IN FLAMES new album being released by the end of 2016

I have gave in and will listen to the album once before bed later (In about 4 hours) but i won't give a review until friday, when i will have listened to it more, as my first reaction will either be 'OMG ITS AMAZING' or 'WOW WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS IN FLAMES' as thats usually what happens until i listen a few more times. E'G. Through My Eyes and The Truth respectively.
 

Not their bestest, but thematically it could fit on Battles.


And a personal struggles song from TFK (without religion) as well.

Then why do they define themselves as christian rock? That's what I don't get. Its like a band of viking metal talking about a weekend spent with the children.
 
I dunno man. I mean, there are things to be unhappy and pissed off about. Of course. But at his age it should be more mature subjects, instead he's absolutely fixated on being sad because of relationships. I mean, does his wife beat the shit out of him when he's at home? Is that why he's always touring? I don't get it.

Funnily enough, he actually did write an album with some amazing lyrics about a relationship going bad. It's called Clayman.
There are other things, you know. Like imposter syndrome; one of the songs is about that. Then we have HUF, which he wrote for his son. The End is also another perfect song to be penned by someone in his forties. "Am I where I want to be? Am I truly happy? Is it all I can/want to be amount for?".

Haven't sinked in other lyrics too much. Battles, for example is barely audible for me aside from the clean stuff.
 
Then why do they define themselves as christian rock? That's what I don't get. Its like a band of viking metal talking about a weekend spent with the children.
I don't think they define themselves as such. They are just Christians who make music, and the theme of religion comes up in some of their songs.

For example, while Skillet is really not pushing down anything on your throat, you can't be a band member unless you are Christian. But the frontman has a bunch of tattoos, his wife (guitarist/keyboard player) and the drummer chick all wear some sexy ass make-ups, dye their hair, wear hip female clothing, so I assume as long as you don't bring up religion, you could have a normal discussion with any of them.
 
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I don't know what genre to describe In My Room... But after first listen its my favorite. I like that type of rock, that type of vibe... Bassy and raw. The short riff during the first verse that plays throughout every now and then has a nice groove.

In My Room to me, also contains the most "fitting" energy for it's self. Love the cleans, the chorus hooks really well and I deff connect with it the best. Turn the bass up and its real smooth.

First listen, I like:
-Drained
-Like Sand
-In My Room
-Here Until Forever (wish the main riff made more of an appearance throughout[reminds me of falconer], DE4's power-metal reference is real haha)

"Battles" title track is a decent song too, just don't really like the chick backup voice even though I like it in a lot of songs.

Need more time to digest the album, though.

Battles is a hard rock album. Radio metal at most... Several songs good for what they are... You just have to remove any semblance of IF previous history in your mind. Its not a struggle in my mind to do so, though.

Like, I'm pretty open minded and I like a ton of rock as well. In Flames are capable of a lot more, but I dig some tracks. As long as they keep playing some classics live, then I can span interest along their long line of work no problem. Except for almost everything off Siren Charms.

Battles is far ahead of Siren Charms for me, solely because of a sense of more energy content. I like this kind of rock, so I will just take the few songs I like, add them to my iPod playlists and carry on. No extra thought, no hate. Just play some Bullet Ride, Clayman etc. live in addition to newer tracks and I'm fine.
 
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Yeah, Battles certainly doesn't make me angry like SC did. I absolutely loathed that album, but this one is just a shrug of the shoulders from me. Nothing offensive, nothing great. Some catchy choruses and a few decent guitar melodies scattered across the album. It's about as much as we could have expected.
 
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I don't know what genre to describe In My Room... But after first listen its my favorite. I like that type of rock, that type of vibe... Bassy and raw. The short riff during the first verse that plays throughout every now and then has a nice groove.

In My Room to me, also contains the most "fitting" energy for it's self. Love the cleans, the chorus hooks really well and I deff connect with it the best. Turn the bass up and its real smooth.
It's a tie for me between Drained and In My Room. Like Sand is probably the third.
 
My favourite is definitely still The End (kind of sad that the first released single turned out to be the best song on the album).

If we're ignoring the singles then my favourite is probably Before I Fall or Greatest Greed.
 
I don't think they define themselves as such. They are just Christians who make music, and the theme of religion comes up in some of their songs.

For example, while Skillet is really not pushing down anything on your throat, you can't be a band member unless you are Christian. But the frontman has a bunch of tattoos, his wife (guitarist/keyboard player) and the drummer chick all wear some sexy ass make-ups, dye their hair, wear hip female clothing, so I assume as long as you don't bring up religion, you could have a normal discussion with any of them.
OK then.

Tattoos that are explicitly forbidden in the bible. I really wonder what Christians really know about the bible
 
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Exactly. Siren Charms invoked a negative response from me upon first completion of listen. Not sure why... I just know I could barely enjoy 2-3 tracks, if that.

A quick summation for me, for both of the latest albums:

Siren Charms (Easy Listening) - Bad
Battles (Hard Rock) - Good

This of course, is from a removal of expectations and complete acceptance of what they're doing.

I have a theory.
I just think living as part of a pretty successful heavy metal band...
A ton of constant scrutiny online...
But still able to fill venues/clubs and sell tickets...
You just have a different perspective than a fan/connoisseur of metal music.
Plus, the older you get, the more experiences you have working in the music industry(especially the way it's going where there's no money to be made actually selling records anymore)...
It puts you in a weird place. And each artist/band/group reacts differently to this effect. I cant blame bands like Trivium, Opeth, IF and a ton of others for "selling out".

I wonder if a song off Battles could get on mainstream radio? Especially in North America. It absolutely could... But I've heard there's some serious politics involved in that.

I can see Like Sand, In My Room, Before I Fall(definitely, as there's a large influence of American rock style on this track) or Battles being played on rock radio stations. I wouldn't mind, as they'd play more gigs here :p
 
Battles is far ahead of Siren Charms for me, solely because of a sense of more energy content.
Yes. It has more energy. But when I compare it with albums like the ride majestic I come to understand that it's not the right kind of energy or the energy that I'm expecting to listen at. Battles is a lighthearted piece of music. With not a great effort and or plan behind, like the generic music that we can hear anywhere on the radio.
 
Good points echoaid.

Soilwork's recent work is incredible. They also aren't as big of a name as IF though and never were... Do you think that keeps them in a place of creativity where as In Flames are a big name which forces them to devolve into lesser potential?

I think it's a combination of trying to expand an already decently-large brand as well as having to adapt to the market shift of actual records barely making any $ anymore...

Dark Tranquility were at my local venue yesterday, as I was buying tix for the IF show later this month at the box office in the late afternoon coincidentally... Saw some dudes I always see when melodeath bands come around here were already in line, chatted a bit, then went back in and bought some tix for DT's show later in the night and it was incredible. Glad I did.
 
Listened through the album couple times now and I'm starting to really dig it. It's pretty much only In My Room and The Truth that is boring as hell. Here Until Forever undoubtedly my favorite track. I love the powerful chorus. It's very similar to Bring Me The Horizon's song ''Drown'', which I find pretty good although I don't listen to the band. Lyric wise I think it fits most the songs. He's done the apocalypse, talk about robots thing with questionable interpretability, his real style has always been the more direct and introvert lyrics. A lot of people relate to ''everyday'' lyrics believe it nor not. It's not just 13 year olds. Older lyrics are definitely more cool and poetic, but newer one's although cheesy for some people, are much more relatable to our own lives. Here Until Forever is written as a tribute for his Son because he asked for it since he wrote Come Clarity for his daughter, I don't know how you can hate on that really, when you understand the symbolism behind it.

And let's be real, the more accessible music are, the easier lyrics often are. Let's just imagine you have battles music with Whoracle's lyrics, it would just sound retarded. It work's cause it's aggressive vocals. If I think about bands like Gojira, Be'Lakor & Sacrilege, their type of metaphoric and more poetic lyrics only works cause of their music style. If you have more shorter songs with simplistic song structures, you can't really fit in those type of lyrics without it sounding bad. If it's very audibly pronounciated clean singing as well, it won't work with those type of lyrics whether you like it or not.

Same way it wouldn't work vice-versa with more accessible lyrics for more intricate and aggressive music. At least that's my opinion.
 
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Listened through the album couple times now and I'm starting to really dig it. It's pretty much only In My Room and The Truth that is boring as hell. Here Until Forever undoubtedly my favorite track. I love the powerful chorus. It's very similar to Bring Me The Horizon's song ''Drown'', which I find pretty good although I don't listen to the band. Lyric wise I think it fits most the songs. He's done the apocalypse, talk about robots thing with questionable interpretability, his real style has always been the more direct and introvert lyrics. A lot of people relate to ''everyday'' lyrics believe it nor not. It's not just 13 year olds. Older lyrics are definitely more cool and poetic, but newer one's although cheesy for some people, are much more relatable to our own lives. Here Until Forever is written as a tribute for his Son because he asked for it since he wrote Come Clarity for his daughter, I don't know how you can hate on that really, when you understand the symbolism behind it.

And let's be real, the more accessible music are, the easier lyrics often are. Let's just imagine you have battles music with Whoracle's lyrics, it would just sound retarded. It work's cause it's aggressive vocals. If I think about bands like Gojira, Be'Lakor & Sacrilege, their type of metaphoric and more poetic lyrics only works cause of their music style. If you have more shorter songs with simplistic song structures, you can't really fit in those type of lyrics without it sounding bad. If it's very audibly pronounciated clean singing as well, it won't work with those type of lyrics whether you like it or not.

Same way it wouldn't work vice-versa with more accessible lyrics for more intricate and aggressive music. At least that's my opinion.

There's nothing wrong with simpler lyrics. Anders has been writing simple lyrics since Reroute so it's not like he's suddenly changed. The point is the lyrics are significantly worse over the last couple of albums. Like, so bad I would be embarrassed to show the songs to people at my age. That's a real problem and it's only really ASOP, SC and Battles where they've been this poor.