IN FLAMES new album being released on 1st March, 2019

[DE4life]

https://yourtu.be/_jBpUC9vpd4

The vocals for that other band are like something somebody would do to make fun of growl/scream style singing. Fucking dreadful.

Sabaton's "Price of a Mile" takes some inspiration from the intro of Bullet Ride. Turkish band Ayna ripped off the Cloud Connected video for their song "Asik Oldum Anne" - and by ripped off I mean it's the same video, but with budget production. People say Atreyu's "Right Side of the Bed" takes inspiration from The Hive, though I don't really hear it.

I'm sure there are loads more. Although probably not after 2002, in all honesty. Any rip offs from other bands seem to be from pre-STYE.

 

[Clay-Man]

lol ok which one of you is this guy

 

[Ilias7]

Omnium Gatherum have some interesting MDM songs. You should check this one:

 

[Clay-Man]

that dude's forehead, might wanna ask bjorn some tips on how do go about a hair transplant

 

[galvanized]

@DE4life

Been listening to Arch Enemy Will to Power the last few weeks and overall the record is very solid. It’s like a “tasting” of a number of different bands and styles all while staying aggressive.

First 5 tracks are awesome.

Set Flame to the Night — Nice 1 minute melodic intro with building tension.

The Race is a great start. Fast paced, thrash style, shows they mean business. 8/10. Solid but not as memorable as the other tracks to me.

Blood in the Water I give a 10/10. I love how the song keeps teasing and building toward the soaring melody theme that breaks out at 1:29. So epic.

The World is Yours is another 10/10. Even faster and harder than the previous track. Great melodies and a sweet Iron Maiden part at 2:26 that then flows right into some beat down core at 2:51-3:21. Basically you never get bored with this song. Good positive lyrics.

Eagle Flies Alone —Dark Tranquility inspired intro riff leads into some heavy Amon Amarth worship. Nice melodic chorusEs, good solo work. Another 9/10 or 10/10. Good lyrics again.

Reason to Believe — Don’t like this song at all. No desire to ever listen to it again.

Murder Scene — Really fast pace again. I hear a lot of In Flames (Whoracle/Colony/Clayman) influence 0:53-1:06 for example and 1:17 to 1:36. But all through the song, a lot of melodic touches everywhere that scream IF. 9/10.

First Day in Hell — Fast paced again, love that gallop. Especially when it kicks in on a single channel at 1:10 it’s like “fucking go!” and the intro vocals “torn from home, sent down death’s railroad!” fucking brutal. I hear Iced Earth in this one. Great melodic parts, solos and everything. 9/10

Saturnine — Cool 1 minute interlude.

Dreams of Retribution — Cool music and guitar work, but too long and the lyrics are so cringey and off putting. In this case it really ruins the song for me. 6/10

My Shadow and I — Decent but my attention span has faded at this point, not sure about rating. 7/10?

A Fight I Must Win — See above.

City Baby Attacked by Rats — Not a serious part of the album, disregard.


Overall, very solid. And by the way, I listen to this and never think about what gender the singer is. Not to say she sounds like a man, but that it’s not something I think about. Except for Dreams of Retribution. Every time I hear those lyrics I think about how weak the first person singing it sounds compared to some of the strong self empowering lyrics from the early part of the album. So her gender does come to mind on that.

 

[galvanized]

https://yourtu.be/_jBpUC9vpd4

Biggest take away here is how fucking massive IF sounds and how dry, flat and powerless Omnium sounds when playing a similar song. They have sounded like that forever, apparently they like it. But I can’t get into it at all.

 

[DE4life]

Omnium Gatherum have some interesting MDM songs. You should check this one:

There is some nice stuff in there, but why is the production so flat? It really stifles the impact of some of the riffs. Also I just can't get past those vocals. I remember people making fun of MDM/DM vocals by calling it "cookie monster" vocals, but this guy literally sounds like the cookie monster I can't take him seriously.

 

[DE4life]

@galvanized glad to see that somebody is hearing what I hear on Will to Power, I was starting to think I was going crazy no album in recent memory has taken me back to late-99/early-00 melodic metal scene like Will to Power. It's just packed full of great riffs, non-stop energy and, imo at least, a really unique vocal style. I love how Alissa enunciates some of the words, eg. "there's blood in the wah-derrr" - reminds me of Anders back in the Colony/Clayman era when his grasp of English was still so-so. I like it. As far as the vocals are concerned, Alissa reminds me of a mixture of mid-90s Tomas Lindberg and Angela Gossow. She sounds great and yeah, if you didn't know it was a woman on harsh vocals I doubt you'd guess it from listening to this album.

I do think the album starts to run out of steam creativity after Reason to Believe, but the songs after that are still really good. The first four tracks (excluding the intro) are just superb. If you created an EP with just those songs on it then it would be one of the best metal EPs of all time Blood in the Water & The World is Yours are two of the best MDM tracks I've ever heard, let alone recently. They stand up against anything from back in the day. The opening riffs for Blood in the Water are so good, the vocals are powerful and vicious, drumming is tight and powerful, lyrics are solid and memorable... there's literally nothing I can find to dislike about this song. 01:23 - 02:07 is MDM perfection. The World is Yours has such a powerful start, and that pace just continues on for the entire song. Vocals are really impressive in this one. 02:05 - 02:45 is just great, and also a perfect example of how to insert a solo seamlessly into a song. It fits in and fades out flawlessly, it doesn't sound like (INSERT GENERIC BJORN SOLO #3 IN HERE) as it does on so many modern IF tracks.

I agree that Dreams of Retribution goes on for too long, although I still like the power metal riffs going on throughout the song. Lyrics do indeed suck a big dong, and they don't even fit in with the general theme of the lyrics across the album, so I'm not sure what their purpose is. The song sounds like it was cut out of a power metal concept album and changed to have MDM vocals. It's weird, but at least it's different and there are parts of it I enjoy.

The negativity directed towards the album genuinely baffles me. Fuck the idiots who have issues with positive/empowerment lyrics, metal doesn't have to be all doom and gloom and misery. If the band are feeling positive and want to throw that message out there then I say go for it. At the end of the day MDM has a lot of uplifting stuff going on in the riffs, so frankly it makes more sense for the lyrics to be positive than negative. If you want to be depressed go listen to Doom Metal.

If people don't think it's original then OK, but good luck finding a completely original band that doesn't sound like total shit. It's pretty difficult to do these days. There's a lot of call backs to older AE material, but they don't rip anything off directly like certain bands, plus imo at least they sound even better now than they did all those years ago. I was and have never been majorly into Arch Enemy. I enjoyed a handful of their songs from the early 2000s and that was about it. If they had sounded like this back then it would have been a different story.

 

[ciko_gfb]

The vocals for that other band are like something somebody would do to make fun of growl/scream style singing. Fucking dreadful.

Turkish band Ayna ripped off the Cloud Connected video for their song "Asik Oldum Anne" - and by ripped off I mean it's the same video, but with budget production.

That was fucking hilarious After that it came up, band said something like "we were fooled by the director, we didn't knew." Still, pretty funny

 

[Sister Of Destruction]

That was fucking hilarious After that it came up, band said something like "we were fooled by the director, we didn't knew." Still, pretty funny

Kebab connected ...

 

[eochaid]

https://yourtu.be/_jBpUC9vpd4

That's called a tribute. Just like Greta Van Fleet. People goes like "they're copying Led Zeppelin". No. They love Led Zeppelin so much that they've decided to make a full career as a tribute to the zeps.

 

[DE4life]

That was fucking hilarious After that it came up, band said something like "we were fooled by the director, we didn't knew." Still, pretty funny

It's amazing how much detail they paid to copying it. It's not like they've just copied the concept, they've got the little jump in there, the zoom in on the guitar solo, the face singing in the portal, stepping into the portal at the end... truly masterful levels of copycattery. Well played you crazy Turks. Ask your mother whether plagiarism is cool.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Turkish Cloud Connected is a work of art. Legendary. This board better think twice about naysaying its mastery. I’ll dropkick your ass.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

Think we're meant to get the last single this friday right? bloody hope so

 

[TheJestersDoor]

Any fans of Parkway Drive or Killswitch Engage on here? saw them both on saturday, it was insane

 

[Vermyn]

Any fans of Parkway Drive or Killswitch Engage on here? saw them both on saturday, it was insane

I saw killswitch when they toured with chimaira back in 2007 I believe. Awesome show. Haven’t seen em since then, but prolly will be looking

 

[TheJestersDoor]

They were real good, they played Just Barely Breathing which was mad!

 

[Ilias7]

I'm a bit jealous of you guys living in countries where you get to see many bands live ( or have a wide variety of great bands to choose from, if you can't afford all of them ).
So far in Greece, only 3 great bands have been announced for this year: Slayer ( I respect them, but I've never really got into them), Disturbed and BFMV ( which I enjoy occasionally, but I wouldn't pay to see them live ).
I would love to get the chance to see In Flames, Metallica, Rammstein, Killswitch Engage or Parkway Drive.

 

[galvanized]

If you created an EP with just those songs on it then it would be one of the best metal EPs of all time

Exactly my thoughts as well. Imagine if it was those 5 songs and then they broke up. It would later be worshipped like Slaughter of the Soul.

Or another idea is to move some later songs to an EP and keep the current album as a somewhat short LP.

My Shadow and I (fast paced opener)
Reason to Believe
A Fight I Must Win
City Baby Attacked By Rats

I agree that Dreams of Retribution goes on for too long, although I still like the power metal riffs going on throughout the song.

Most of the songs on this album are a mash up of riffs and styles, but this one is just too jarring to me. The first 1:10 of the song is amazing to me, and the actual chorus with the soaring melodies. But the slower gothic piano part is too much.

plus imo at least they sound even better now than they did all those years ago. I was and have never been majorly into Arch Enemy. I enjoyed a handful of their songs from the early 2000s and that was about it. If they had sounded like this back then it would have been a different story.

Yeah, first couple albums were great but I found their Angela years to be bland. If anybody says the new material is worse then they are crazy. The pace of the songs is surprisingly fast as well. I was expecting a lot more mid-paced songs especially with everyone hating on it. I mean, what more do you want? A million guitar riffs, melodies, cool parts, super fast pace, growls everywhere. They didn’t slow down. It’s weird that people would be so divided on power metal and MDM. The same fans who loved Angela Arch Enemy were probably raiding to Dragonforce so I think they are just being oppositional.

 

[DE4life]

Exactly my thoughts as well. Imagine if it was those 5 songs and then they broke up. It would later be worshipped like Slaughter of the Soul.

Or another idea is to move some later songs to an EP and keep the current album as a somewhat short LP.

My Shadow and I (fast paced opener)
Reason to Believe
A Fight I Must Win
City Baby Attacked By Rats

I actually think Reason to Believe would be better if it was all cleans. If you're going to record a ballad then record a ballad, not some half-hearted effort where you put in some cleans but go safe with harsh vocals in the chorus. Alissa can obviously sing so why not just have the whole song as clean vocals? I still wouldn't like it that much, but I'd appreciate the effort.

Most of the songs on this album are a mash up of riffs and styles, but this one is just too jarring to me. The first 1:10 of the song is amazing to me, and the actual chorus with the soaring melodies. But the slower gothic piano part is too much.

I know where you're coming from. It's a very strange song structurally. As I said it feels like it was ripped from a totally different album and given Alissa's vocals. The lyrics sound like they're telling a small part of an overarching story, but this isn't a concept album so what are we supposed to get from this song? It's an incomplete tale of some random prisoner who wants revenge. OK. Revenge for what exactly? Where is this unnamed person being held and why? What's the conclusion? How does the music fit into these lyrics as it goes from being typical uplifting power metal to goth-tinged keys? It's like they just threw together a smorgsboard of ideas and mixed it all into one bizarre song. I think the song is about a patient in a mental ward who is having delusions, but how does this fit in with the rest of the album - thematically, lyrically, musically? It really doesn't, and it's funny because this song is surrounded by four songs that are working from the same basic template, so it really stands out when you're listening to the album the whole way through - in a "wtf is this?" kind of way.

Yeah, first couple albums were great but I found their Angela years to be bland. If anybody says the new material is worse then they are crazy. The pace of the songs is surprisingly fast as well. I was expecting a lot more mid-paced songs especially with everyone hating on it. I mean, what more do you want? A million guitar riffs, melodies, cool parts, super fast pace, growls everywhere. They didn’t slow down. It’s weird that people would be so divided on power metal and MDM. The same fans who loved Angela Arch Enemy were probably raiding to Dragonforce so I think they are just being oppositional.

Bland is the perfect way to describe 2000s Arch Enemy. Nothing really wrong with what they were doing, but at the same time nothing you hadn't heard elsewhere, and generally done a lot better. They would literally have gotten no attention if their vocalist hadn't been a woman. At best they would have been another Soilwork or DT, at worst another Skyfire or Nightrage. The stuff they're doing now sounds way more inspired and energetic.

There has always been a hatred from MDM community as far as PM is concerned. It's weird because MDM borrows so heavily from PM and Speed Metal, especially bands like CoB, AE and classic IF. Most MDM fans seem to only think of power metal as wanky solos all over the place and high pitched vocals, which is so far off the mark it's laughable. There are some very powerful PM acts out there who produce music that is sometimes heavier than a lot of MDM bands. But because it's labelled PM a lot of people won't even touch it. Personally I couldn't care less about what a band is labelled as - if I like how it sounds I'll listen to it.

I'm not entirely sure where the underlying resentment over Arch Enemy is coming from though. It must be something to do with the vocalist being a good looking woman, because if In Flames released something like this there would be celebrations across the globe and people hailing the return of legendary MDM. Objectively it's hard to understand why any MDM fan would not like this album, especially if they were into classic, old school MDM, so from where I'm standing there must be subjective reasons behind the animosity. It doesn't make sense to me otherwise.