Lmao, please don't let Everything's Gone be
the one song from Siren Charms... it should be Through Oblivion or Paralyzed.
I do it too. I play for my family in the hall of my house and it's always full. Though it's my daughter the one playing last.
Not sure why you get so defensive, when he brings up a very valid point. Aside from the vocal minority who wants to believe they are some 3rd degree band, they are still selling out or even headlining shows. And the shittier you consider their latest records, the more impressive this feat becomes.
There was an interview with a Hungarian dude, who is a really famous musician here, and I saved it months ago, because he talked about something really relevant about some of the criticism IF is getting about their style. I was just too lazy to translate it, but now you triggered me. The background of this part of the interview is that he was in an electronic, Depeche Mode-copy band, which was reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal famous back in the day, but to the surprise of many, they disbanded and he went on with his also very successful solo career.
- And that was the year when you started thinking about going forward as a solo act?
- I did not think to myself that I want to continue on a different way [than being a band]. But I started working on my solo record back in ’92, after it was a recurring discussion within the band that I personally felt that our success was starting to bury us, becoming a weight, causing us to not think freely about our very own production. And in the band, we really had a democracy, so I brought it up to the others that we should implement some new elements in our music. For example I wanted some added guitars, and I’ve already started playing the guitar by then.
- Did you feel that the kind of electronic music you were playing was just generation phase, and it would die down in a few years?
- No, it was more like it’s real good, it’s real nice, but before it becomes too boring and repetitive, we should do something with it. But the band then voted against me 2 to 1, and their reasoning - which hit me hard though admittedly, it was a very logical conclusion -, so their reasoning was that it is what our audience wants. This sentence really made me think, because I kept thinking that my intention with creating and playing music was never to please an audience. I’m sorry.
Thinking that the band you liked is shit and a sellout just because they experiment with different stuff, is like thinking that your ex is a cheap whore, because she is with someone else now. It is physically painful to read when you unironically suggest that they should go on with a different name, or Anders should have went solo. The level of entitlement is off the roof.
And another thing is lyrics. You keep lullabying yourself into believing that IF lyrics suddenly became
im14andthisisdeep. Aside from the astrology stuff, it's nearly the same. There is no difference between Colony, Paralyzed or The Truth. And how are songs like Drained, Like Sand or Through Oblivion suddenly childish, while you praise songs like Squared Nothing?
- For All the times you left me bleeding
- It seems I lost my direction
- Spent some quality time with the demon of mine
- These are my sins, I'm heading to fall
- Rip me open and erase me
Like THIS is definitely not angsty teenage lyrics, not even
rip me open and erase me, but when he sings y
ou ripped the heart out, my will to survive, aka the same fucking thing, then holy shit, who is this guy, why is he writing these lyrics, I miss old In Flames with their maturity and what not.
Yeah, TJR was definitely different, but pointing to that record and trying to pretend that it was the definitive In Flames record, and everything that alters from it is shit is a bit of a stretch. Also, while I know there are bands who do this, but making all your lyrics an orgy of metaphors and what not is not exactly art in my eyes. Being convoluted does not make you sophisticated.
