I agree.
And unfortunately I don't think it'll happen again.
You know those harmonised melodic parts that we all know and love in In Flames? In the olden days they were all over the place, but in the modern era they'd be used for the bridge or after a solo. There is no doubt that Jesper was the driving force behind a lot of that style of songwriting.
It's quite evident that Björn is a pretty lazy songwriter.
Fuck, it's so much easier to write some great bridge riffs and melodies when you have a basic song already done. He just puts down the worst, wah-iest solo ever and calls it done. It's a damn shame.
So what did Jesper did from R2R up until ASOP? Did Björn just said "nah dude, chill, I got this" to (almost) every single song? Because you rarely find those parts in post-Clayman In Flames anymore.
Also, "we all know and love" is kinda delusional, when a vast majority of current fans (define fans howewer you'd like) does not know or even possibly love IF for those harmonised melodic parts. What are some of the post-Clayman fan favorites again? Coud Connected, The Quiet Place, Take This Life, Deliver Us, My Sweet Shadow, Crawl Through Knives, etc. The biggest Jesper influence in a modern IF song which is actually popular is probably the medley part in Alias.
I can give you that the solos sounded much better when Jesper was in the band. I know Björn did most of them too, but they sound harmonized instead of a fucking rock solo. I am sick and tired Björn stepping into the spotlight BY HIMSELF and doing some random ass rock solo, even if it sounds allright.
If you meant that kind of harmonised sounding (ie. compare Take This Life's harmonized sounding metal solo to Paralyzed's "I'm Slash" solo), then phrase it that way. It's true that even ASOP had that kind of sound.
edit: hell, why am I even mentioning two songs? Take Through My Eyes for example. Badass metal solo/riffing kicks in, hell yeaaaah, then out of nowhere, the 80s strikes back. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn. See, I don't care about Anders' USA autotune bullshit, especially because it makes the song very catchy and at least he is doing something new - love it or hate it. But Björn is doing these shitty ass solos since SOAPF. Yeah, I do like some of them, but Jesus, (almost) EVERY SINGLE FUCKING SONG? Sigh. I'm triggered.
I mean, it's no shame a dig a lot of US metal, for examle I love Soil and certain iterations of Drowning Pool. But it's never been as cool as nu metal for example.
(Not my work)
