Anders live...what the fuck happened?

AntiWiggin

AntiWiggin

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Mar 16, 2008
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Seriously, he sounded GOOD during the CC tour, but ASOP came out and he sounds like utter shit. Terrible cleans in place of screams (which are in place of growls) are ruining classic songs. I have to cringe sometimes, from just how bad his delivery is with these songs.

Example: This is just 2 years ago, touring for CC, not bad at all, and even when Anders does use cleans in place of screams, it sounds good.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9GT20ISkU&feature=related[/ame]

Fast forward 2 years and we have this:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fudcLuXJdZA&feature=related[/ame]

Now granted, the quality isn't as good, but you can clearly the shitiness of the vocals. 2:45 - 2:55, 3:05 - 3:15 (WTF is he doing?!), are just some examples. 4:38 is quite possibly the weakest crowd energizing speech thing I've ever heard. Great, not only can I mark 2008 as they year when In Flames came out with a terrible album, but I can also remember it by the sharp decline in In Flames live performances. Well, actually just Anders.

So my theory as to why this has happened? I think the most probable, is that Anders voice is just shredded, in which case it's not really his fault. He's been growling and screaming for around 15 years now. I don't know of any vocalists that have been able to keep their voice from changing over that long a period of time. Option B (which I HOPE is what's happening) is that Anders is just experimenting with his vocals, and soon, he'll wake up, realize he sucks at cleans, and go right back to all growls and screams. Option A seems likely.
 
AntiWiggin said:
Seriously, he sounded GOOD during the CC tour, but ASOP came out and he sounds like utter shit. Terrible cleans in place of screams (which are in place of growls) are ruining classic songs. I have to cringe sometimes, from just how bad his delivery is with these songs.

Example: This is just 2 years ago, touring for CC, not bad at all, and even when Anders does use cleans in place of screams, it sounds good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9GT20ISkU&feature=related

Fast forward 2 years and we have this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fudcLuXJdZA&feature=related

Now granted, the quality isn't as good, but you can clearly the shitiness of the vocals. 2:45 - 2:55, 3:05 - 3:15 (WTF is he doing?!), are just some examples. 4:38 is quite possibly the weakest crowd energizing speech thing I've ever heard. Great, not only can I mark 2008 as they year when In Flames came out with a terrible album, but I can also remember it by the sharp decline in In Flames live performances. Well, actually just Anders.

So my theory as to why this has happened? I think the most probable, is that Anders voice is just shredded, in which case it's not really his fault. He's been growling and screaming for around 15 years now. I don't know of any vocalists that have been able to keep their voice from changing over that long a period of time. Option B (which I HOPE is what's happening) is that Anders is just experimenting with his vocals, and soon, he'll wake up, realize he sucks at cleans, and go right back to all growls and screams. Option A seems likely.
Click to expand...

''The tale of the bitter man, oh here you are.'' :lol: He sounds tired on the second movie, but why don't he growl like so often btw? is he trying to protect his voice? growling live on older songs (not just a random growl, useless!) is the best thing that could happend while you see In flames live.
 
AntiWiggin said:
Seriously, he sounded GOOD during the CC tour, but ASOP came out and he sounds like utter shit. Terrible cleans in place of screams (which are in place of growls) are ruining classic songs. I have to cringe sometimes, from just how bad his delivery is with these songs.

Example: This is just 2 years ago, touring for CC, not bad at all, and even when Anders does use cleans in place of screams, it sounds good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9GT20ISkU&feature=related

Fast forward 2 years and we have this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fudcLuXJdZA&feature=related

Now granted, the quality isn't as good, but you can clearly the shitiness of the vocals. 2:45 - 2:55, 3:05 - 3:15 (WTF is he doing?!), are just some examples. 4:38 is quite possibly the weakest crowd energizing speech thing I've ever heard. Great, not only can I mark 2008 as they year when In Flames came out with a terrible album, but I can also remember it by the sharp decline in In Flames live performances. Well, actually just Anders.

So my theory as to why this has happened? I think the most probable, is that Anders voice is just shredded, in which case it's not really his fault. He's been growling and screaming for around 15 years now. I don't know of any vocalists that have been able to keep their voice from changing over that long a period of time. Option B (which I HOPE is what's happening) is that Anders is just experimenting with his vocals, and soon, he'll wake up, realize he sucks at cleans, and go right back to all growls and screams. Option A seems likely.
Click to expand...

His voice is fucked. Simple as.

I would still go and see them live.
 
In Flames Rock AM Ring Performance in 2006 was one of the best I've seen recorded of them. Fact is, even pre-2006 Anders voice has been bad. His voice has been fucked up since the R2R tour back in 2002. He and the rest of the band butchered most of their songs the last time I saw them (Bloodstock '07), especially OFTW, which was dire.
 
Anders seriously sounded like he was about to drop dead in that second movie. Seriously, just listen to him talking before the song begins. Under normal circumstances I'd probably just laugh, but while watching that movie I actually felt really sorry for him. It's not like he wasn't trying either.

Either In Flames have to call it a day, or Anders has to find a way to preserve his voice, because even the screams + cleans seem to be shredding his vocal chords.
 
Veenox said:
Anders seriously sounded like he was about to drop dead in that second movie. Seriously, just listen to him talking before the song begins. Under normal circumstances I'd probably just laugh, but while watching that movie I actually felt really sorry for him. It's not like he wasn't trying either.

Either In Flames have to call it a day, or Anders has to find a way to preserve his voice, because even the screams + cleans seem to be shredding his vocal chords.
Click to expand...

Heh, he can't even sing live (atleast not as good as in the studio, studio magic all the way! :worship:) He should stick to screams and growls. End of the story.
 
He just changed his style. There are plenty of growlers that sound resonably the same and just as bad ass after years and years of performing. Mikael Stanne is always good, Shagrath and Mikael Akerfeldt have been consistent as well.
 
Shagrath isn't as good as he used to be, and went through a rough patch a couple of years prior. Same with Stanne, he took an entire year off to heal his voice. Now he sounds better than ever.
 
Did Stanne actually give that as a reason to taking a year off? Regardless, I still think Stanne's best performance was any of his older work up to Haven. I really dug Damage Done's vocal style, but it just couldn't be reproduced correctly live.

As for Anders, I know that his growls pretty much died during the Reroute tour, but his screams really weren't that different compared to Clayman and Reroute growls. I actually really enjoy Anders vocals (screaming) on STYE and CC, and he held up really well live, except for when he had to sing cleans. But just 2 years later, something pretty drastic occurred. Maybe screaming is harder on the chords than growling, and now he's running out of options except for all cleans. (Oh God No :) )
 
AntiWiggin said:
Did Stanne actually give that as a reason to taking a year off? Regardless, I still think Stanne's best performance was any of his older work up to Haven. I really dug Damage Done's vocal style, but it just couldn't be reproduced correctly live.

As for Anders, I know that his growls pretty much died during the Reroute tour, but his screams really weren't that different compared to Clayman and Reroute growls. I actually really enjoy Anders vocals (screaming) on STYE and CC, and he held up really well live, except for when he had to sing cleans. But just 2 years later, something pretty drastic occurred. Maybe screaming is harder on the chords than growling, and now he's running out of options except for all cleans. (Oh God No :) )
Click to expand...

That was my understanding of it. I think there were other reasons, but a big one was the fact Stanne's voice had badly deterioirated. There are some clips of Final Resistance on Youtube where he sounds terrible, and it is rare to hear Mikael sounding bad.

Winter. said:
Maybe Anders should take some time off then. I'm sure his kid would benefit from that aswell.
Click to expand...

I totally believe Anders could do with taking some time off, because In Flames have done non-stop touring/album making for a long time. They deserve a break.
 
:lol:
there are lots of reasons he could sound shitty. not saying his growls haven't gone downhill, but you should remember that there are tons of variables when on tour. The mix, the amount of smoke in the room, how many shows in a row they've played, how late in the set it is, etc.
 
Ugh, the sad part is that I'm going to be eagerly awaiting their next album just desperately hoping they'll make one more great album.
 
It's strange how some metal singers' voices change so dramatically over a bands'career. But out of the bands that I listen to, Anders' voice has changed the most. You listen to a guy like Tomas Lindberg and it's hard to believe he's still going at it 15 years later. His voice seems to have actually gotten stronger over the years. Peter Tagtgren has been hitting the same high and low notes since the beginning. Mikael Stanne's voice sounds a little thinner than it once did, but he still sounds pretty damn good as well.

But Anders sounds like a completely different guy than he did on the early albums. I just don't think he had the proper growling technique and he just blew his voice out. Kind of like what happened to Jesse Leach. You just can't put that strain on your vocal cords.

And yet with EVERY new In Flames album, I always wonder if THIS will be the one where he brings it back. Not gonna happen. I think the "growls" that occasionally pop up on the newer albums are just studio magic. They don't sound natural at all. Same thing with the live growls.
 
I think that if In Flames went on hiatus for a few years and Anders sought professional help with his voice (there's no shame in doing that, plenty of metal vocalists have done it), he'd be able to get his vocals back on track.

I can't understand why they always release an album every 1.5 - 2 years. They deserve some time off.
 
unfortunately, human society uses this thing called money, and contrary to popular belief, In Flames' alleged sell-out has not made them rich, so really they have to release. If they were a younger band perhaps they'd just go hungry or whatever but they have families to support now and so the reality is that this is now a job. When you're only supporting yourself and there's no responsibility you can do what you want and take your time but you can't put your kid through college with a 3 year hiatus.
And for those who say they could take day jobs or whatever, I don't know their situation, but I'm guessing they'd be taking part-time, low-paying jobs and again that's not enough, so the only way for them to provide for their families is to keep releasing.

This is all hypothetical, by the way, I have no idea what I'm talking about, etc

They do deserve time off, though.
 
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