IN FLAMES new album being released by the end of 2016

[Jaymzkrueger]

After 4 or 5 play throughs, I'm enjoying Battles WAY more than Siren Charms. I listened to SC for about a month when it came out and haven't listened to much of it since. Battles feels like it's going to have a new place in my regular rotation along with Clayman, Soundtrack, Reroute, and Come Clarity.

 

[AtotheK]

I'm playing the whole thing for the third time now, and I guess it's gonna grow on me slowly, but still - it's never gonna be a great or even good album for me. Just passable. This hard/alt rock IF thing just doesn't work. And add to that the shitty production and the horrible sounding drums... ohh the fucking drums!! they ruin almost every song for me. I just hope they don't rush things next time. Even if it takes them 5 years to come with a new album.
btw, do a little experiment - listen to the whole thing and then play an older record (but don't even go too far, let's say play CC) and compare the two records. You'll see/hear that it's not even close anymore. And I guess it started with SC. And as a big IF fan for years I have to admit that I'm really dissapointed. I never thought this day would come. INFLAMESITRUSTNOMORE.

 

[DE4life]

I'm playing the whole thing for the third time now, and I guess it's gonna grow on me slowly, but still - it's never gonna be a great or even good album for me. Just passable. This hard/alt rock IF thing just doesn't work. And add to that the shitty production and the horrible sounding drums... ohh the fucking drums!! they ruin almost every song for me. I just hope they don't rush things next time. Even if it takes them 5 years to come with a new album.
btw, do a little experiment - listen to the whole thing and then play an older record (but don't even go too far, let's say play CC) and compare the two records. You'll see/hear that it's not even close anymore. And I guess it started with SC. And as a big IF fan for years I have to admit that I'm really dissapointed. I never thought this day would come. INFLAMESITRUSTNOMORE.

Yeah, Battles works okay as an album in isolation but compared to any of the band's back catalog (SC excluded) it kinda sucks. I mean, it's basically Anders & Bjorn feat. Peter Iwers, Niclas Engelin & Christian Joe. I feel weird when I listen to these songs and see them titled as In Flames.

Let's be honest - even if Engelin, Iwers and CJ didn't come to the studio, this album would sound exactly the same. Anders and Bjorn could have done this exactly the same by themselves. At least you could hear some of Jesper and Daniel's input up until each of them quit the band, but what is the point of Engelin? Does he write anything, or is he just there to play the extremely easy rhythm guitar sections Bjorn wrote? Don't get me wrong, it's a sweet gig if you can get it, but we know Engelin can play so it's kind of sad that he seems to have hardly any input into the musical side of things (and if he does, then it's indistinguishable from what Bjorn is doing).

11. Wallflower (8/10)

Great intro. Bordering good music. That's what you get when you leave your intros longer than usual 9 seconds.

Intro devolves into chugging riffing that takes too long to get anywhere.

But where does it ultimately gets? Well, right to Anders singing over electro stuff.

Well, I do like this song. Has some interesting stuff going on. Both on guitar and with all the electronic thingy. I think it deserved better chorus, and some nice solo section.

Beats TCP any day.

I would have given Wallflower a higher mark, but to listen to it regularly I'd have to manually cut at least two minutes from the intro. If I've gotta do that to put it on my playlist, I can't give it a very high rating.

 

[only4theweak187]

Trivium tried to make a radio-metal album with NO screams and it didn't work out very well for a lot of fans, but it did get mainstream rock radio play, good for them success wise.

IF could have In My Room, Like Sand or Before I Fall on the radio... If that happens, good for them... As that seems the only reason why you would devolve into this type of hard rockish music... To try to have more reach of success.

Like I've said, as long as they play some of their quality songs still live, I'll tolerate it.

 

[only4theweak187]

If you pretend Siren Charms never happened... And Battles came out directly after Sounds of a Playground...

What would the conversations be like here I wonder

 

[ThePhobiac]

Just listened to this! Quick impressions for now.

- The first six songs, I thought, were great, with the caveat that they don't sound like In Flames at all. They're essentially Passenger songs, which I am 100% okay with. "Drained", "Like Sand", "In My Room" and "Before I Fall" are, to me, some of the strongest songs on this record and became fast favorites for me. "Drained" I like from start to finish, while I love the descending lead in "Before I Fall" (which reminds me of some of the music in Sub-Terrania, an old Sega game I played in college). I like how often the songs oscillate between calm/clean-guitar-driven, especially in "Like Sand", and distorted, heavier segments. Good dynamics here.

- The rest of the album, with one exception, is some the most mediocre material In Flames has ever put out. I would even say that "Here Until Forever", "Save Me" and maybe "Underneath My Skin" rank as some of the weakest In Flames songs to date, not only because they bear no resemblance to In Flames (which isn't bad to me in and of itself), they're forgettable and actually sound like filler. This is the first and only In Flames album that I could actually cut in two and not mourn the loss of the second half. After Siren Charms, which I often listen to from start to finish, this is majorly disappointing.

- "Wallflower" is, in a way, the direction I had wanted In Flames to go after Siren Charms. I had spoken of this earlier. A long, pensive track that alternates between slow/steady and heavy moments, while focusing mostly on atmosphere. It reminds me vaguely of "Circles" and "Drowning City" by Passenger, with a bit of a Through Oblivion slant. Despite Anders' awkward phrasing, I think it's one of the better ones on Battles, and better than "The Chosen Pessimist".

So yeah! I haven't read any opinions here because I would hate my first listen of an IF album to be flavored by impressions other than my own (no offense! I want to digest this on my own for a while). I'm expecting people to like this more than Siren Charms, but not much more than that. As of right now, I think I would consider it a fine successor to SC if the whole album was as consistent as the first six songs + Wallflower. As it stands, I could do without half of this. Because of that, I have to consider it one of their weaker efforts.

EDIT: "Battles" has grown on me something fierce.

 

[DE4life]

If you pretend Siren Charms never happened... And Battles came out directly after Sounds of a Playground...

What would the conversations be like here I wonder

From me it would have been a more negative reaction, due to a sharp decline in the quality of the production and overall songs. I'm actually more positive about this because it's a little better than SC.

 

[eochaid]

If you pretend Siren Charms never happened... And Battles came out directly after Sounds of a Playground...

What would the conversations be like here I wonder

SC and the lack of criticism are good vaccines.

 

[eochaid]

After reading this I'm horrified. Some people might understand why.

 

[AtotheK]

Yeah, Battles works okay as an album in isolation but compared to any of the band's back catalog (SC excluded) it kinda sucks. I mean, it's basically Anders & Bjorn feat. Peter Iwers, Niclas Engelin & Christian Joe. I feel weird when I listen to these songs and see them titled as In Flames.

Let's be honest - even if Engelin, Iwers and CJ didn't come to the studio, this album would sound exactly the same. Anders and Bjorn could have done this exactly the same by themselves. At least you could hear some of Jesper and Daniel's input up until each of them quit the band, but what is the point of Engelin? Does he write anything, or is he just there to play the extremely easy rhythm guitar sections Bjorn wrote? Don't get me wrong, it's a sweet gig if you can get it, but we know Engelin can play so it's kind of sad that he seems to have hardly any input into the musical side of things (and if he does, then it's indistinguishable from what Bjorn is doing).

I agree. It's crazy that they have such talented guys like Peter and Niclas but don't use them. I mean, what's the point of being in a band if you don't write the songs together? It really is Anders & Bjorn against the world feat. Niclas, Peter and a drum machine. I think if they try to write a record as a band, with Niclas writing and recording his ideas mixed with Bjorn's we will get a great and heavy album. Too bad it probably will never happen.

 

[eochaid]

I agree. It's crazy that they have such talented guys like Peter and Niclas but don't use them. I mean, what's the point of being in a band if you don't write the songs together? It really is Anders & Bjorn against the world feat. Niclas, Peter and a drum machine. I think if they try to write a record as a band, with Niclas writing and recording his ideas mixed with Bjorn's we will get a great and heavy album. Too bad it probably will never happen.

No. Niclas is also a fan of pop music. This is why he is happy in IF now.

 

[eochaid]

Something little known made by Jesper.

 

[DE4life]

I expected Battles would be up on YouTube by now, but, nope...

 

[DE4life]

http://www.musicalypse.net/2016-in-flames-battles/

A pretty balanced review here which I think echoes a lot of our own thoughts on Battles.

 

[galvanized]

I agree. It's crazy that they have such talented guys like Peter and Niclas but don't use them. I mean, what's the point of being in a band if you don't write the songs together? It really is Anders & Bjorn against the world feat. Niclas, Peter and a drum machine. I think if they try to write a record as a band, with Niclas writing and recording his ideas mixed with Bjorn's we will get a great and heavy album. Too bad it probably will never happen.

I wonder how much is about money? Bjorn and Anders will obviously get the largest cut from the albums now? Though surely album proceeds are measly and that's why they tour all the time? Not sure about their touring split or if the writing affects that.

As much as we hate to criticize them musically I've always been kind of impressed how seriously they take the business stuff. Coordinated outfits, thinking about themes, carefully never trashing Jesper...

 

[galvanized]

Still waiting to hear the album. I'm on mobile so the leak is hard for me to dl. It was on YouTube shortly last night but audio quality was poor...

 

[DE4life]

Anderz on CJ's selection process:

There's so many studio musicians in L.A. that can record this stuff anyway. We're not a complicated band, so anybody can do what we do.

 

[eochaid]

Anderz on CJ's selection process:

Did he say something that's not true?

 

[ciko_gfb]

So here's my review for the album. Listened it through the night and I can say that its better than the SC. I wont add lyrics to my comments because I have to read them first.

Drained - 6.5/10
Awesome intro to the album. Very catchy chorus, the guitars are fine but could be better. Didnt like the solo at all. Clean vocals are not bad. There's some lead on the last choruses which sounds awesome, my favorite part of the song.

The End - 7/10
One of the strongest song on the album. I dont like the choir thing on the chorus but you get used to it. There's awesome cleans from Anders. And he still has his growls which you can hear at 03:26. Solo still sucks, could be better.

Like Sand - 9.5/10
Everything is awesome on this song. Love it from the first listen, its my favorite from the album and could be on my top 20 IF songs as I said previously.

The Truth - 0/10
I was so negative about the song when I first hear it. It grew on me but this is not a IF song for me. I could've enjoy it if the band name were Imagine Dragons not In Flames.

In My Room - 7/10
The drums are so weird on this one, especially on the intro. I like the guitars during the verses. Chorus is fine. Solo is one of the beautiful solos that Björn has written. It pulls up song to another high.

Before I Fall - 5/10
Nice lead on intro, but didnt like the rhythym guitar on the background. Didnt like the verses, chorus is not interesting at all but I like the choirs made by Anders and some girls I guess. Solo was fine.

Through My Eyes 9/10
One of my favorites from the album. I like the scream verses, guitar was not that good though. I love the pre-chorus and chorus, catchy as hell. Solo wasnt that good. I just wish Björn does better on the next albums, its just not working like that.

Battles 2/10
This is not a good song and I despise you In Flames.

Here Until Forever 2/10
I hate this kinda drum patterns. Another bad song, not interesting guitar work. Chorus isnt good. Just bad.

Underneath My Skin 6/10
After 2 bad songs in a row, a good one comes. I like the guitar intro. I feel very weird about the vocals, sometimes its good and sometimes its too bad. Chorus is good. Solo is nothing special but its not too bad.

Wallflower 6.5/10
Intro feels way too long, like its forced. I like the lead guitars though. Chorus is pretty good. First half is boring but other half is pretty good. Its not as good as TCP, but i like this one too.

Save Me 8.5/10
Very good one. Awesome intro, though it could be scream instead of clean. Love the lead guitar through the song. And you can hear some clean guitars which I love. The chorus could be better, but I like this version too. I like the melodic guitar part one the preview but it doesnt sound right on the song.

Greatest Greed 5/10
Didnt like this one that much, not good but not bad. I like the guitars but vocals not that good. Same old solo by Björn, not good, nothing new.

Us Against The World 6/10
A metalcore song from the In Flames? I didnt like the metalcore feeling on the guitar. Chorus is pretty good. Vocals are good too.
And a wild Björn appears. It used wah. AGAIN. It has no effect. Bad, boring solo.

Overall,I give the album 6.5 and I like the album. Feels better than SC guitar and vocal wise. Drums are not that great, I think it would be better with Daniel. One problem that appears on the last 2 album; solos. We had same solo every song except few. Its just boring, not interesting at all. And the song structures are always the same. We have awesome structures at SOAPF, but on the last 2 album, you can understand where the chorus is and where the solo gonna be. They could do it better.

There are some pretty good songs on the album which I'll be listening from now and 2 songs I probably wont listen at all.

 

[DE4life]

Did he say something that's not true?

I just find it hilarious. "Yeah, our music is so simple that literally any fucker around here could walk in and pick it up in seconds. Buy our album."