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

[A88]

LiiIIiiiffe... Terrible song.

 

[DE4life]

Feels like this is going to be All For Me repeated... everybody saying it's good, nobody being able to properly explain why

 

[ciko_gfb]

Shit, I'm late for the part! Thanks to my Spaniard friend eochaid, I have listened the album at work lol

Anyway I won't comment about the released ones again, so here's my impression about the new ones:

Follow Me: When I heard the intro I actually thought it was similar to TCP. But then BAM its fucking amazing. Loving the acoustics on the song, I actually missed hearing them. And lyrics were good for me. Btw loved the solo. 8/10

We Will Remember: When I heard the intro, I thought that this was from a random song from a random metalcore band, not from IF. Lyrics were fine, I had a smile when I heard them but song is not that good. Just meh for me 6/10

In This Life: Actually this one has some SC vibes, like a child of WEWO and Dead Eyes. I loved the chorus catchy as f! Solo was meh, overall good song. 6.9/10

Deep Inside: When I heard this one, I was like WTF! Dunno why but it reminded me Metal Slug game. I loved that Arabic riff, they done good with it I think. Chorus was meh but after the chorus main riff kicks in and its fucking awesome. Could headbang to that so hard. 8/10

All The Pain: I just cant get into this one, just meh for me. 5/10

Stay With Me: Acoustics kinda sounded like the song that Björn did for a charity. Loved it anyways. But the highlight of the song was outro for me, it was so powerful. Some screams made song even better. Acoustic + distortion guitar took the song to another level in my eyes. Good one. 7,5/10

Not Alone: I FUCKING LOVED THIS ONE. Its just straight forward, awesome verses. I loved Anders sing low + high cleans together. High cleans were awesome on the background. After the solo you can hear just high cleans, its awesome. Chorus was catchy, one of my favorites from the album. 8.5/10

Overall its a good album for me, I liked Battles, this one feels better than that album. I have few songs that I don't like (All The Pain, House,Call My Name) its good enough for me. This is what I expect from modern IF.

All the songs except All The Pain is freaking awesome. In This Life and We Will Remember grew on me.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Sometimes you just like a song without being able to quantify why. Doesn’t really need an explanation — we’re not talking science, here. Otherwise you’d have people like “wait, I can’t explain why I like this, so my positive opinion is invalid.”

To me it reminds me of some old alt rock and indie music I was listening to back in high school, and I like that they’re able to convey a feeling of optimism and wistfulness with distorted guitars, when it would’ve been easy to resort to acoustics. It feels lighter than most of their ballads without technically being one and I think that’s pretty neat.

Plus, I like Anders’ vocal melodies here. Reminds me of Mew. Weird that In Flames made a song like this, but I’ve started to like it, so kudos to them.

Also, the “liiiiiIIIIIiiiiIIIIIIfe” thing is not a sticking point to me and I’m surprised it’s become such a meme around here. But again, I’ve been exposed to a lot of music that has extended notes like that, so it never once leapt out at me as unusual. I guess maybe it’s weird because it’s Anders doing it? I could agree with that.

Burn and Deep Inside are throwaway generic metal tracks. To me they’re the definition of filler. They’re the “Darker Times” and “Enter Tragedy” of this record.

 

[ciko_gfb]

I don't understand the hate for Deep Inside. The main riff is interesting, first time you hear something like this from IF. It's melodic, vocals are good. Last chorus is power as F.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

Calling Enter Tragedy filler is heresy. That's one of the best "Heavy" songs modern IF have written

 

[ThePhobiac]

Calling Enter Tragedy filler is heresy. That's one of the best "Heavy" songs modern IF have written

I think it’s pretty decent now, but when the album first came out I hated that song. I thought the bridge (“this inner apathy brings me to life”) was so awful that it ruined the whole thing, but I learned to live with it. The chorus is really good, though.

But I think you could easily cut it out of the album and nothing would be really lost.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Here’s another way to explain it: imagine a scenario where Björn only had so many good ideas to use when writing SOAPF. He distributed them all pretty evenly across the record, but didn’t have enough left for “Darker Times” and “Enter Tragedy”. So those songs got the leftovers. Which is how I feel about “Burn” and “Deep Inside”.

Wouldn’t say the same about “We Will a Remember”, though. I think that song has clear intent and purpose behind it. I just think it really really sucks.

 

[Clay-Man]

Feels like this is going to be All For Me repeated... everybody saying it's good, nobody being able to properly explain why

lmao I've already explained why all for me is good

 

[ThePhobiac]

I sat down with "Deep Inside" and asked it the hard questions.

Me: "Can you describe to me the basis of your foreign policy?"

Deep Inside: "Did you know that when the bird steals your hat in the desert level of Mario 64, you start to die?"

Okay, so something struck me about "Deep Inside". By the time it's over, so much has happened. The song is a fucking journey. And that bridge is excellent, obviously. I can't say I'm thrilled with the song as it stands but at least it's adventurous and not the filler that I described it as.

 

[galvanized]

I don’t understand why All The Pain is getting so much hate. In my opinion it’s one of the best tracks if not the best after Stay With Me. Maybe even as good but different. Everyone has been complaining about autotune. All The Pain has little and shows Anders’ real voice extremely well. The harmonized solo is great, haven’t heard that since WTDSD. All The Pain is amazing. It is THE song I want to listen to over and over again. And Voices.

The album starts super strong, and finishes super strong. It’s the stuff in the middle that is a little questionable.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

I sat down with "Deep Inside" and asked it the hard questions.

Me: "Can you describe to me the basis of your foreign policy?"

Deep Inside: "Did you know that when the bird steals your hat in the desert level of Mario 64, you start to die?"

Okay, so something struck me about "Deep Inside". By the time it's over, so much has happened. The song is a fucking journey. And that bridge is excellent, obviously. I can't say I'm thrilled with the song as it stands but at least it's adventurous and not the filler that I described it as.

The bridge is life, and it kinda elevates the whole song just by association. They could have just had those pretty chords, but they go above and beyond and layer a really beautiful flowing melody over the top of it. It feels like Anders is narrating small human issues against a huge, celestial soundscape. Jester Script Transfigured and Satellites and Astronauts give me the same vibes.

 

[ThePhobiac]

I don’t understand why All The Pain is getting so much hate. In my opinion it’s one of the best tracks if not the best after Stay With Me. Maybe even as good but different. Everyone has been complaining about autotune. All The Pain has little and shows Anders’ real voice extremely well. The harmonized solo is great, haven’t heard that since WTDSD. All The Pain is amazing. It is THE song I want to listen to over and over again. And Voices.

The album starts super strong, and finishes super strong. It’s the stuff in the middle that is a little questionable.

All The Pain is an excellent song, very much in the vein of Siren Charms (specifically Through Oblivion) so it appeals to me a lot. I'm not huge on the major-key pre-chorus, but everything else is amazing.

And yep, it's the stretch from (This is Our) House through Deep Inside that brings the album down for me. But In This Life and Deep Inside are slowly growing on me. House, too, although that one has a low ceiling. If those songs were as good as the rest of them, this would be my favorite non-Siren Charms IF album since Come Clarity.

The bridge is life, and it kinda elevates the whole song just by association. They could have just had those pretty chords, but they go above and beyond and layer a really beautiful flowing melody over the top of it. It feels like Anders is narrating small human issues against a huge, celestial soundscape. Jester Script Transfigured and Satellites and Astronauts give me the same vibes.

The bridge does have such an old-school feel to it, yeah. The clean guitars and acoustics on this album are all extremely high-quality and up there with the band's best.

 

[Ilias7]

So those songs got the leftovers. Which is how I feel about “Burn” and “Deep Inside”.

I strongly disagree. Deep Inside is not musically only about the main riff, like Call My Name. There is great guitar work everywhere: the verses, the pre-chorus, the part before the solo ( Bullet Ride, anyone? ), the solo and the melodic part before the final chorus ( Clayman vibes ). I don't think that so much solid guitar work is Björn's leftovers.

Also, I've just learned how to play Burn on the guitar. It's not easy at all and there are some very interesting stuff in there. I appreciated the two solos even more after I learned how to play them.

I don’t understand why All The Pain is getting so much hate. In my opinion it’s one of the best tracks if not the best after Stay With Me. Maybe even as good but different. Everyone has been complaining about autotune. All The Pain has little and shows Anders’ real voice extremely well. The harmonized solo is great, haven’t heard that since WTDSD. All The Pain is amazing. It is THE song I want to listen to over and over again. And Voices.

The album starts super strong, and finishes super strong. It’s the stuff in the middle that is a little questionable.

All The Pain is an awesome song. The build-up is extraordinary. If it had a more massive chorus, it would be perfect. Sure, it is the song that I am most addicted to ( from the non-singles ).

The problem with this album are the songs 6, 7 and 8. Everything else is good or excellent.

 

[DE4life]

Voices - 6/10 - average

I, the Mask - 7.50/10 - good chorus, song is alright

Call My Name - 5/10 - not great

I Am Above - 7.5/10 - heavier than usual, decent

Follow Me - 6.5/10 - I really like the intro and the acoustic guitar in general, but unfortunately that's pretty much as far as it goes. Vocal melodies way too autotune tinged, it's really distracting.

(This is our) House - 0/10 - piece of shit.

We Will Remember - 7/10 - weird opening, but I kind of like it. The song in general has a bit of a power metal vibe to it at certain points, which I didn't expect. I actually quite like the riffs in this one. Nothing original, but they're cool. Obviously the lyrics are all about the older songs, which I guess is supposed to be Anders' way of saying they haven't forgotten the old stuff. Strange to do that in a song that actually sounds like none of the old stuff except maybe parts of SC, but whatever. This is alright.

In This Life - 4/10 - SC style opening, reminds me of With Eyes Wide Open. In fact this song in general reminds me of SC, just with better production and more autotune on Anders' voice. Chorus is awful. "LiIiIiIIifFfeEe" .... shut up, man. Don't like this one at all. Slow, annoying vocals, boring riffs, terrible chorus.

Burn - 7.5 - originally didn't like it, but it grew on me.

Deep Inside - 7 - the riffs don't sound particularly in-flamesish with that middle-eastern sound, but it's cool to hear something different. Chorus is the same old shit but ignoring that this is quite a decent track for modern IF. Nice to hear Bjorn being allowed to rip a solo for once, rather than having it cut short as seems to happen on most other tracks.

All the Pain - 6/10 - of all the places for Anders to dial down on the autotune, it's funny that he chose the verses in this one, where his voice often isn't being supported by the instruments.

Stay With Me - 6.5/10 - some really nice melodies but I'm not a huge fan of the vocals. The ending is great.

Not Alone - 5/10 - why does every chorus have to be the same autotuned shit with very similar melodies? It's passable on a few tracks buit not practically every track on the record. This is bugging me now. Otherwise the song is unremarkable and a weak way to end the album..

Overall rating - 6.5/10.

OK, revised opinion after many more listens. Only going to list songs where my rating has changed.

Follow Me - 7/10 (+0.5) - quite a nice track. The autotuning on the vocals is still annoying and stops it from going any higher though.

(This is our) House - -/10/10 (-10) - fuck this song.

We Will Remember - 6.5/10 (-0.5) - I still think it's an OK song, but it's pretty repetitive. Lack of ideas.

In This Life - 2/10(-2) - auto-skip material for me. Reminds me of Siren Charms in the worst way. Song needs to be sped up by at least x2 and lose that god forsaken chorus.

Deep Inside - 8/10 (+1) - good vocals, good music, really nice solo and bridge. Very good modern IF track.

All The Pain - 7.5/10 (+1.5) - this one has grown on me quite a lot. Anders carries the melody really well with his voice during this song, and there's some decent instrumental at parts too. By far the worst part of this song is the chorus. It sounds awkward and simply doesn't work. A shame as the rest of the song flows very well.

Stay With Me - 9/10 (+2.5) - what was I thinking ranking this a 6.5? Up there with the best IF ballads.

Not Alone - 6.5/10 (+1.5) - another one which has unexpectedly grown on me. The chorus is a real earworm and there are some good riffs on here. Overall still not that good but better than I initially thought.

Overall rating: 7.5/10 (+1) - aside from a handful of really poor songs (ITL & House especially) this is easily the most solid and listenable IF album since the glory that was SOAPF. It blows away the misery of Siren Charms and the hollow emptiness of Battles. I'm not going to put my hopes for the future here as the band is so unpredictable, but this is the path they should continue on. Combine SOAPF with ITM in the next album and it could easily be a 8 or 9/10 album.

 

[miniroch]

Stay With Me - 9/10 (+2.5) - what was I thinking ranking this a 6.5? Up there with the best IF ballads.

I just read a polish review (2.5/10), with such statement, rougly translated:
"Final songs, endlessly extended All The Pain and Stay With Me (the title of the latter appears in the song 35 times) combine to one of the worst finale, patetic and boring". For our polish fellows interested: https://kvlt.pl/recenzje/in-flames-i-the-mask-2019/
What the hell?

But my guess is it is easy to overlook this gem, since it's really hard to focus after In This Life crap. I barely paid attention to Deep Inside and All The Pain at first, the former grew really fast, but I'm still re-descovering the latter.

 

[DE4life]

I just read a polish review (2.5/10), with such statement, rougly translated:
"Final songs, endlessly extended All The Pain and Stay With Me (the title of the latter appears in the song 35 times) combine to one of the worst finale, pathetic and boring". For our polish fellows interested: https://kvlt.pl/recenzje/in-flames-i-the-mask-2019/
What the hell?

But my guess is it is easy to overlook this gem, since it's really hard to focus after In This Life crap. I barely paid attention to Deep Inside and All The Pain at first, the former grew really fast, but I'm still re-descovering the latter.

Yeah, I think I had some fatigue by the end of the album and wasn't paying as much attention to the later songs as I should have.

Damn, that's a brutal review but then to be expected from a website calling itself "kvlt" I suppose. Google gives me some "interesting" translations...

After a while the vocals of Anders Fridén appear , which - at least for a moment - stopped to sound like an angry cat.

Ever since the sung or choked refrains for good have appeared in the repertoire of the Swedish team, my mind often thinks whether Fridén and the rest of the band really like these ridiculously unmanageable parties.

A nod to almost pop music in the form of a single (This Is Our) House joins the disgraceful bunch of bad, bad and bad songs ( The Truth , Through Oblivion ).

"Disgraceful" I like it.

Tracks 5-9 are a misunderstanding for me; autobiographical We Will Remember reminds me of the work of the Linkin Park team , Follow Me is a bitter half-ball, and In This Life I have neither strength nor inclination to comment

The ending album, stretched out into infinity All the Pain and Stay with Me (the title of the latter appears in the song up to 35 times) make up one of the worst finals, pathetic and boring. To all this must be added weak production, including the completely disappearing bass, and the bland, childish texts of Fridén , which - once on the subject of metaphysical considerations and cosmic travels - have been replaced by the dilemmas of the average teenager. It's bad, very bad.

Savage

 

[eochaid]

Everyone has been complaining about autotune. All The Pain has little and shows Anders’ real voice extremely well.

You seem to be confused about how it works the autotune. It does not "change" your voice. It corrects your mistakes while singing. Can also be used to bring some effects when extremely used, but that's it.

When people says that Anders uses autotune they're not talking about his voicr but about how well he does his clean lines.

 

[DE4life]

Oops, my headphones just slipped out of my phone in the office whilst I was listening to Burn, and everybody got a few seconds blast of Bjorn's guitarwork it's funny though, as even though I don't find anything on Burn especially heavy, the looks of "" on a few colleagues faces suggests that to the casual music listener that stuff does still sound pretty heavy.

Can't imagine the reaction if it had been Anders growling instead

 

[galvanized]

Oops, my headphones just slipped out of my phone in the office whilst I was listening to Burn, and everybody got a few seconds blast of Bjorn's guitarwork it's funny though, as even though I don't find anything on Burn especially heavy, the looks of "" on a few colleagues faces suggests that to the casual music listener that stuff does still sound pretty heavy.

Can't imagine the reaction if it had been Anders growling instead

Yes that’s one of my fears. Or I accidentally hit play and I haven’t turned my volume down. No one needs to know I’m rocking some crazy stuff. Or maybe that day it was kpop. That would be even more embarrassing to be honest. But you survived it, so I know I could too.