IN FLAMES Clayman Re-recorded 2020

[DE4life]

I always thought Anders' approach to live vocals is "tbh I can't really do this shit, so might as well fuck around. The people in the crowd seem to enjoy it." It's cringy, but it is what it is.

ngl, I thought IF was going to break up within two years shortly after ASOP came out. Not because I dislike the album or anything. Just a gut feeling. I'm legitimately surprised they's still going ten years later. At this rate I would expect Dark Tranquillity or AtG to split (again, in AtG's case) before they do.

That has 100% been Anders approach to live vocals. He's never put any serious effort into improving his clean vocals. Recently he has switched to lower growl but I think that's more out of necessity than because he wanted to make the live performance sound better. From recollection he only started going to a vocal coach around 2016 when Battles came out - and judging from live performances he didn't get much out of it as he sounds no better now than he did a decade ago. In fact I would argue he is worse. At least back in the day he actually tried to sing the choruses to 'the hits' even though he sounded like shit. Nowadays he just growls 95% of the songs or doesn't do any vocals and expects the crowd to sing (he does this a lot for Where the Dead Ships Dwell).

If there was ever a time for IF to call it quits it would have been after SOAPF. That would have been a great album to go out on. If Hipster & Bjorn had then decided to do some experimental stuff and released SC/Battles/ITM under a different band name then whatever, but of course they both know that SC & Battles especially would have gotten zero interest without the In Flames name attached to it.

 

[galvanized]

I’m curious what ATG does, the first comeback album was awesome. The last one didn’t grab me as much with the exception of one or two parts. At least so far. Losing a main guitarist is tough.

 

[DE4life]

It might be a good thing. It feels like reborn ATG is just rehashing best-of SOTS era with modern production. New guitarist might give the band some fresh impetus.

I do find it funny how on every decent MDM video the top comment always seems to be about In Flames on ATG's "To Drink From the Night Itself":



Nightrage's "Drawn By Darkness":



DT's "Atoma":





20 years since IF last released a MDM album and people are still so salty about it

 

[eochaid]

Is ATG doing something new?

Dark Tranquility has recruited... Is Michael or Christopher the younger of the Amott brothers? That's a great addition.. he's really a talented guitarist.

 

[DE4life]

Yeah they officially announced Chris Amott as a permanent member a few months ago. He's been touring with them since 2017 I believe. It will be interesting to see what his input into their new album is like. I hope it moves them a little bit away from the industrial/gothic vibe they've had going on over the past decade and closer to DD/Character style MDM. I guess we'll see.

I also just introduced Oscar Dronjak to The Black Mages so that's my good deed done for the day

 

[galvanized]

Are you serious? Dude I had not been keeping up with DT.

As we begin recording our new album, we would like to officially announce two fantastic musicians that have toured with us for quite a few years now as the new and permanent members of Dark Tranquillity.

Please welcome Chris Amott and Johan Reinholdz on guitars.
https://twitter.com/dtofficial/status/1244668396249083905?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

March 30, 2020


Chris Amott - beast, goes without saying
But Johan Reindholdz??? Not just a beast, a PRODIGY. I LOVED Extension of the Wish back in the day, one of the best progressive metal albums ever. The one with Lawrence Mackory from Darkane (the orig) on vocals is the best.

Johan wrote the whole album at age 19!




Skip to 4:30 if you just want the action:



New Dark Tranquility is going to be the greatest of all time!!!!

 

[eochaid]

Yes. DT and AE are so different that I'm also interested on how much their.music is going to change

 

[DE4life]

I'm definitely ready for DT to change their style a bit. I'm not talking nuking their sound IF style, but just something different to what they've been doing over the past decade. Atoma was good but I don't think you can go much further with that sound.

 

[eochaid]

I don't care as much about their future as for their style being somewhat boring. At least for me.

 

[galvanized]

Stanne recruited a literal dream team for the band. You don’t tell the dream team what to do. You give them the freedom to do whatever the hell they want, maybe with some conflict mediation. Stanne should be mature enough to do that. I doubt he would hold these prodigies back because “what if the future replacements can’t play it” or it “diverges too far”. I hope they go balls to the wall on this. It will put IF to shame and embarrass them how they don’t use Broderick appropriately.

IF is open to experimentation and new sounds. The only thing holding them back from using Broderick is ego.

Stanne shouldn’t have that issue.

 

[DE4life]

I can't say DT have done much for me over the past decade. We Are The Void was painfully boring, Construct was a bit better but nothing I was hugely interested in. Atoma was a big improvement but honestly I don't go back to the album much these days. It's a solid 7/10 but still below everything pre-2008.

It would be really cool to hear something totally different from DT. I don't even mean going back to how they sounded in the late 90s or early 2000s (although I wouldn't say no to another album like Damage Done), just something that sounds fresh and with a bit more energy. They have all the tools now to do that.

IF not using Engelin or Broderick properly is a shame but Anders & Bjorn obviously feel like it's their band and they are the only ones who can give us the "In Flames sound". Which is bullshit and limiting what they are capable of, but whatever. No reason for DT to fall into the same trap.

 

[Sierota]

No you didn't



Throw your lighters in the air muthafuckas

I haven't seen this before. Stay with Me is the best song from In Flames' last three albums imo but, man, Anders cannot pull it off live. It's also a letdown to have those musicians in the background and not perform the band's classic, majestic stuff. I think some of that could sound grand with classical accompaniment. Imagine the interlude in Moonshield, for example.

It's like when Metallica played with an orchestra and included stuff like Fuel.

 

[DE4life]

I haven't seen this before. Stay with Me is the best song from In Flames' last three albums imo but, man, Anders cannot pull it off live. It's also a letdown to have those musicians in the background and not perform the band's classic, majestic stuff. I think some of that could sound grand with classical accompaniment. Imagine the interlude in Moonshield, for example.

It's like when Metallica played with an orchestra and included stuff like Fuel.

Well, we all knew when ITM was released that Anders wasn't going to be able to do any of the singing live isn't there a version of ProTools that can autotune live?

I liked S&M version of Master of Puppets. No Leaf Clover is a nice track as well.

https://twitter.com/slaveBudapest @eochaid this isn't Slave, right? it's ticking all the boxes with Hungary, Jester and wants to be a slave, but...

 

[galvanized]

Stay with Me is the best song from In Flames' last three albums imo

Yes sir, totally agree.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Regarding DT: I was really bummed when Niklas quit the band. One of my biggest creative inspirations, hands down. I didn't know much about Chris Amott other than the fact that he did the solo on "Suburban Me" and he looks a little bit like Denis Leary. His solo material took me by surprise. He's not bad:



Good singer, too!

I knew even less about Reinholdz, but holy SHIT. THIS guy I'm excited for. Andromeda is cool from what I've heard of it and I dig his Nonexist stuff, but just his daily guitar exercises on Instagram are fucking inspiring. He shreds, sure, but dude has feeling.

From what I understand Anders Jivarp still does most of the songwriting, though, yeah? Interested to hear the next album, anyway.

As far as IF goes: is Niclas still actually in the band? Or is this a Sundin-style "yeah so I went on hiatus years ago but in actuality this is a long farewell" deal.

 

[DE4life]

IF are staying tight-lipped about it, which makes me think Niclas is probably out. I'm sure he mentioned on Instagram a few months ago that he was no longer an official member. Can't find any proof of that though.

He can and should do better than just be a session/touring rhythm guitarist for modern In Flames. A lot of what he's put out in Engel and other projects isn't really my thing, but the guy clearly has talent and should be expressing that.

14 days until the Clayman rerelease. I wonder if we'll hear any of the other rerecordings before the album drops?

 

[Sierota]

Yes sir, totally agree.

It's a low bar for me though. I think those albums are worse than anything they've done before. I mostly stopped paying much attention to their new stuff with Siren Charms. People seem to like SOAPF a lot, but I think that one is mostly forgettable but not bad. I think it was the first step into 'radio rock In Flames'.

 

[Sierota]

I wonder if this guy is bored playing modern In Flames every night. It's a living, though.

It's interesting that he may have been playing with Jag Panzer at my first In Flames show in 2002. I'm not sure if he was though.

 

[galvanized]

It's a low bar for me though. I think those albums are worse than anything they've done before. I mostly stopped paying much attention to their new stuff with Siren Charms. People seem to like SOAPF a lot, but I think that one is mostly forgettable. I think it was the first step into 'radio rock In Flames'.

To me All the Pain and Stay with Me are the gems Anders has always been looking to achieve the last 20 years.

I just hear good, well-composed songs.

I don’t think about “oh that riff is stolen from Whoracle, that solo is from Clayman”. I don’t think “this production sucks, guitar tone is too hollow”. I also don’t think about “damn, how far they have fallen”. I just hear the songs. It is a natural reaction.

 

[Sierota]

Well, we all knew when ITM was released that Anders wasn't going to be able to do any of the singing live isn't there a version of ProTools that can autotune live?

I liked S&M version of Master of Puppets. No Leaf Clover is a nice track as well.

https://twitter.com/slaveBudapest @eochaid this isn't Slave, right? it's ticking all the boxes with Hungary, Jester and wants to be a slave, but...

Call of Ktulu worked great as well.