If Anything, Suspicious (Anders Fridén's Lo-Fi side project)

[Xpyro125]

The strangest thing about Björn not listening to new music is that save for Siren Charms, everything from SOAPF is increasingly modern metalcore (With SOAPF being the least, of course); though I feel like that’s more of a product of him just going off modern In Flames and his own guitarwork feeding from itself and growing increasingly generic. While I’m glad that it isn’t the same kind of trite that other American bands have put out, there are some rather creative pieces or even sections to draw inspiration from, like Still Hurts’ acoustic breakdown. The way Mastodon, meanwhile, is approaching their new album has me a lot more excited with just how reinvigorated it feels. Despite its wide acclaim, with Mikael Stanne calling it the album that represents the pandemic, I truly can’t stand just boring and dull Hushed and Grim is, so something more varied, with flourishes of punk, a bit of energizing after listening to Turnstile has me rather excited.

Even if IAS wasn’t something I was interested, say it was reggae for the bit, I’d still absolutely respect and like the fact that Anders would go for something different and creatively challenging. That being said, it’s ambient, and I do like it. As stated above, Anders does have a good sense of atmosphere, and I think that’s a far more delicate balance to weave than many people (Particularly in those Facebook comments) realize. I’m hoping that whatever new material we get turns out great, and unlike with In Flames, I have faith in that.

 

[DE4life]

It's possible that in 2010/2011 when SOAPF was being conceived and recorded Bjorn was still listening to new stuff. He just claims he isn't now - although he used that as part of his excuse for not listening to THE, which he surely has done, so maybe he's just chatting shit. The amount of riffs and melodies he's recycled over the past few albums (or straight up ripoffs in the case of SOSD) does suggest a lack of new inspiration though.

 

[eochaid]

We're at a point where musicians are just making new music because the must keep on the cycle of album release - touring - album release.

They aren't passionate about creating new music. It's just business and that shows with every new album when they sit down to write music not because they have tons of ideas but because the have to.

Imagine this being the same with every other expression of art. Writers writing because they have to release another book. Comic writers and artists making a new one because they have to release a new book. Digital illustrators, painters, poets, actors, movie directors, just sitting to work because it's time, not because the feel an urge to do that.

That happens only in music and that happens a lot in rock music and that happens s whole lot in metal music. I just don't see them as creators or musicians, just businessmen.

In that sense, at least, Anders is having a creative impulse and that's good. That makes Bjorn look like the guy who just wanted to be in a rock band.

 

[DE4life]

What I will say in Anders' defence, is that at least on IF albums he's often trying new things, going back to when Reroute came out. I was listening to STYE the other day and it's clear that Anders is being very creative with his vocal melodies and trying a lot of different things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but I can say he's trying. More than everyone else in the band. We already know Bjorn and Jesper were done with making anything really special after Whoracle, and it was only Nordstrom's influence that continued to squeeze their full talent into Colony and Clayman. Once the band ditched Nordstrom the guitarists got pretty lazy, whereas Anders went in the opposite direction and became a lot more creative with his vocals. I suppose it was out of neccessity to a point, but a lot of what he did vocally was quite unconventional. Jesper and Bjorn were still creating good music, but rarely great music and not on the level they had achieved with Nordstrom. Anders' biggest fail was ASOP, but as time has passed I have come to believe that is hugely down to how that album was produced and mixed. There would still be some absolute garbage in there (some of the lyrics, TCP, Delight & Angers) but the majority of the other songs could be improved if production and mixing was like SOAPF and made a big effort to hide Anders' weaknesses rather than spotlight them.

Reliance on autotune machine and stripping down lyrics to absolute basic shit is where Anders went wrong. He did continue trying to be creative on SC, even if it was mostly bad, but since the band hooked up with Benson the effort across the board has gone drastically down, Anders included. Now it really does feel like they are just churning out albums because they have to. I think Peter, Daniel and Niclas all felt that change and it's why they decided it was time to drop out. I don't mind ITM, but in my view they haven't released anything genuinely worthwhile since SOAPF, which was 14 years ago now. I don't buy into Foregone being the return to the roots or revival of the band's metal passion. It feels like a cold, calculated album to me without much original inspiration.

But yeah, Anders branching out into a different project, cool. Shows he still has some creative passion inside him, even if it's not for In Flames anymore.