In Flames: Crawl Through Knives.

[Torniojaws]

I remember James or Lar$ saying how he dislikes ...Justice nowadays because it was way too progressive. That's laughable, if anything

 

[Fabbio]

I think in Metallica's case a lot of fan criticism comes not from musical changes so much as the way the band has trashed their roots--meaning both fellow metal bands as well as their own music...I vividly recall, during the Load days, Hetfield bashing "frayed ends of sanity" and other classics, saying that they were too chaotic and had no groove (something along those lines). That's selling out in anyone's book, i think.

I have nothing but neverending respect for Hetfield.

To make a comparison: try love a woman and stay with her for a LOT of years. The first period it's everything only about her good features, then there's habit, the latter period you can only see her flaws, no matter what.

The same with music, you write a song, it's killer, all your feelings are nailed by it. You begin to play it live you still love it but somewhat you become accustomed and soon you can playing it sounding convincing but in a mechanichal way. In the latter period you just had enough! Enter new opinions and ideas, your music changes. You still have the repertoire, anyway.

Bands change, and in our favourite genre there's very little of this changes caused by 'selling out'.
If you want to sell records (even a LOT of them) it's not bad. Being a 'pure' artist and selling your 'very pure' artit's very very rare and usually no artist in the pure category does anything that's published or distributed properly (playing liveut of question, maybe one or two gigs here and there). If you want a carreer you have to consider the money/busisìnness aspect of it. Otherwise the world it's full of pure artist that play (or paint, or write for that matter) inside the four walls of their house and never bother to 'get in the ring'.

Selling out to me it's posing for a million bucks on a Calvin Klein fashion advertising campaign when you don't really need it but only for greedyness..
Or being sposored by products you never in a million years considered worthy just for money sake (but even in this second case you have to consider a lot of variants, such as the price of touring decently, raising and taking care of a family etc... ...not much money get around in metal, the real money goes to the Celine Dions, the Robbie Williamses, the Eminems, the... ...you got the picture).

And in the end: the less smart persons usually never change idea or attitude or anything in their life, artistic or personal.

So In Flames never sold out to me. Period. Not even Metallica. Not sad. And true.

 

[Kazrog]

I don't think anyone in the history of music has ever sold out. The whole notion is a stupid myth!

 

[estigma2001]

as Jason Newsted said yeah we sold out every fucking theater, stadium, etc on tour!!!
Metallica sucks now but i dont see'em like selling out coz they are selling less and less with each record, the black album was their zenith then all is downhill!!!!

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

All I know is that I wouldn't bash my roots like they have. Except maybe a couple past ex-girlfriend experiences haha

 

[estigma2001]

well this topic was about In Flames, let´s back to them, for the new cd i only expect a better production and more leads, and harmonies period.

 

[char5564]

its nothing like colony or clayman. it does sound close to STYE though, but whoever said "you have to evole to survive" was right, and theyre just progressing... not even softer or anything, its just different.

 

[Lord Lurion]

I can enjoy R2R and STYE. In Flames has been one of my fav bands for 5/6 years now. The moment I think they completely changed the approach was with R2R. It came as a bit of a shock for me, but soon grew to see more or less what their point was. I agree with Fabbio: you (should) just grow musically and there's no way you can stay where you were ten years ago.
In Flames are still doing their own thing (no matter how much their own thing may have changed over the years) in the sense that they are unique. As soon as I first listened to the fisrt few bars of a song from STYE on a sample CD from Kerrang! (I seem to recall) I thought "that's In Flames". No matter how much their style may change, it's still Friden's voice and Bjorn and Jesper's glorious guitar riffing.
Fortunatelly for me I actually like their new stuff (although I agree that production wise they can do much much better).

Whoracle is still my fav In Flames album though

 

[J the TyranT]

All I can say is, at least The Haunted, Soilwork, Dark Tranquillity, and Darkane are picking up IF's slack, imho.

 

[Disconnekt]

The songwriting on the new one seems to be more in the vein of R2R than STYE, at least as far as fast thrashy riffage goes. The choruses are bolder and bigger than ever before, and generally the band sounds more energetic and inspired than on the past two albums. Some of it actually reminds me a bit of modern Soilwork. The first single, "Take This Life", is actually one of the thrashier songs on the album, but still really really really catchy and melodic as well in the prechorus and chorus. Most surprising of all, though, are 2 things: Anders can actually SING with confidence and power (not just whining like before), and Daniel Bergstrand didn't screw the pooch on the production like on the last 2 albums. If anything, the mix sounds kind of like Stabbing the Drama (save for Peter's distorted bass guitar). A lot more clarity than his previous In Flames albums. Drums are well-defined and punchy and no longer sound like they're underwater, and the guitars don't have horrible resonances and lower midrange mud like before. A bit brittle and crispy in the high end, maybe, but they still work in the mix. All in all, I'm really impressed with this album.

 

[Black neon bob]

I love everything in flames had done so far..
I guess i am one of the lucky ones who don't think they sold out or changed their style to please the masses...

Reroute ro remain for me, was a very interesting album when it came out.. i have simply never heard a mix like that before, i disliked it a lot at my first listen.. gave it 5-6 more spins, and then it really grew on me... in fact, that album belongs in my top ten of all time favorite albums.. i simply love it! it has so much to offer that you could simply not get on your first or second listen.. amazing writingskills combined with harmonies so big and catchy with a well executed hint of trash/melodic metal...

come clarity is not that different, and it was certainly a step backward in terms of returning to the R2R sounds.. Jesper did not lie there...

I think STYE was their worst effort.. loved it, but it had too much songs that simply did not do that much for me...

My favorite songs so far:

take this life
leeches
dead end
scream
come clarity
crawl through knives (great chorus!)

It's not going to top R2R for me.. that came out so fresh, at a time metal kinda needed that.. at least for me..

I heard people don't like the mix at all.. i can see that, but i love the mix.. bit muddy at times, not clear, but man, does it have impact and punch.. i really think it's different then what we hear most of the time... i applaud that...

 

[marcust]

i hated their last 2 albums
and i don't like bergstrands productions at all
please work with nordstrom once again ...
more towards colony and older stuff would be awesome

 

[JeffTD]

I personally love Come Clarity! Got it the other day, killer album!

 

[Virgil.]

I don't think anyone in the history of music has ever sold out. The whole notion is a stupid myth!

Maybe with the exception of Megadeth or Metallica... LOL. jk

 

[EtherForBreakfast]

Weird but... I just don't really dig In Flames that much... Never really have. Their harmonies for the most part bore me, singing is so so.

My opinion only, Soilwork is about 10,000x the band In Flames is.

 

[martyfireball]

the black album was their zenith then all is downhill!!!!

I'm afraid that was Master of Puppets.
Justice is fantastic, and black is a great rock record, but Master is where Metallica showed the world that there was NO ONE better at that point in time.

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

Come Clarity is so much better than the last two, maybe even 3 depending on what mood you catch me in.

The title track finally included the whole acoustics+heavy parts thing they were doing badly before, the songs are still catchy but more musically adept, the whole album more or less sounds like shit but in a cool way.

 

[sorceron]

i want to hear this cd pretty bad. all i keep hearing is that its badass from random people in the industry... but who knows. i like a few songs alot off the last one but didnt really like much on reroute... colony is my all time favorite but i also like everything before that and clayman as well.

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

Well the drumsound truly sucks on the new one. Thats for sure

 

[LydonB]

Eh, I think the drums sound pretty good, personally. Or maybe i am just not listening close enough. I think the guitars sound good...but I have always enjoyed the In Flames guitar sound. Good stuff from what I have heard so far!