embarrassing interview with In Flames drummer

Pitiless Wanderer

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http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/IN FLAMES Drummer: 'We Don't Feel Any Pressure Whatsoever, Not Even From Ourselves' - Nov. 24, 2006 Metal Covenant recently conducted an interview with IN FLAMES drummer Daniel Svensson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal Covenant: You've been praised by the media countless of times, and each album you release sells even more copies than the previous one. How do you keep motivating yourself and do you never get tired of all the success?

Daniel: You can never have enough of success, but if things were starting to stagnate and we would be playing in smaller venues than before, I would probably have trouble motivating myself. I mean, we all have families and children and it's tough to be away from them eight and a half months each year. There are moments when the touring is not that funny, you know?

Anyway, we release an album, work hard promoting it with tours and that's it. We don't have the kind of pressure on us anymore that new successful bands have, when they suddenly have to make a second album which sells just as much as the first one. We've done eight albums now and all of them have done well, so we don't feel any pressure whatsoever, not even from ourselves. It usually turns out fine in the end.

Metal Covenant: So you haven't made up a plan how much longer you will continue and how many more albums you will make?

Daniel: No, we keep on taking one album and one tour at a time. We're getting old and we all have families and kids. If my wife would put her foot down and say that she can't take this anymore, I would understand and definitely consider quitting the band. At the moment I don't see an end to it though, so we'll probably be around for many more years to come.

Metal Covenant: You have many loud fans that prefer the old IN FLAMES albums…

Daniel: Oh, really…? (laughs)

Metal Covenant: Yeah, and these fans would most likely want you to only play old songs on your concerts. Do you listen anything to these fans or do you only listen to yourself and do what you believe works best?

Daniel: We obviously do what we believe in ourselves, but we have actually given many songs from "The Jester Race" a chance. And almost every time there is no reaction from the audience, they just stand there looking confused. Tonight we play one song from "The Jester Race", "Graveland", but the truth is that the new songs work better with the people that come to our shows. I mean, why should we listen to two guys on some Internet forum when the majority clearly likes the new material better? Since the really old songs were never written to be performed live, the effect is not the same. They are simply not much of live songs."

Read the entire interview at www.metalcovenant.com.
 
I gave up on this band ages ago, but this interview is pretty annoying. So basically what he is saying is that the band wants to write and play songs that cater to the "jump up and down" audience. That really pisses me off. And saying that the old songs don't get any reaction from the crowd simply means that theyre too young and they dont understand the material because they like the Nu In Flames records. Maybe if they announced they were playing the entire Jester Race or Colony or Whoracle album on a tour the old fans would actually go watch them and then the band would get a reaction they like. Seriously, what kind of logic is this man using?
 
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What the hell did I do to you. You better not be one of those people who think old In Flames is worse than new In Flames. I like new In Flames but even I must admit old In Flames is WAY better than new In Flames.
 
Omg NOOOOO. Please don't tell me they think their new material is better than their old material. That is really upseting to me. I hope they rethink what they were thinking.

I hope they have spent a lot of time thinking about what they were thinking. How could they be this when they think OMG new album is good? No way, new albums can't belong to In Flames when they haven't think this..
 
I see this as not surprising at all.

I mean, I already accepted the fact that this band has already completely changed their mindset about their music to a artistically-narrow slant. It is pretty sad it had to be this way, but naturally it doesn't bother me anymore cause I moved on to better bands. IF still hold a high amount of say, "emotional value" to me though, the older albums still serve as some damn fine "introductory metal"... and I think their live shows are very worthwhile (it is a total blessing they're actually coming back to the my good-concert-lacking state of Virginia in two days) even if the majority of the setlist is based off new material (I actually don't mind SOME of the new stuff). But yea, enough babbling from me, none of this post was directed as offense to anybody (I pretty much agree with your views on Colony, Devy... if only they kept the mindset of writing those types of songs without necessarily making carbon-copies of them...)
 
I uhhh well this makes me really sad. I think this killed it for me. Ive stood by and stood by for years , but this artical takes the cake. Daniel you havent put out 8 records, Jesper has put out 8 records. He came in at Colony. He has no room to talk about anthing he didnt contribute too.
 
As much as I hate for my first post to be one that will undoubtably cause many to scoff and snicker at my n00bness...I have to say that I agree with Daniel’s choice of Reroute To Remain, when asked his favorite release, other than Come Clarity. Reroute To Remain has always been my favorite. This may be due to the fact that RTR was the first song that I had ever heard by In Flames. Having never heard anything else by them, or anything similar for that matter, it was basically the equivalent of an orgasm for my ears ;) Having been a HUGE fan of bands such as Metallica, Megadeth, Prong, Slayer, COC, etc. Swedish metal was entirely new to me, and came into my life at a time when I was getting bored with the old standards. Metallica hadn’t put out a decent album in ages, and while bands like Mudvayne and Killswitch certainly piqued my interest, I had to hear more of In Flames. So, I bought RTR...loved all of it. Trigger, RTR, Cloud Connected being my favorites. Then I got STYE, which I didn’t like as much, with the exception of a few tracks, such as My Sweet Shadow. Then while awaiting their newest release, I decided to pick up an older cd...Whoracle...which I also LOVE. This basically sealed my love for all things In Flames lol, so I purchased Colony, which is an awesome cd, as I see many of you agree on. Then of course I had to get Come Clarity when it came out...which I know is hated by many of the “old school” IF fans...but I really like it.

So, basically Reroute to Remain introduced me to In flames and has really become one of my all time favorite cd’s...I never tire of it.

*puts on raincoat & galoshes and awaits the shit storm*:p

ps Hi to all of you :)
 
Wooosh Woooosh SPLAT!!!!! That was the shit storm coming.

I love Inflames but the fact that you started with Reroute ( and dont take me wrong here)


.....................................................................COMPLETELY VOIDS YOUR OPINION!!!!

Daniels interview there just killed my hopes for Inflames. WHile I still like the new records alot THEY WILL NEVER HOLD A CANDLE TO JESTER RACE, COLONY, or WHORACLE!!!!!! EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will always listen and continue to love Inflames but Im gonn ahve to take them outta my favorite band of all time spot and leave it vacant. They are now number 2 and Number 1 will forever be empty for the fact that all my favorite bands Ive ever had ..... have eventually sold their soul.

This can be redeemed BY A FUCKING KICK ASS NEW DIMENSION ZERO RECORD!!! Then all will be forgiven.
 
Ahh this also makes me sad. I think he is very wrong about when he said that the majority of people like their new stuff better. If they announced a tour where they played only old songs im 100% sure that a ton of fans who are reluctant to go to their shows right now because of the major difference of their sound. Just like it happened to Iron Maiden, two yearsago at ozzfest they played only old songs and it was undoubtedly amazing. I think that In Flames could do alot by doing something like this.
Secondly his statement about the new songs being better live songs is very wrong. As for proof i use The Tokyo Showdown. All of those songs sound insane. Even bootleg videos of in flames playing old songs has great tone and even though its not exactly like the album the thing the melodies and rythms that make the songs great still pull throught.
Just like some of you have said i think that in flames needs to re-evaluate their outlook on how they will continue making music.
 
Alas, I saw In Flames this summer at Sounds of the Underground. The oldest song they played was trigger... I was thinking, are you fucking serious? I don't know how he can say that old songs get no reaction, people were chanting Jester Race! But I suppose, being a large festival concert they had to appeal to a more mainstream trendy group. Yes, In Flames is fucking trendy now. That's a shame, for me especially, because I kind of always had a place in my heart for In Flames ever since I first heard Episode 666 and immediately went out and bought myself a guitar. The rest, as they say, is history. When I see Jesper on stage chugging away at these tastless muted power chords with enough industrial distortion that it's hardly even recognizable as guitar I do feel a bit disheartened. At least Come Clarity has a few solos though :).

Another thing, if the old stuff is so terrible, why is their newest album (perhaps their most successful) hailed as a return to form, bringing back the old days of dual guitar harmonies and Maiden-esque solos and riffing?

Suck a fat one Daniel, I don't even consider that bitch a real member, Bjorn Gelotte is the only true drummer of In Flames.
 
As much as I hate for my first post to be one that will undoubtably cause many to scoff and snicker at my n00bness...I have to say that I agree with Daniel’s choice of Reroute To Remain, when asked his favorite release, other than Come Clarity. Reroute To Remain has always been my favorite. This may be due to the fact that RTR was the first song that I had ever heard by In Flames. Having never heard anything else by them, or anything similar for that matter, it was basically the equivalent of an orgasm for my ears Having been a HUGE fan of bands such as Metallica, Megadeth, Prong, Slayer, COC, etc. Swedish metal was entirely new to me, and came into my life at a time when I was getting bored with the old standards. Metallica hadn’t put out a decent album in ages, and while bands like Mudvayne and Killswitch certainly piqued my interest, I had to hear more of In Flames. So, I bought RTR...loved all of it. Trigger, RTR, Cloud Connected being my favorites. Then I got STYE, which I didn’t like as much, with the exception of a few tracks, such as My Sweet Shadow. Then while awaiting their newest release, I decided to pick up an older cd...Whoracle...which I also LOVE. This basically sealed my love for all things In Flames lol, so I purchased Colony, which is an awesome cd, as I see many of you agree on. Then of course I had to get Come Clarity when it came out...which I know is hated by many of the “old school” IF fans...but I really like it.

So, basically Reroute to Remain introduced me to In flames and has really become one of my all time favorite cd’s...I never tire of it.

*puts on raincoat & galoshes and awaits the shit storm*

ps Hi to all of you

I loved Reroute To Remain also. I'd stick with that album for awhile though cause once you listen to old In Flames it'll be hard to listen to Reroute To Remain. Although I still love Reroute To Remain I can hardly listen to it as much as I used to.

They played Graveland when i saw them on friday and the crowd loved it

Too bad they can't play the entire The Jester Race album infront of a bunch of wanting fans.

Another thing, if the old stuff is so terrible, why is their newest album (perhaps their most successful) hailed as a return to form, bringing back the old days of dual guitar harmonies and Maiden-esque solos and riffing?

It sounded good at first but then people started to realize it was just the normal new In Flames again. I really hope they don't become a hardcore band after knowing what their new label is like.
 
When I saw them Anders asked how many people owned the Jester Race and like four people raised their hands. It was unbelievable! I understand why they don't play those songs very often. Of course, I was happy to hear Graveland. But I understand the bands point of view.
 
most of the bands think that their new material is better than the old one.. i mean look at COB ...