IN FLAMES new album being released on 1st March, 2019
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ThePhobiac
be at ease
That’s a weird take. Hasn’t he been a member of the band for going on nine years now? And shit album or no, he did write on Battles. And unlike Bryce or Tanner, he’s actually from the Gothenburg scene, lmao. It’s like if we were in 2006 and we were saying that Peter was just a stand-in for Johan.
krofius
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I'm pretty sure that when Niclas first filled in for Jesper he did it on like 2-3 days notice or something as well.
Jester Slave
Narcissist
Niclas is better than those two guys. But that is not allowed to be demonstrated in IF’s music at all.
He wrote very little on Battles. I bet Tanner and Bryce have contributed more overall unless Bjorn has totally micromanaged them even on ITM... it’s just you don’t really hear it.
I wonder how much Niclas finally wrote. For example on Wallflower it says
"Fridén, Gelotte, Benson, Engelin" in the credits but I heard Niclas said in an interview that he wrote most of the song himself.
It may be that teh dictators (A & B) preferred working on ITM without Niclas, but considering he has several other projects and seems to be a busy man, I think it's also possible he just opted out himself?
"Fridén, Gelotte, Benson, Engelin" in the credits but I heard Niclas said in an interview that he wrote most of the song himself.
It may be that teh dictators (A & B) preferred working on ITM without Niclas, but considering he has several other projects and seems to be a busy man, I think it's also possible he just opted out himself?
krofius
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We can only guess but I would defnitely guess that Niclas has so much other stuff going on anyway and he doesn't mind Anders & Björn writing the songs. It's so different from band to band though, you have stuff like Wintersun where Jari writes absolutely everything, I don't really think it's an ego thing. I know in Cannibal Corpse Corpsegrinder doesn't even write any lyrics whatsoever, same with Meshuggah, the drummer writes all the lyrics. I don't think there's to many bands where all members do songwriting for the albums. I mean realistically it all usually starts with a riff so it's usually guitarists writing most of the stuff in Metal/Rock music.
But who knows maybe Niclas asked to contribute and they told him to fuck off, or Niclas said you guys are fine without me and I got other projects anyway.
Why doesn’t an interviewer ever ask these questions? Maybe the questions are too tough and the band would get pissed.
Jester Slave
Narcissist
You really want to hear Anders repeat the same old mantra in his bear voice of "it's always been us... we know how to do it... nothing changed... we used to be 3, now we are 2.... but we've always worked like this..."
And to be fair, he is right, it's just annoying when I have to listen to it again.
And to be fair, he is right, it's just annoying when I have to listen to it again.
ThePhobiac
be at ease
It’s not something that usually gets asked in general, I think. Usually it’s the band members themselves who offer up that information.
I do like looking at songwriting credits, though. TJR, Whoracle, and Battles have them. Dark Tranquillity has them on all their albums. It’s cool to see which members contributed to which songs.
I do like looking at songwriting credits, though. TJR, Whoracle, and Battles have them. Dark Tranquillity has them on all their albums. It’s cool to see which members contributed to which songs.
If Niclas did contribute to Battles (Wallflower aside) it's hard to tell where, which says enough. There's no part I can identify as "Niclas probably wrote that". It sounds like it was written 70% by Benson and his cronies, 25% Anders and 5% Bjorn.
ThePhobiac
be at ease
idk, Wallflower feels very Passenger-esque, instrumentally, which is why the idea that Niclas wrote most of it never seemed that farfetched to me.
Ilias7
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I remember an old interview with Anders and Bjorn, I think right after SOAPF was released. They praised Niclas for saving the band after Jesper left and they said that the two of them wrote SOAPF on their own, but Niclas will surely participate in the next albums. So far, he didn't write anything on SC or ITM and had some contribution to Battles only. I don't know what to assume...
At their level, with their skills, they're probably able to play the full songs just by listening to them. Niclas is a great guitar player.
Once they have the technique, they can play almost anything just by listening to it, because they know, allow me to be redundant here, the techniques.
From colony to asop is: music by Stromblad/Gelotte, lyrics by Fridden. Any exception (other people contributing) is specified in the booklets.
btw, there is a CC era interview where Björn described the writing process of an In Flames album. He said that neither him nor Jesper rarely write a song alone, but usually it's the two of them on every track; if Jesper gets stuck Björn continues from there and vice versa. He also said that sometimes they like to throw curve balls at each other - I interpreted this as one of them presenting a more unusual/obscure riff or melody and observing where the other guy takes the song from there. So it looks like they got the best out of themselves by "challenging" each other in a good way. Then Jesper was gone and Björn had to do it on his own. Sure, Anders gets writing credits too but I'd be inclined to think they mainly come from his lyrics and vocal melodies. Anyway, Björn being the kind of songwriter who seems to benefit from collaboration I can see why they tried working with outside people on Battles, I just don't think Benson & co. were the best possible choice of personnel. 
Obviously I'm not going to say Jesper should come back or that they absolutely should make Niclas write, but perhaps Björn could use some more "curve balls" from another guitarist when he's writing.
Obviously I'm not going to say Jesper should come back or that they absolutely should make Niclas write, but perhaps Björn could use some more "curve balls" from another guitarist when he's writing.
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