse-chorus-end). It would be nice if fewer of the songs adhered to a formula, and some ended up going in totally different directions from where they started rather than generally finishing with multiple repetitions of the chorus.
It's not like listening to some of their classic records where I'm so wowed by the melodies, the instrumentation, the lyrics and the vocals all at once that I can think of nothing I would change, or even know how to make better... Where I'm left wondering "how did you make something this flawlessly cool?"
However, having put that caveat up front, I think I still have to admit that I love Foregone. I've listened to it front to back several times a week since it came out and never been bored. It's become both comfortable background listening and something I can really vibe to when I want to pay attention. And, at the risk of sounding like I don't really understand some of my all-time favourite albums, I love Foregone for a lot of the same reasons I love The Jester Race, Whoracle, Colony and Clayman. I know it's not a complete return to their classic sound. Clayman was their last 'pure' classic-sound album, everything since has been a mongrel of alternative metal with varying amounts of melodic death metal influence that seemed to become nonexistent by the time we got to Battles... However, as I hear it, Foregone is the most melodic death metal thing they've released, certainly since Come Clarity, if not, Clayman. I guess whether or not it evokes similar emotions to those classic records is entirely subjective, but for me, Foregone's full of little moments that sound like trademark In Flames: all of the opening track sounds like their acoustic instrumentals going all the way back to Lunar Strain; the harmony solo on State of Slow Decay reminds me of the first solo in December Flower; the riffing on Foregone I could be from Whoracle; you could have played me either of the lead melodies from Foregone II or Pure Light of Mind with no context and asked "which band does this sound like?" and I'd have said "In Flames" instantly; there are lots of instrumental flourishes on The Great Deceiver that are pure Björn Gelotte; the recurring melody of In the Dark reminds me of the mid-section of Lord Hypnos, the solo evokes that triumphant upbeat melodic feeling found so frequently on Clayman... These are just some examples, and I don't feel like I'm stretching unnaturally to find these parallels. Add on top harsh vocals that have more similarities to Anders' first three records than anything post-Colony, and I feel like they provide little hooks that keep me listening, even when the clean vocals really aren't doing a lot for me in songs like Bleeding Out, Pure Light and Dialogue. Like, I'll be listening to Pure Light as background music and then the "I won't be long" line just before the chorus will grab my attention and I'll think "I've wanted him to sound like this on a record again for fucking ever. Nice." I even created a shuffle playlist of both Foregone and Colony that I listen to quite frequently while exercising, just so I could compare the vocal tones, and it's only helped to reinforce the impression.
Not expecting to convince anyone, and that's absolutely fine, but I figured that I owed it at least a little bit of gushing on its first birthday, given the amount of enjoyment it's given me over the last year, and also just to gently push back against the notion that it's not worth discussing. I'd probably upgrade my original 7/10 rating to an 8.