IN FLAMES Clayman Re-recorded 2020
- Thread starter Ilias7
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Jester Slave
Narcissist
I bet it will be 3 re-recorded tracks, then 2 oddities. Acoustic, chip, demo, electronic, something like that. Or maybe 2 live tracks.
5 song EP, called it here.
5 song EP, called it here.
Jester Slave
Narcissist
You get my hopes up, then in the end it will be just Clayman....
(and yes, I don't care how shitty the re-recorded songs would be, it's still "new" IF material. if they suck, I just don't listen to them - we really do not have anything to lose here)
Man, the energy between these two is like, polar opposites. The interviewer sounds like he's on speed, whereas Anders sounds like he just woke up from a nap. Otherwise it's mostly the same answers they've given in every other interview. I thought the interviewer actually asked some good questions but Anders' answers are pretty basic and uninteresting.
It's easy, just create a spotify account using a VPN set to Australia and you're good to go. If you have a Spotify account just changing your VPN to Australia might be enough I guess? I'm not sure.
Either way I am sure you will love it
Jester Slave
Narcissist
Jester Slave
Narcissist
I'd do that for a whole record, or at least EP. No way I do that for Clayman. I wait until tomorrow, have a go at it, summarize my opinion as "ok", and will probably listen to it as much as I've been listening the original: not much.
I will be hyped if they announce/release other stuff as well, but doubtful.
I will be hyped if they announce/release other stuff as well, but doubtful.
TheJestersDoor
Keep calm and bash Anders
- Jul 25, 2016
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Oh boy I can't wait to give this a listen then.... Seems like it's gonna be a wild ride
Also in terms of what the release is, there's an incomplete listing on Amazon, its a reissue of the album, literally just search amazon for clayman and its a few listing down. No information on tracklist or release date that I can see, but it's why I sadi I reckon it'll be be the OG album, the 2 OG bonus covers, a live song or two, and the new version of Clayman
Also in terms of what the release is, there's an incomplete listing on Amazon, its a reissue of the album, literally just search amazon for clayman and its a few listing down. No information on tracklist or release date that I can see, but it's why I sadi I reckon it'll be be the OG album, the 2 OG bonus covers, a live song or two, and the new version of Clayman
TheJestersDoor
Keep calm and bash Anders
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Right.... That was certainly something.
Intro synth is weird but I'm not against it, the problem is when the guitars kick in they don't. There is no kick. The guitars sound SO weak. Verse delivery is a bit weird from Anders but is in line with how he performs the song live so I'll give it a pass. Same with the chorus. Production continues to let it down. Although the bass can be heard really nicely at 1:28 for a bit so credit where credit is due I like that bit.
That amazing post chorus riff lacks all the punch of the classic version as the guitar tone is just so thin and fuzzy theres no boom to it. Honestly I think if In Flames ditched Howard for ITM that album would be up there with their post R2R best.
Guitar solo...... Didn't need that much wah. Or if they wanted Wah, get rid of the harmony behind it as it sounds kinda messy with both. The drop out in the verse after the solo sounds real weird, as does the chugga chugga riff that follows it but hand on heart I think that was done purely for how it'll translate live as I reckon as much as it SUCKS to listen to here, it'll be really nice live. Outro is nice aside from the unnecessary repetition of the vocal line.
Honestly it's both better and worse than I expected in exactly the ways I'd expect. Production is new levels of low, like c'mon we've just regressed to battles here, its insane. Bring back Roberto Laghi ffs, he made SOAPF sound like a million quid!
Edit: upon multiple listens, PRODUCTION aside, It's all growing on me. Its not better than the original, but it's an alright alternate version. It'll work well live with the intro and the drop out and I'll eat my shoes if when live footage of this version comes around, it doesn't work.
Also, like with House which was recorded with Tanner and not Christian Joe, drums don't sound programmed here. Don't sound great, but I'll take what I can get with Benson
Intro synth is weird but I'm not against it, the problem is when the guitars kick in they don't. There is no kick. The guitars sound SO weak. Verse delivery is a bit weird from Anders but is in line with how he performs the song live so I'll give it a pass. Same with the chorus. Production continues to let it down. Although the bass can be heard really nicely at 1:28 for a bit so credit where credit is due I like that bit.
That amazing post chorus riff lacks all the punch of the classic version as the guitar tone is just so thin and fuzzy theres no boom to it. Honestly I think if In Flames ditched Howard for ITM that album would be up there with their post R2R best.
Guitar solo...... Didn't need that much wah. Or if they wanted Wah, get rid of the harmony behind it as it sounds kinda messy with both. The drop out in the verse after the solo sounds real weird, as does the chugga chugga riff that follows it but hand on heart I think that was done purely for how it'll translate live as I reckon as much as it SUCKS to listen to here, it'll be really nice live. Outro is nice aside from the unnecessary repetition of the vocal line.
Honestly it's both better and worse than I expected in exactly the ways I'd expect. Production is new levels of low, like c'mon we've just regressed to battles here, its insane. Bring back Roberto Laghi ffs, he made SOAPF sound like a million quid!
Edit: upon multiple listens, PRODUCTION aside, It's all growing on me. Its not better than the original, but it's an alright alternate version. It'll work well live with the intro and the drop out and I'll eat my shoes if when live footage of this version comes around, it doesn't work.
Also, like with House which was recorded with Tanner and not Christian Joe, drums don't sound programmed here. Don't sound great, but I'll take what I can get with Benson
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Honestly I think the production sounds really amateurish, to the point where it really shouldn't have been released. The way the solo is inserted into the song is just awful, and also those chugga chugga riffs come out of nowhere and engulf the vocals in a really awkward way - plus they just sound terrible. Honestly it would have been better to have just left that verse without guitars and go straight to the chorus.
If they wanted to show how it plays live they could have just released a live version of the song (which would have 100% sounded better) so I don't buy that as a legit excuse for the way this has been arranged. It's just not very good. I don't understand how it can sound this much worse than the stuff from ITM - unless it was mixed at home by Anders or something? It doesn't sound professional to me at all. There are YouTube covers with better production than this.
If they wanted to show how it plays live they could have just released a live version of the song (which would have 100% sounded better) so I don't buy that as a legit excuse for the way this has been arranged. It's just not very good. I don't understand how it can sound this much worse than the stuff from ITM - unless it was mixed at home by Anders or something? It doesn't sound professional to me at all. There are YouTube covers with better production than this.
TheJestersDoor
Keep calm and bash Anders
- Jul 25, 2016
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I don't disagree, It doesn't sound good here and I'm not trying to justify it by saying it'll be good live, more just passing comment that I think it will, and that there was the mentality behind the change
Hard agree, the production is so weak it hurts. Re-recording the greatest metal guitar tone ever recorded is a dangerous task at the best of times, but this is just hard proof that they need to stop working with Howard.
Agree, if Howard had anything to do with this he should be fired instantly. This song should not have been released sounding like this. The original version is so much better that it's a bit embarrassing for this new version to even be out there. I knew the original version would be better, I think we all did, but I didn't expect the new version to be quite this bad in terms of production. I was expecting something similar to ITM production, but like you said this is more like a sharp regression to Battles which I can't understand. It's not like the ITM production was great or anything, but it was still an improvement on Battles. I'm not sure how they've managed to regress like this for a song that clearly isn't designed for Battles type production.
On the plus side I listened to the original version of Clayman a half dozen times afterwards to clense my mind and it reminded me why In Flames were the absolute kings back in 2000. Amazing track, and it isn't even in my top five on the album.
TheJestersDoor
Keep calm and bash Anders
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They got Lord-Alge to Master ITM after Howard was done that's why. This proves that Howard Benson's sound is juxtaposed to how this song should sound. Honestly while not as good as the original, I would be fine with all the changes and Andre's vocal performance if the song had production fit for how it should sound, but it's just so flat and drab. It's also proof to me that production being bad can Kill good songs, I bet even BATTLES would have a few more good tracks with proper production.
It shows how far its regressed when I'm wishing for Siren Charms production, which was flawed in its own right, even if it fits the tone of that album IMO.
Roll on finding out what else they have in store for us! It can definitely get worse, but it can't get any more dissapointing!
Anders' vocal performance on the whole isn't that bad, for once he isn't really the problem. It's not his best work but it's nowhere near as bad as his ASOP performance so I can give him a pass here for the most part. With that said I don't understand why he has to try and change the rhythm of the chorus - from "how come it's possible" to "how come it is possible" for example - a small but noticeable and weird sounding alteration. Overall the production of the guitars is the biggest problem as they sound weak, disjointed and really fuzzy. The common problems of modern IF production unfortunately, but it really shows how even awesome songs like Clayman would get fucking nuked using IF current day production. Nordstrom was such a huge part of what made Clayman great, and this "new" version proves that 1000000%.
TheJestersDoor
Keep calm and bash Anders
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Change in delivery again I put it down to with old songs he does tend to do strange things like that live, so I guess he preferred singing it that way in the studio this time too.
Dare I Play Devil's advocate and say that ASOP, SC, Battles, and even ITM with better production, could be held in much higher regard than they are. its not guarunteed i know, but interesting food for thought, and a 100% believe most of In Flames' post SOAPF problems are down to production and not songwriting, albeit with acknowledgement that ITM is much better written than battles regardless of production.
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