IN FLAMES new album being released by the end of 2016

[eochaid]

I just don't get any Engelin vibes from Battles... at all. That's not to say he didn't contribute, but if he did then... what? The song structures are all pretty similar. The riffs are bland and generic. I can't imagine he did anything with vocals or drums. To be honest it sounds like Benson wrote the entire album.

It's evident that's a producer's album.

 

[DE4life]

He cowrote some songs in battles.

Yeah, but what specifically? He has songwriting credits but it's hard to see any of his influence in Battles.

ThatsT not fair. Peter and Daniel never wrote shit.

I addressed that in another reply. I'm aware they never wrote anything specifically, but Daniel had a specific style which was apparent on albums like Clayman, Come Clarity and SOAPF. Peter could admittedly have been replaced by a robot clone and nobody would have noticed, but even that would be more legit than Bryce Paul.

I think that this is just too much for him. ItsI not only that he's lazy. It's that he doesn't seem to be used to be the guy with the ideas. He was probably comfortable following Jesper and now hesh comfortable following Anders.

It's embarrassing seeing some videos of him talking about how to play the new stuff and saying things like this sounded better on my mind or you will surely play it better than I do.

I really don't know. I assume he was the driving force for SOAPF on an instrumental level, so he clearly does have it in him to produce something that sounds consistently good. SC was all over the place instrumentally though, somehow it was both boring and had poor structural choices. Battles played it safe and the structure of the songs was OK (I'm guessing Benson helped with that) but it was still boring. Bjorn is unquestionably a talented guitar player, and SOAPF showed he can create something good. We can only guess as to the extent of his participation in creating anything before Jesper left. Judging by the distinct difference in sound post-ASOP I think it's clear that Jesper had a very strong influence though.

 

[DE4life]

Truth be told, I'm not sure I want any Engelin vibes. Not a big fan of his other projects. Then again, Bjorn could use someone who can still write a half-decent riff. Even on SOAPF he was (re)cycling few riffs through the whole album.

I agree, I'm not a huge fan of Engelin's work either. I just don't hear anything in Battles that would be his influence.

It feels like Bjorn can come up with a decent riff here and there (intros to a lot of the new songs feature some good ones) but he really struggles with verses and chorus. Sometimes that's because Anders' voice takes over entirely, but a lot of the time it feels like the instruments and vocals are doing two separate things. It's something that was really apparent on SC. Less so on SOAPF or Battles, but I'd guess that's because Battles actually had a producer who gave a shit and told them when they were doing something wrong. Bergstrand/Langhi either didn't give a shit or just did a really bad job producing SC.

I guess the difference between riffs being recycled on SOAPF (and a lot of IF post-2000 albums) is that the riffs were good, so it's OK. Since then there's been a serious decline in quality. He was even desperate enough to reuse the Black & White intro riffs nearly identically for the beginning of Everything's Gone.

 

[eochaid]

Yeah, but what specifically? He has songwriting credits but it's hard to see any of his influence in Battles.

To be fair, the same happens with bjorn

I addressed that in another reply. I'm aware they never wrote anything specifically, but Daniel had a specific style which was apparent on albums like Clayman, Come Clarity and SOAPF. Peter could admittedly have been replaced by a robot clone and nobody would have noticed, but even that would be more legit than Bryce Paul.

Yes, though style is robo-daniel playing drums. I agree with the second part. The chose of the new band members seem to have behind a commercial intention more than a musical intention.

I really don't know. I assume he was the driving force for SOAPF on an instrumental level, so he clearly does have it in him to produce something that sounds consistently good

Maybe he was a one time star? Since then he's repeating old band riffs is copying another bands.

Bjorn is unquestionably a talented guitar player

As I said, he suggested that the people watching his how to play videos on YouTube could play the new songs better that he does... Even if he's talented being lazy makes no good to his skills as a musician, or so it seems. And his skills as a live solo guitar player are not the best.

Lets admit that, as much as I like soapf you don't need to be a genius to create those songs.

 

[DE4life]

To be fair, the same happens with bjorn

Every time you hear that wanky 'wahhhh' solo 3/4 through the song you know that's Bjorn.

 

[eochaid]

Every time you hear that wanky 'wahhhh' solo 3/4 through the song you know that's Bjorn.

Because he's lazy and the wahh allows him to cover his mistakes. I'm talking about the riffs. It could be Björn or any fan that they hired to make the music. There's no personality at all.

 

[DE4life]

Because he's lazy and the wahh allows him to cover his mistakes. I'm talking about the riffs. It could be Björn or any fan that they hired to make the music. There's no personality at all.

Yeha, but there isn't even a solo where you could say "that's Engelin". At least with Bjorn you can hear a solo and say "yep, that's our Bjorn, shit stupid wanky solo".

Ps I just noticed the ratings for SC and Battles on SputnikMusic.



lol and the actual staff reviews are actually lower, 1.5/5 for each album.

Siren Charms:

It isn’t a heavy album, despite what the abrasive riffing of “Everything's Gone” appears on the surface to be, but it also isn’t as dynamic as the soaring female vocals in “When the World Explodes” would lead you to believe. Siren Charms rather chooses to use these attributes as a veil to hide that fact that In Flames simply do not have anything left in the tanks to drive an entire song from start to finish. It’s all a garnish that attempts to mask charred, lifeless songwriting and a very acute awareness that In Flames are so far past their prime it is becoming more worrisome than humorous.

An important thing to point out is that the band doesn’t seem to notice the fact that the loud synths in the opener “In Plain View” are nothing more than a noisy, abrasive humming or that “Monsters in the Ballroom” relies on only a simple chugging verse that contains no emotion or creativity to hold the entire song together between the half-hearted choral swells. These oversights show that In Flames are simply becoming lazy, because despite their ability to craft many brief but powerful melodies they somehow refuse to address errors that are repeated throughout the record. Amidst all of this creatively barren wasteland is Anders Fridén, who once again sets the low watermark as quite simply a completely inept vocalist in all aspects, retaining a flat, wailing scream and equally screeching cleans. More often than not during Siren Charms’ many soaring choruses, Fridén forms vocal melodies that differ noticeably from what the rest of the band is doing, creating a feeling of vocal-driven music in a genre that should not be structured that way.

Brutal but true.

Rather than taking the evolution shown within “With Eyes Wide Open” and realizing that a formula that reinvents itself on the back of shifting, evocative guitar riffs is the best way to approach this “radio metal” style, they instead opt for the simpler path of tossing around chords and hoping they fall into some sort of intelligible order.

Siren Charms is still an unforgivable misstep containing oversights in both songwriting and execution that such a veteran band should be able to spot and correct. They’ve had some truly excellent songs come together on their past few albums, but Siren Charms contains no such diamonds in the rough. Instead, we are aptly left with what amounts to a true siren song: a strangely appealing piece of simplistic, melodic metal that may be hard for fans to resist, but if they take the bait and dive in head first, Siren Charms will lead to nothing but savage, bitter disappointment.

Savage indeed.

Battles:

Review Summary: Extinguished.

Yeah that's about right

It’s great for bands to evolve their sound, but it generally helps if the change is actually advantageous. Kudos to In Flames for progressing their sound, rather than engage autopilot, but it truly has not worked out well. While listening to tracks such as ‘Drained’, ‘The Truth’, ‘Save Me’ and the sickeningly cheesy ballad, ‘Here Until Forever’, one must wonder what the band were honestly hoping to achieve after creating such mediocre songs. Each of these tracks features insipid riffs and inapt techno elements that bring absolutely no sense of rejuvenation to the band’s newer direction. During ‘Like Sand’, Anders Fridén repeats: “I believe the whole wide world is against me”. With equally infantile lyrics scattered throughout Battles, they are against you Anders, they really are.

Whatever battle In Flames have been fighting, Battles signifies the resounding sense of defeat. The guitar work is so far beneath the level that was set a decade ago (let alone two decades ago), the singing and lyricism have never sounded so angst and segments of the album sound like they were recorded underwater. The worst factor: it’s not even an album that you can grow into and appreciate.

How veteran musicians like In Flames appear so blind their own devolution is tragically bewildering.

Oh, and that weird EP they did with the stupid covers on got 1.5/5 too user rating actually lower at 1.4.

One only has to listen to the acoustic 'Hurt' (Nine Inch Nails) to witness Anders pour emotionless, redundant screams into a blasphemous performance, and be enlightened to how poor he sounds here. Furthermore, the use of the guitarists is almost worthless within this record

When the strongest aspect of a record is the lyrical content, and it was not even created by the band, something is terribly wrong and needs rejuvenating.

I do love me some modern IF bashing.

 

[eochaid]

Yeha, but there isn't even a solo where you could say "that's Engelin". At least with Bjorn you can hear a solo and say "yep, that's our Bjorn, shit stupid wanky solo".

I don't think that he's allowed to play solos when hesh barely allowed to record his riffs for the albums. If I remember right bjorn played all the guitars in soapf and the most of them in SC.

I do love me some modern IF bashing.

Brutal. The albums are bad but the ep is vomit that only hardcore fanboys seem to appreciate. The reviewer talks about hurt but what they did to down in a hole is even worse.

Edit: "sickening cheesy ballad"

 

[DE4life]

The real In Flames made decent covers, this quasi-cover band with Anders' clean singing twin? No thanks. I'd rather listen to Slave talk about how great he is for whatever the duration of the EP is.

 

[galvanized]

ThatsT not fair. Peter and Daniel never wrote shit.

Decent point. But also part of my other point. Even Peter and Daniel aren’t original members despite being around for half the golden years.

Bjorn was the drummer all the way through Whoracle. Best memorable drumming I remember actually was Whoracle. Drums stand out in a good way. Daniel’s talents were NEVER used, even though he had a proper black metal background and could do blast beats in his sleep. Certainly he was capable and did a good job, but he could have done much much more.

Peter didn’t join until after Whoracle as well. I don’t remember any memorable In Flames bass licks ever, before or after Peter.

In Flames was always about the guitar + vocals. Once Bjorn moved to guitar (got “promoted”) core writing was down to Jesper Anders Bjorn. That was more than 20 years ago. Then Jesper left 10 years ago.

Not fair to Daniel and Peter but they were screwed out of creative input from day one.

 

[galvanized]

Hell, even Bjorn didn’t write the guitar riffs that built In Flames career. He didn’t start on guitar until Colony, which admittedly is an amazing album, but TJR and Whoracle are more fundamental albums to their sound.

 

[DE4life]

Daniel and Peter ultimately put in the time, effort and miles to pull IF from underground act to mainstream metal stars. Irrespective of their creative input you've gotta call them legit for the work they put in if nothing else.

If CJ and Bryce Paul do 20 years then ok, but it'll only be two decades of the band's legacy being flushed down the toilet. It's not their fault, but they are still symbolic of everything that's dragged this band into the gutter.

 

[eochaid]

Decent point. But also part of my other point. Even Peter and Daniel aren’t original members despite being around for half the golden years.

Bjorn was the drummer all the way through Whoracle. Best memorable drumming I remember actually was Whoracle. Drums stand out in a good way. Daniel’s talents were NEVER used, even though he had a proper black metal background and could do blast beats in his sleep. Certainly he was capable and did a good job, but he could have done much much more.

Peter didn’t join until after Whoracle as well. I don’t remember any memorable In Flames bass licks ever, before or after Peter.

In Flames was always about the guitar + vocals. Once Bjorn moved to guitar (got “promoted”) core writing was down to Jesper Anders Bjorn. That was more than 20 years ago. Then Jesper left 10 years ago.

Not fair to Daniel and Peter but they were screwed out of creative input from day one.

And that's all true.

 

[Pallbearer]

Hell, even Bjorn didn’t write the guitar riffs that built In Flames career. He didn’t start on guitar until Colony, which admittedly is an amazing album, but TJR and Whoracle are more fundamental albums to their sound.

He did write some. Björn co-wrote 3 songs on TJR and 5 on Whoracle and is credited for playing guitar on both albums. Sure, the TJR/Whoracle style was developed mostly by Jesper and Glenn, but Björn did contribute as well.

I think the liner notes said "additional guitar" though, so he probably didn't play that much.

 

[eochaid]

He did write some. Björn co-wrote 3 songs on TJR and 5 on Whoracle and is credited for playing guitar on both albums. Sure, the TJR/Whoracle style was developed mostly by Jesper and Glenn, but Björn did contribute as well.

I think the liner notes said "additional guitar" though, so he probably didn't play that much.

He was hired under the condition of playing the solos.

 

[Clay-Man]

Bjorn wrote all the way back to TJR you idiots.
Not every song, but he contributed to a good number of classic IF songs pre-colony

 

[Clay-Man]

It does not.

He was hired under the condition of playing the solos.

Autism

 

[Clay-Man]

@DE4life To be fair, Bjorn wrote a shitload of killer solos on SOAPF. He said he really focused on the solos on that album and I think it's true.

I can agree that overuse of a Wah pedal can be obnoxious because it becomes an over-reliant attribute that kills the possibility to make the solo sound more diverse, but there's nothing inherently wrong with using a wah. It's an expression pedal meant to control the tone of the guitar. That said, there's definitely times when it's more tasteful to just switch between bridge and neck pickups to color the tone for your solo.

Also, I definitely wouldn't call it "wanky". Wanky is Dream Theater. Bjorn isn't a shredder, he's more in the middle of wailing melodic solos and doing some runs up and down scales once in a while, but he doesn't openly rip on a guitar, which honestly, can be debatably more tasteful than shred wanking anyways.

 

[DE4life]

I don't have any problem with Bjorn's stuff pre-SC. But SC and Battles have been garbage, the guy has been on autopilot the last couple of albums and needs to get his head back into the game if he wants In Flames to continue to have any relevance.

 

[galvanized]

I don't have any problem with Bjorn's stuff pre-SC. But SC and Battles have been garbage, the guy has been on autopilot the last couple of albums and needs to get his head back into the game if he wants In Flames to continue to have any relevance.

Agree. If the 2019 album is another SOAPF I’ll stop complaining. If they half ass it again it’s over.