IN FLAMES Clayman Re-recorded 2020
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I can't even keep track of what thread is for spamming anymore. Anyway, happy New Year everyone, hope you all enjoyed the holidays and had a good one.
I just stumbled upon a reddit thread, Stanne apparently did an AMA about a month ago. I know we discussed Moment so figured some might enjoy reading through the answers. A lot of common generic questions, a lot of beer talk but also some pretty good bits of info.
old.reddit.com/r/Metal/comments/k4nlbw/hello_i_am_mikael_stanne_vocalist_of_dark
I just stumbled upon a reddit thread, Stanne apparently did an AMA about a month ago. I know we discussed Moment so figured some might enjoy reading through the answers. A lot of common generic questions, a lot of beer talk but also some pretty good bits of info.
old.reddit.com/r/Metal/comments/k4nlbw/hello_i_am_mikael_stanne_vocalist_of_dark
Good find.
My man has a VR headset
now I need to know if it's PSVR, Rift, Quest, Vive or Index..."Are they open to the idea of having a live show where them and In Flames are headlining and they would do old songs with the other bands as guests, like Shadow Duet with Friden, songs from Lunar Strain with Stanne, etc...?"
I would love to do something like that. We have talked about touring together again so hopefully that will happen in the not too distant future. About doing old stuff together though I am not too sure about. It would be fun though. Last time I joined them on stage was in 2004 at a benefit concert where I sang Behind Space while Anders was in the crowd headbanging
Would be awesome for DT and IF to do another tour together. I'd go for sure!
"What is the probability of you guys doing a 30-year anniversary tour of The Gallery and playing it in its entirety?"
What is it with these bands thinking they play like shit on their older albums? He's probably half-joking, hence the winky face, but IF have the same complex when they talk about "too many layers of guitar" on the older albums and bullshit like that. There's a reason people keep going back to these albums as the best and it isn't because they sound like shit.
https://www.wearethepit.com/2020/11/every-dark-tranquillity-album-ranked-by-frontman-mikael-stanne/
Hadn't seen this before. His comments on something being missing on Haven and The Mind's I production being bad very much mirror my own thoughts on those albums. I was actually really surprised he ranked Mind's I so low on his list, but of all the older DT albums Mind's I has always been the one I tended to skip.
On WATV - "it was just an album that was difficult to write. It was frustrating, and we were all having different ideas of what to do, and it shows" - yeah, it sure does. WATV should be below Haven and Minds I. Easily DT's worst album.
On Damage Done - "That friction that we felt between us and Fredrik [Nordström] who produced it fueled us wanting to do more things on our own. So we said, You don’t need to be here, we can do this ourselves. And that kind of made us into what we are now, which is kind of self-sufficient." - Interesting, I didn't realise DT had issues with Nordstrom as well. Although as always seems to be the case, a band says this whilst talking about one of their best ever albums. Maybe Fredrik knows what he's doing...
I like how he says The Gallery is his favourite album but still picks Moment as number 1
Back to the Reddit AMA, I love how Mikael actually explains his lyrics and the reasons behind them. As opposed to a certain bearded hipster who refuses to explain and lazily answers "it means whatever the listener wants it to mean". Maybe because Stanne clearly thinks deeply about his lyrics, whereas Andurrz most recent lyrics over the years are largely juvenile drivel which any angsty 13 year old could come up with.
"Someone in Kokomo shouted to play "upon an oaken throne" . You were such a good sport about it. Stating that's an old song lol."
Haha. Playing that one would have been surprising for sure. Great track though
It certainly is
Stanne's favourite recent melodeath release:
does touring the UK present challenges for bands to deviate from mainland Europe which makes coming here unfavourable? And do you think this would get worse following Brexit?
More reason to hate the fucktards who voted for Brexit.
It's always surprising to hear a frontman of a band say something like this.
Anyway, very cool AMA and Mikael seems like an incredibly down to earth and humble guy.
You know how Bruce Dickinson told that he voted for Brexit and now he's living in Paris? Talk about hypocrisy.
I remember a recent interview with Stanne where he states that covid makes more impact into middle sized bands because, bigger bands make a living of their music while lesser bands' members have their everyday works but middle bands have none of them.
From what I understood, he belongs to the first category.
I couldn't find that interview but I found some different. I'll translate to English since the interview was in Spanish.
"
A lot of musicians have had to take "normal jobs", and I know I'm going to have to do it eventually too. And well, I don't have a big problem with it either. I don't think it will change much, just that we are going to have to live on something different for a while. But there are also many other musicians who are not in a band or who do not tour with the intensity that metal bands do, and perhaps they realize that this is not going to work.
We are older, we have more comfortable lives and we are more financially secure, so there are sure to be lasting consequences."
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DT never overdid layering. Sure they go for the wall of sound in terms of guitars on their modern records (especially Fiction and onwards), but that's because they quad track all rhythm guitars - basically the double everything 4 times but they play the same exact thing, just for the thicker effect. There are pros and cons to doing that, it's a matter of taste, but I don't think they ever cornered themselves composition-wise on older records.
Based on all the interviews of theirs I've read over the years, I don't think they are ashamed of their performances back then, but they certainly seem very self-conscious in terms of how ambitious and especially pretentious both the music and the lyrics were. I don't share that opinion as a listener, altough I never really enjoyed The Gallery that much, but I can see how they would feel that way considering how different and crammed-up arrangement wise those old songs are compared to contemporary bands of that era. But that is common among all artists, especially those with careers this long.
Stanne is a class act through and through, I admire him a lot.
Yeah, Stanne comes across as a really cool guy. Seems really grateful towards the fans and clearly cares a lot about the music and the message DT put out.
Whilst I guess I can understand the band thinking some of the earlier stuff was pretentious, I don't think they give themselves enough credit either. The lyrics for Skydancer may be somewhat over the top and don't always fit into the rhythm of the music being played, but it all makes sense and is actually some incredibly impressive prose for young Swedes to have written. The Gallery has some amazing lyrics too. If they want to call it pretentious then okay, I guess, but the way those lyrics were written made me a fan of the band. Same for older IF. There was a genuine intelligence beneath the riffs and growls/screams which made the songs far more powerful for me than the average metal song talking about smashing people with hammers or how Christianity sucks.
Whilst I guess I can understand the band thinking some of the earlier stuff was pretentious, I don't think they give themselves enough credit either. The lyrics for Skydancer may be somewhat over the top and don't always fit into the rhythm of the music being played, but it all makes sense and is actually some incredibly impressive prose for young Swedes to have written. The Gallery has some amazing lyrics too. If they want to call it pretentious then okay, I guess, but the way those lyrics were written made me a fan of the band. Same for older IF. There was a genuine intelligence beneath the riffs and growls/screams which made the songs far more powerful for me than the average metal song talking about smashing people with hammers or how Christianity sucks.
You guys need to think from their POV. They know shit that they didn't know when they recorded those albums. And I'm talking about techniques, composition, lyrics, production... So it's natural for them to look back and to have in mind everything that they did wrong, or that they did right only by chance.
I wouldn't really say DT have either. I feel like the DD/Character/Fiction period was their peak, and everything after that has just been... different. A lot of people will say The Gallery blows away anything they've done since. You can't create an album that good by accident, same as TJR. They may be better musicians technically, but unless you write and play in a technical metal genre that isn't hugely important.
Reminds me of this thread in the DT forum: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/threads/the-void-and-you-a-technical-reference.570365/
If I need a fucking technical reference to enjoy the album then I think I'll pass.
If I need a fucking technical reference to enjoy the album then I think I'll pass.
Jokes aside, regarding IF, all of them went, probably, from improvising their skills and music to understand what they were doing.
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There's no doubt a lot of IF & DT's early efforts are a result of youthful enthusiasm and motivation to get themselves known. It becomes a different situation once you become an established band, as now fans have expectations and maybe you're second guessing your writing and being more critical of your music than you were before. I'd certainly say that's the case for DT. I think they are very deliberate and critical of their music - maybe too much.
As for IF... I don't know. They obviously know more about what they're doing now than they did 25 years ago, but I don't sense that they care about it in the same way DT do. They just like to write some catchy, fairly shallow songs and go out on tour.
As for IF... I don't know. They obviously know more about what they're doing now than they did 25 years ago, but I don't sense that they care about it in the same way DT do. They just like to write some catchy, fairly shallow songs and go out on tour.
I guess the thing that bugs me about when artists mention the older albums flaws is that it often feels like they're invalidating fans opinions on their older albums. Like, "I appreciate you like that album, but you don't really understand the flaws and if you did then you'd like our new stuff more". The reality is often that, irrespective of technical aspects, the older albums simply sound better. More energetic, more creative, more interesting. Lack of technical prowess isn't really a factor for most people - definitely not me.
That's why I love listening to stuff from newer or lesser known bands. They're often still trying new stuff, aren't too self-critical and just want to put out something that sounds cool. It's somewhat of a pattern in my music tastes that I really love bands' older albums but I'm not so interested in their newer stuff. Even if they've become better musicians during that time, what I really listen for is passion and creativity.
There are some bands I like that buck that trend, or after some shit albums go back to producing really good stuff. Freedom Call started out on fire with their first three albums, then were kinda shit for a while until returning to form with the last few albums. Some bands start out terrible and become much better over time. It's tough for the bands whose first album or two is received very well though. They instantly have some very high standards to live up to and spend the rest of their caeers being reminded of it.
That's why I love listening to stuff from newer or lesser known bands. They're often still trying new stuff, aren't too self-critical and just want to put out something that sounds cool. It's somewhat of a pattern in my music tastes that I really love bands' older albums but I'm not so interested in their newer stuff. Even if they've become better musicians during that time, what I really listen for is passion and creativity.
There are some bands I like that buck that trend, or after some shit albums go back to producing really good stuff. Freedom Call started out on fire with their first three albums, then were kinda shit for a while until returning to form with the last few albums. Some bands start out terrible and become much better over time. It's tough for the bands whose first album or two is received very well though. They instantly have some very high standards to live up to and spend the rest of their caeers being reminded of it.
ThePhobiac
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