IN FLAMES new album being released by the end of 2016

[DE4life]

I agree that Jesper could have done better on LtM. In a lot of ways it is a showcase for Jake. Nonetheless there are some awesome Jesper parts strewn across the album, especially in a lot of the intros/outros. A couple of the solos are nice too, although that isn't what Jesper is known for. Overall it feels like a debut album from a band still trying to establish its identity... which is basically exactly what it is. LtM was not what I expected - I wanted more songs like Karma - but after multiple listens I still really like what they've done. I'm hoping more Karma-like songs in the next release and some scaling back on the silly electronics scattered across LtM. Second album could be really strong if they keep the momentum going and hire a solid producer to cut the fat.

Something else: Are you guys aware that Cloud Connected is not a staple on this tour????? When was the last time it happened? Also, it's pretty funny reading the setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/in-flames/2017/via-marques-sao-paulo-brazil-2be32cbe.html I'd like to know the story behind it. Did they just kept chanting CC, knowing that it's probably not included on the setlist?

And why the FUCK are they playing Jester's Dance???? Even if it's just a transition from Moonshield, that is the weakest instrumental song they have. Play a better one, a medley, or a 3-minutes long older track. Like, if they think TJD does not bore anyone, then they could play anything from their older stuff and have a better result.

Maybe somebody requested CC before the show? I dunno. Weird one. If they're going to play an instrumental they should do Dialogue with the Stars or Man Made God... but both would probably require more effort than Bjorn or Niclas are willing to put in at this point. Jester's Dance is pretty basic. Play The fucking Jester Race instead, that track actually sounds amazing live - the intro gave me chills.

Overall that setlist is pretty meh. I know you've been defending HUF but can you really justify them playing it live? Unless Anders' son is in the audience I don't understand why he's playing that. It isn't like Come Clarity which was much more open to interpretation and also a pretty big hit. HUF is pretty obviously directed at his son and it wasn't a hit with anybody. Absolute BS that they're playing that.

Then again, why are they playing "Darker Times" or "Dead Alone"? Two pretty average songs from their respective albums. So many better tracks on SOAPF & STYE. Same with "Everything's Gone" ... I guess it's just to be HEAVY but that song fucking sucks, live or otherwise. Even in the context of Siren Charms there are much better tracks they could be playing. Their decision making process really confuses me recently.

 

[eochaid]

I understand, but what does Jesper do on that record which could not be done by any semi-talented musician? Or to be more precise: what separates him from one no name guitarist on that record? Yes, he plays some medleys and IF-sounding stuff in the intros, but that's really nothing much but a cute little thing.

Maybe nothing, maybe anything. This is a first attempt. We'll wee what the future brings.

 

[Jester Slave]

Overall that setlist is pretty meh. I know you've been defending HUF but can you really justify them playing it live?

No, that song is pretty shit. Has a promising intro and a very good last minute or so, but it is the very definiton of an "on the record"-only song. Which is fine, especially given that they have an immense discography with many songs to choose to play live, so I have absolutely no problem with HUF on Battles - as uninspiring and boring as almost everything else, but at least it's justifiable unlike the rest of that record.

I liked it when he played both HUF and CC during one leg of a tour, I would've done the same, I mean it must be pretty cool for him and doesn't really hurt anyone. Yes, HUF is very far from being a good live song, but on the plus side, you get CC which they barely played in recent times.

But CC is not only superior to HUF, I think it is one their best ballady songs. Some of them are a bit cheesy (EVIIIIL IN A CLOSEEEEAAAAHTTTTT), some of them are hard to perfrom live (Dawn Of A New Day), but CC hits the right spot imo. As you said, it can mean many things to many people and it conveys the feeling of melancholy perfectly without Anders sounding like he is about to die on stage.

Also, the only song they play from CC is TTL. Though I shouldn't be surprised; everyone was complaining about pre-R2R songs not getting much playtime, while CC got absolutely shafted. According to setlist fm, CC is sandwitched in the 5th place between ASOP and Colony, which is quite brutal, considering TTL has became an instant staple.
I mean, I kinda get that after Come Clarity, with the exception of Crawl Through Knives, every song is pretty hard to play live, but how the fuck can you not play Leeches, Reflect The Storm or even Scream? Reflect the storm sounds like the perfect song for Anders to sing with his current voice. The original is not that far from the way he was singing in the SC-era.

Then again, why are they playing "Darker Times" or "Dead Alone"? Two pretty average songs from their respective albums. So many better tracks on SOAPF & STYE. Same with "Everything's Gone" ... I guess it's just to be HEAVY but that song fucking sucks, live or otherwise. Even in the context of Siren Charms there are much better tracks they could be playing. Their decision making process really confuses me recently.

I think Darker Times would make sense if they were playing it instead of EG. They are pretty similar AND average, so playing one for the sake of heaviness would be fine.

As for Dead Alone, I keep forgetting that is an actual song. Trying to find "that song with the chick in it" was always like a russian roulette to me, because I always forgot if it was Dead Alone or Dead End. Oh, the disappointment when I was listening to that fucking piece of shit of a song Dead Alone for a minute just to realize it's the wrong track. I never listened to DA and Bottled on STYE (I mean, I did not include them in the playlist). I didn't have much problem with Bottled, I just pretty much always forgot that it exists.
But seriously, what is even remotely appealing on DA? They should have replaced it with the static ending from TQP as a standalone track.

I can somewhat understand EG's place in the setlist if I pretend Darker Times is not there. It's not better than a bunch of other songs they could play but it is still relatively fresh so I think it's understandable if they still enjoy playing it live. What I don't understand is why don't they try out Filtered Truth instead? A million times better and it also belongs to their heavier songs. Not crazy-heavy like Drifter or System, but Anders sounds pretty brutal on that chorus. And it is groovy as fuck.

On the other hand, they are playing Trigger, Alias TQP, Moonshield and OFTW so I don't think anyone is robbed from a blast of a show. The annoying thing about this setlist is that it could be THE setlist in recent years as I feel they are pretty closed to a balanced, yet cool one.

But I will say this: overall I am happy that at least they show the will to include some songs that have no place in a record, let alone in a live setting, because for the next cycle, they might pick decent obscure tracks. Man, if this shit will conclude in them playing Free Fall within 3 years, I say it's worth it!

 

[DE4life]

Dead Alone actually sounds pretty good on the Used & Abused DVD, but still, it really has no place on a modern day setlist. Why not My Sweet Shadow? In Search for I? Dial-595 Escape? I'd even say Like You Better Dead is a better choice. I'm absolutely fine with them playing some obscure songs but they always seem to pick really average ones like Drifter, Dead Alone and Darker Times. How about Minus, In Search for I and A New Dawn? It always feels like when they pick random songs from albums they go for the really average, less interesting ones. Or they do pick a good one but then play it to death - like The Hive. Great that you played it guys, but is that the only Whoracle song you remember? There's quite a few others to pick from...

 

[Jester Slave]

Agree, except with MSS. I think they played it a lot and they are aware that is one of their best live songs, so they are deliberately rotating it, like they did with OFTW or - still can't used to typing it out - Cloud Connected.

 

[Clay-Man]

I understand, but what does Jesper do on that record which could not be done by any semi-talented musician? Or to be more precise: what separates him from one no name guitarist on that record? Yes, he plays some medleys and IF-sounding stuff in the intros, but that's really nothing much but a cute little thing.

While I couldn't say what is made by Björn and what is made by Jesper (I'm not even sure if Björn was responsible for any guitar stuff pre-Colony), but it is damn apparent on SOAPF that they are missing a key member.

You remember this?


Still the worst fucking growls I've ever heard, but man, tell me that guitar is anything but mesmerizing! Now, tell me: couldn't this be a CyHra song with the same exact instrumentals, but with a different vocal take? Yes, it could be.

There is really no excuse for Jesper to be as conservative as he is on L2M. He is pretty much more of an advertisement for that record than a critical asset.

1) Bjorn has been writing ever since The Jester Race. Not all the songs, but a decent amount.

2) I don't understand how anyone can stand Dark Tranquillity spitting out the same shit for 15 years straight. It's boring. 5 albums of gloomy atmospheric melodeath, composition has been the same on all those albums. All the fucking retards saying "Take notes In Flames" listening to the bland same shit over and over again. It's the exact opposite of In Flames' problem of changing too drastically: not changing at all.

 

[eochaid]

Dead Alone actually sounds pretty good on the Used & Abused DVD, but still, it really has no place on a modern day setlist. Why not My Sweet Shadow? In Search for I? Dial-595 Escape? I'd even say Like You Better Dead is a better choice. I'm absolutely fine with them playing some obscure songs but they always seem to pick really average ones like Drifter, Dead Alone and Darker Times. How about Minus, In Search for I and A New Dawn? It always feels like when they pick random songs from albums they go for the really average, less interesting ones. Or they do pick a good one but then play it to death - like The Hive. Great that you played it guys, but is that the only Whoracle song you remember? There's quite a few others to pick from...

Borders and shading...

Or give it a try to cc album. It has a lot of songs that could sound cool live.

 

[DE4life]

I find Anders' vocals super annoying in B&S so I'd rather not hear that live "I take a knIiIiFfEe and carve it iIiInnn" ... urgh.

 

[eochaid]

While it's one of my favourites from style. If only he could do that chorus live. I like how it varies anytime that hes singing it on the album. And the solo is simple, but is a nice tune.

 

[Jester Slave]

1) Bjorn has been writing ever since The Jester Race. Not all the songs, but a decent amount.

2) I don't understand how anyone can stand Dark Tranquillity spitting out the same shit for 15 years straight. It's boring. 5 albums of gloomy atmospheric melodeath, composition has been the same on all those albums. All the fucking retards saying "Take notes In Flames" listening to the bland same shit over and over again. It's the exact opposite of In Flames' problem of changing too drastically: not changing at all.

1. One of the best songs for me pre-Clayman is Stand Ablaze, but I also very much dig the acoustic parts of LS - and Björn was not with them yet. Also, I find it hard to believe that Jesper did not contribute greatly in his own band since TJR. Maybe Björn is responsible for songs I would not like much if not for their catchy riffs and solos (Bullet Ride), but there are many IF tracks (like the entirety of R2R) which I like from start to finish, and every aspects of them. I have no idea what did Jesper do exactly but he had to do something, right?

2. You see, maybe I've been training for this for my life. Believe it or not, when I say that I never listened to any DT song outside of the Skydancer album, I mean it literally. I never even heard about them before I registered on this forum, and since all the people who were shitting on New Flames were seemed to suck off DT's and their singer's (whom I knew was responsible for the travesty of "singing" on LS) dick, I was quite repelled to even give them a chance. Atoma, however, was plastered over here so I gave n to my curiousity, but that's still the only post-Anders DT I ever listened.

I mean, it's not that I wouldn't give them a chance, I just can't be arsed to go through hundreds of songs just to see if I would like it. Also, I listened to many other MDM acts, like old Soilwork for example, and none of them came close to the experience of listening to In Flames. I give a lot of shit to The Jester Race, but that's true that so far I did not find any other MDM record that comes even close to the charm of it.

Just a few days ago I downlo--, BOUGHT the entire discography of Edge of Sanity after listening to Sacrificed and Twilight. I was like "okay, this is it!!!" Well, it wasn't it. After listening into a couple of absolute shit songs on their hyped records, I put that journey of mine on hold.

I find Anders' vocals super annoying in B&S so I'd rather not hear that live "I take a knIiIiFfEe and carve it iIiInnn" ... urgh.

???? That singing is amazing, and I think in terms of difficulty, quite hard to pull off. Yes-yes, protools, blahblah, but I mean, if he was to do it live and be able to repeat it, it would be quite amazing. He sounds crazy, disoriented, almost like a psychopath singing those words like that. Like a drunken madman, but it fits the vengeful theme of the song. I think it's pretty dope.

Also, the music is very good too. Generic, but in a way that sounds really cool and heavy, unlike Battles.

 

[Jester Slave]

While it's one of my favourites from style. If only he could do that chorus live. I like how it varies anytime that hes singing it on the album. And the solo is simple, but is a nice tune.

Yeah, for me too. It would probably go like this:
1. Like You Better Dead
2. My Sweet Shadow (live)
3. Borders And Shading

 

[DE4life]

Vocals on B&S just don't do it for me. I do like how Anders got the title from Microsoft Word though #CorporateSellout

Best DT albums are Damage Done, The Gallery and Skydancer imo. The rest are okay and there are some great songs on the other albums too (Zodijackyl Light, Insanity's Crescendo, Misery's Crown, etc) but those are the three albums I always go back to with DT. Basically the ones were Stanne isn't doing very much singing I don't mind his clean voice but much prefer his early growls.

Try Punish my Heaven, Lethe, Single Part of Two, Monochromatic Stains, Hours Passed in Exile... well, practically everything on Damage Done is awesome. Their peak in my view, I rate it above The Gallery which has mostly good tracks but a couple of clunkers too.

 

[DE4life]

I love the openings to both of these.

 

[eochaid]

Vocals on B&S just don't do it for me. I do like how Anders got the title from Microsoft Word though #CorporateSellout

But he's a Steve Job's boy. How arethe mighty fallen!

 

[Clay-Man]

I love the openings to both of these.

The Gallery and Damage Done are great albums. Projector was great. Even Character and Fiction were good, but after that it's like, Jesus Fucking Christ all the songs sound the same. All the albums since Character have had the SAME FUCKING FORMAT. They're not bad songs, but it's a BORING fucking band after going so long not changing anything up. They're very one dimensional these days.

It just proves my point, that you can make something good, and then you can copy it over and over and over again, and it'll get stale. It's like, if pepperoni pizza is your favorite food, but you ate it every fucking day. You'll get sick of that shit.

I skimmed through Atoma and I kept skipping the songs because they lead to nowhere and were too predictable. Same fucking sound for 5 albums dude.

 

[Jester Slave]

Sometimes I drift off onto older threads for some time travel - god bless the internet. I was reading through the Come Clarity thread now, and while reading the same fucking arguments we do these days except with different album and song names, I've found some interesting stuff:

- The topic was opened in Nov 25 (2005), stating that CC has been leaked. But the record wasn't released until Feb 3 next year. I know illegal downloads were not as easy and convenient as today, but in more than 3 month it could easily spread among communities. Those who did not have access to internet or were afraid to use downloading programs could just ask for a CD burn from their friends, at least that's what we did back then. But it still had amazing sales! That's pretty impressive. I don't even think pre-ordering stuff was a thing back then.

- The first mention of Leeches came at page 8. It would be rather far-fetched to say that every single reply was constructive, but still. It surprises me a lot than no one talked about it before, when in my opinion that is one of the strangest tracks IF ever did, and I say that with all the post-CC stuff in mind as well, so I was expecting people to blow up over it back then. There is a disco tune blasting from your In Flames record and all you have to say that Pacing Death's Trail reminds you of Clayman?
It's somewhat ironic, because songs like PDT, VT, Vacuum, RTS are mentioned somewhat extensively, but ever since I joined, I can hardly remember these soings being talked about, or some of them even being mentioned.

- In hindsight, it's really interesting how no one gave much of a shit about Take This Life. Someone called it "the first track", while someone else said "I've only listened to Take This Life yet, and I must say, it's fucking horrible!"

 

[Clay-Man]

Come Clarity is easily my favorite post-Clayman album. Vacuum, Versus Terminus, Dead End, they're killer tracks.

Also, Take This Life is not as bad as people say it is. It's just an overrated song.

 

[DE4life]

The Gallery and Damage Done are great albums. Projector was great. Even Character and Fiction were good, but after that it's like, Jesus Fucking Christ all the songs sound the same. All the albums since Character have had the SAME FUCKING FORMAT. They're not bad songs, but it's a BORING fucking band after going so long not changing anything up. They're very one dimensional these days.

It just proves my point, that you can make something good, and then you can copy it over and over and over again, and it'll get stale. It's like, if pepperoni pizza is your favorite food, but you ate it every fucking day. You'll get sick of that shit.

I skimmed through Atoma and I kept skipping the songs because they lead to nowhere and were too predictable. Same fucking sound for 5 albums dude.

I'm pretty much with you as far as DT are concerned.

I really like Skydancer. It's a very raw and structurally chaotic album, but the passion and honesty shines through. You can see they wanted this to be as much a work of art as a music album. The lyrics are incredible although they don't really fit with the music very often. I also love Anders' vocals on here, although I know a lot of people don't. I actually prefer Anders' version of Alone to the rerecorded version with Stanne. "Away, Delight, Away" is an awesome track from the Of Chaos and Eternal Night EP, too. A great melodeath track.

The Gallery is The Gallery. Just a masterpiece of Melodic Death Metal. Punish My Heaven and Lethe are two of the best Melodic Death Metal tracks ever recorded, imo.

I find The Mind's I to be a bit boring, in all honestly. It's got some killer tracks like Zodijackyl Light and Insanity's Crescendo, but it's not an album I ever really go back to with DT. Projector has some really nice tracks too - ThereIn and Nether Novas are cool - but it's another album I don't tend to listen to.

A lot of people like Haven, but I've never really understood why. I like Feast of Burden and Rundown... but that's about it. The rest of the album really bores me.

Damage Done is just fucking awesome. Stanne's vocals are weaker on this album than on previous releases, but much like with Anders on Clayman it just works perfectly with the songs. This was one of the first melodeath albums I ever heard and I remember being blown away by it. Some of the catchiest and well crafted songs the band has ever produced, imo, and a big step up from TMI/Projector/Haven which didn't do much for me. It was around this time Stanne's vocal chords got fucked up and he had to take a year out to recover. He never sounded the same after this.

Character is a really good album. You can hear Stanne's vocals have changed to be more monotone and robotic, but it's fine and it works for this album. The New Build and Lost to Apathy are two of my favourite DT songs. I really like the start of Dry Run too, although the rest of the song isn't so good.

Fiction is similar to the above. Some killer tracks like Terminus, Icipher (love those opening riffs), Misery's Crown and Mundane and the Magic. I saw them live around this time and they played "The Treason Wall"... I was in the front row and after Stanne saw I knew the lyrics he came over and let me sing the chorus with him. That was amazing, even though my voice was probably hoarse as fuck by that point. Soilwork were on the same show and when Chainheart Machine started... holy shit. The drums literally shook the floor. That might have been the best gig I ever attended.

We Are the Void was a fucking massive disappointment. Boring as fuck. Album title certainly checks out on this one. There's not a single song on this one I have any interest in.

Construct, as above. Very boring, did not like the industrial direction they'd taken their sound at all. I kinda gave up on DT at this point.

However, I actually really enjoyed Atoma and felt like it was a step in the right direction. It's not a patch on The Gallery or Damage Done, but much much better than WATV or Construct. Encircled, Atoma, Force of Hand, Faithless By Default, Our Proof of Life, Clearing Skies, When the World Screams... all very very good songs. I would actually say I like more songs off Atoma than I do off Character or Fiction. I was really pleased with this album. Maybe give it a few more spins if you didn't appreciate it first time around, it takes some time to get into but I found myself really getting into this one after a few re-listens.



This could have come right off Character or Fiction imo. Very strong track. Stanne's vocals also much improved over WATV and Construct imo.

 

[DE4life]

Sometimes I drift off onto older threads for some time travel

Some of the older threads on here are gold I didn't start posting until around 2008 and sometimes cringe a bit at some of the stuff I wrote back then. If only I'd known how bad it was going to get.

- The topic was opened in Nov 25 (2005), stating that CC has been leaked. But the record wasn't released until Feb 3 next year. I know illegal downloads were not as easy and convenient as today, but in more than 3 month it could easily spread among communities. Those who did not have access to internet or were afraid to use downloading programs could just ask for a CD burn from their friends, at least that's what we did back then. But it still had amazing sales! That's pretty impressive. I don't even think pre-ordering stuff was a thing back then.

Yeah, CC was leaked very very early and from what I remember the band were furious about it. I think it was one of their highest selling albums so it didn't affect sales, but no band wants their album leaked that early. I don't think an IF album has ever leaked less than a week in advance since then. It wasn't just IF though, a lot of bands were struggling with this around this time period.

- The first mention of Leeches came at page 8. It would be rather far-fetched to say that every single reply was constructive, but still. It surprises me a lot than no one talked about it before, when in my opinion that is one of the strangest tracks IF ever did, and I say that with all the post-CC stuff in mind as well, so I was expecting people to blow up over it back then. There is a disco tune blasting from your In Flames record and all you have to say that Pacing Death's Trail reminds you of Clayman?
It's somewhat ironic, because songs like PDT, VT, Vacuum, RTS are mentioned somewhat extensively, but ever since I joined, I can hardly remember these soings being talked about, or some of them even being mentioned.

Leeches is one of my favourite newer IF tracks. I was on the Everdying forums at the time and I remember the reception for CC being pretty mixed. I can remember posting about Leeches "holy shit, Anders CAN sing!" ... albeit with ProTools. I thought his chorus vocals were amazing at the time, which makes sense considering we'd only had R2R and STYE beforehand. I think people were mostly relieved that the band hadn't continued going in the STYE direction. STYE got a ton of hate. In comparison CC was almost TJR 2.

We used to talk a lot about CC before SOAPF dropped, but after that not so much. ASOP pissed enough people off that CC kinda became forgotten as an album. It's got a lot of really solid tracks on it though. I can't say I really dislike any of them, except Scream due to the chorus utterly ruining it. And of course they played it extensively live, because, fuck the fans.

- In hindsight, it's really interesting how no one gave much of a shit about Take This Life. Someone called it "the first track", while someone else said "I've only listened to Take This Life yet, and I must say, it's fucking horrible!"

TTL was featured on Guitar Hero so I think a lot of the trve cvlt metalheads were like "fuck that song" and pretty much ignored it. I liked it though. Chorus cleans are some of the weaker clean vocals on the album imo, but it's still a good song to kick things off. Better than F(r)iend for sure.

 

[eochaid]

- The first mention of Leeches came at page 8. It would be rather far-fetched to say that every single reply was constructive, but still. It surprises me a lot than no one talked about it before, when in my opinion that is one of the strangest tracks IF ever did, and I say that with all the post-CC stuff in mind as well, so I was expecting people to blow up over it back then. There is a disco tune blasting from your In Flames record and all you have to say that Pacing Death's Trail reminds you of Clayman?
It's somewhat ironic, because songs like PDT, VT, Vacuum, RTS are mentioned somewhat extensively, but ever since I joined, I can hardly remember these soings being talked about, or some of them even being mentioned.

Leeches is a very good song. Just listen to those ryhtms. They are amazing. The same for the rest of the songs. The only one that I'm not interested in listening that much is Scream. It's not that I don't like it, but I find it a little boring.

Ah, I don't see how leeches is a disco tune but, your opinion my opinion.

Anyway, whatever you want to discuss about that album, do it, and alway feel free to recognize the greatness of that piece of art.