Anders did a really good job with the vocals on SOAPF. Did he hurt his voice again and that led to the subdued SC? Live shows he seemed to do fine, but maybe he hid the strain?
IN FLAMES new album being released by the end of 2016
- Thread starter PlainVanilla
- Start date
Clay-Man
Anders pre-2003
- May 18, 2008
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I don't know. I think he's just getting old, so yelling + age is probably taking it's toll.
That said, his projection on SOAPF is pretty amazing. There's honestly nothing I can really hear in his performance on the album that even remotely comes across as annoying or bad.
That said, his projection on SOAPF is pretty amazing. There's honestly nothing I can really hear in his performance on the album that even remotely comes across as annoying or bad.
krofius
Active Member
- Mar 16, 2009
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Don't know, not the same album we're talking about? If I'm ranking it on the ASOP album at least in the top half somewhere.
Yeah I’m going to walk back my statement about Ropes being one of my favorites. It has catchy parts but as a whole can’t compete in the same league as Dead Ships, Fear is the Weakness, and A New Dawn for me. Still not bad though.
After re-listening a couple more times this week I can say the title track and even Deliver Us are good songs which I wrote off before.
I like Darker Times as well. Agree that the industrial/mechanical aspect is part of the song. I don’t mind that aspect. It has two different solo sections (first and second chorus) and the chorus itself is very strong and catchy.
To me All For Me is a well done song where IF went outside their comfort zone and pulled it off. As far as I know this is the only IF song where Anders uses a lower octave singing voice where he sounds like a traditional metal singer singing a ballad. Not sure to call it baritone or what at 3:10-3:50. Anyway except for the very beginning part (3:11-3:13) “where it’s hard to say” which sounds off-tune, the rest of it sounds awesome. If that’s protool magic it’s tastefully done and a lot better than the obvious tuning they did on later songs.
Liberation is different and WAS jarring at the time. But now we’ve seen SC and Battles so Liberation is tame. Yeah it’s obviously a pop ballad but like you said it’s not terrible. Some of the vocals are a little nasally for me (evoking Smashing Pumpkins comparisons) but not always. Solo part is decent, verse instrumental part is decent. Chorus singing strong. Overall surprisingly decent.
Liberation is the one song on SOAPF that foreshadows SC. Now I need to go back and listen to SC and see how much it differs from Liberation. Maybe it’s about the same?
After re-listening a couple more times this week I can say the title track and even Deliver Us are good songs which I wrote off before.
I like Darker Times as well. Agree that the industrial/mechanical aspect is part of the song. I don’t mind that aspect. It has two different solo sections (first and second chorus) and the chorus itself is very strong and catchy.
To me All For Me is a well done song where IF went outside their comfort zone and pulled it off. As far as I know this is the only IF song where Anders uses a lower octave singing voice where he sounds like a traditional metal singer singing a ballad. Not sure to call it baritone or what at 3:10-3:50. Anyway except for the very beginning part (3:11-3:13) “where it’s hard to say” which sounds off-tune, the rest of it sounds awesome. If that’s protool magic it’s tastefully done and a lot better than the obvious tuning they did on later songs.
Liberation is different and WAS jarring at the time. But now we’ve seen SC and Battles so Liberation is tame. Yeah it’s obviously a pop ballad but like you said it’s not terrible. Some of the vocals are a little nasally for me (evoking Smashing Pumpkins comparisons) but not always. Solo part is decent, verse instrumental part is decent. Chorus singing strong. Overall surprisingly decent.
Liberation is the one song on SOAPF that foreshadows SC. Now I need to go back and listen to SC and see how much it differs from Liberation. Maybe it’s about the same?
I don't find much parallels between SC and Liberation. Honestly the only song that's close is Through Oblivion, which uses less guitars but is that same pop ballad structure. It's hard to find comparisons with SC and anything In Flames have done before. Even the heavier songs like Everything's Gone bear little resemblance to anything else in the band's catalog. The album as a whole just lacks the energy that characterises all other In Flames albums, including Battles. When I re-reviewed it a while back I found it wasn't quite as bad as I remembered, but overall it just doesn't feel like an album that should have the In Flames title.
Jester Slave
Narcissist
Have you ever tried something only once in your life?
After 10 LPs and 2 EPs, and the already mentioned forced release schedules, you rather want something new, albeit possibly bad, than some watered up shit that has references to the norm here and there. SC was bad in a way that it is under heavy discussion. Battles was bad in a way that no one really fucking cares about it.
SC is bad but agree with Slave, it’s bad in a way that at least we keep talking about. Battles is a dead end. But in 7 years we’ll be on here saying how it isn’t that bad compared to the most recent release. We’re like frogs in boiling water.
Pallbearer
Passive Member
Speaking of SOAPF, the title track may be inspired by the dystopian movie "Children of Men." It's about mass infertility that threatens the existence of mankind. I watched the movie last summer and was surprised to hear one of the characters commenting the situation about there no longer being any little children in the world with a line "As the sounds of playground faded, despair set in." (Or something like that)
Dog Hates Us All
Member
I find it interesting that Death Angel's "Lost" and In Flames' "The End" sound eerily similar.
Dog Hates Us All
Member
Oh, I didn't mean to imply anything incriminating at all! Guess I should have phrased that better. But definitely pretty similar. Just an observation on my part. Both songs are pretty good, though. Maybe it's not a popular opinion, but I really like Battles.
