drawntoblack
Active Member
I listened to the album once and I don't think I'm going to listen to it again. I'd give it 4/10 from a music listener's standpoint who gave up on In Flames long ass time ago. It's not about being a poor IF album, it's about being a poor album in general. I have a hard time understanding who is this music supposed to appeal to? I can't help but feel like Bjorn and Anders are quite lost and have no idea what to think nor who to market themselves to. People who are into mainstream metal are into way heavier bands nowadays, yet it's still not accessible nor dadrock enough to spin on american radio that plays new All That Remains singles. Anders's lyrics are getting more and more pathetic with every release, it's like he is reverse ageing a la Benjamin Button. Dude you are a middle aged man, how many demons do you have at this point in your life?
Even with the very obvious autotune, bits of chopped up vocal phrases/syllables are still in the wrong pitch, and once you hear it it's impossible to undo it.
Bjorn lost almost all of the scandinavian flair he had to his guitar writing/playing and is now morphing into (primal) Kirk Hammett, resorting to simple pentatonic leads with blatant overuse of wah pedals. And the guitar tone... jesus fucking christ, they sounded better with first generation of Line 6 shit live back in the day. In year 2019 even Children of Bodom managed to have a decent guitar tone again, think for a moment how laughable that is.
Glancing through the forum posts of the past few pages it's the same thing from SOAPF back again... overly hopefull first impressions, then reality check kicking in with "well it's not exactly Clayman but it's an improvement...", to final grasping at straws of "well it's shit but that one riff on the 8th song between 2:46 and 2:49 really nails the Whoracle vibe of the outro synth".
10 years ago there were at least other melodeath bands one could listen to, now it's all depressing as shit.
To those who genuinely enjoy this album I mean no offense.
Even with the very obvious autotune, bits of chopped up vocal phrases/syllables are still in the wrong pitch, and once you hear it it's impossible to undo it.
Bjorn lost almost all of the scandinavian flair he had to his guitar writing/playing and is now morphing into (primal) Kirk Hammett, resorting to simple pentatonic leads with blatant overuse of wah pedals. And the guitar tone... jesus fucking christ, they sounded better with first generation of Line 6 shit live back in the day. In year 2019 even Children of Bodom managed to have a decent guitar tone again, think for a moment how laughable that is.
Glancing through the forum posts of the past few pages it's the same thing from SOAPF back again... overly hopefull first impressions, then reality check kicking in with "well it's not exactly Clayman but it's an improvement...", to final grasping at straws of "well it's shit but that one riff on the 8th song between 2:46 and 2:49 really nails the Whoracle vibe of the outro synth".
10 years ago there were at least other melodeath bands one could listen to, now it's all depressing as shit.
To those who genuinely enjoy this album I mean no offense.
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