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

[drawntoblack]

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.

 

[DE4life]

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".

SOAPF is still widely liked by most on here - do you mean ASOP? That album definitely followed the above reactions on here. First people loved it, then they began to hate it.

Also most people ranked this pretty low in their overall lists (generally above SC/Battles/Lunar Strain but below everything else) so I don't think there's any major new album euphoria going on. Possibly some overrating of newer songs, but the album as a whole is being ranked where it should be by most on here imo.

 

[DE4life]

I see a bunch of weird stuff in US tv series. Like I've seen "I are" one too many time. I checked back my message logs with a friend I am always complaining to about stuff like this, and here's an example from Mr. Robot: "It's not safe. I wish it were." Though maybe it is right, because I know I wish I was and I wish I were are basically the same thing, but it sounds stupid to me. Like what kind of fucking exception is that?

Was would be more grammatically accurate than were, but I suppose both are technically acceptable. English is a really strange language so I wouldn't normally rip on a non-native speaker for a mistake, but come on... "the light have died" just sounds totally wrong. I can't believe nobody picked up on it, or Anders didn't notice when singing the line that it didn't sound quite right.

 

[drawntoblack]

No, I didn't mix them up, I remember quite well the album that brought such hits as Liberation.

I rate ASOP higher than SOAPF. The only aspect where ASOP is inferior is the guitar tone/production. They kinda a step forward with that on SOAPF but fucked it up again on the subsequent record.

I wrote a lot about ASOP already when I was active on the forum but I do rate that album. It has some issues (the chosen pessimist and alias), but a lot of the songs are quite decent, guitar melodies are memorable but are unfortunately buried in a rather poor mix under all the vocal and synth/electronica layers. And it was the beginning of the plastic, artificial guitar tones.

 

[DE4life]

Vocals, production and lyrics on ASOP are genuinely terrible. Impossible album for me to like for those reasons alone. Lyrics are way more childish and pathetic on ASOP than I, the Mask - it isn't even close "pleeaseee healll meee, I can't sleeeppp", "I feel like shitttt, but at least I feel somethinngggg", "delight and angers I guess that's the way it's supposed to be " , I could go on... the only positive is that the absolute worst of Anders' lyrics is condensed into a single turd rather than muck spread like a hippopotamus's excretion.

I appreciate that's your impression of SOAPF, but it's definitely not the general forum's perception and never has been! SOAPF was well received and has stayed that way barring a couple of oddities like Slave. You only have to look at people's 'best album' lists from a few pages back to see SOAPF is ranked highly on many.

 

[Jester Slave]

hippopotamus'

looks like the light have forsaken you!

 

[DE4life]

Again, technically both are correct

 

[Jester Slave]

https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp

fuck

 

[DE4life]

Better to just stop giving a shit about grammar tbh... unless you're writing a novel or something nobody really cares I mean, JesterSlaveSucks has a set of grammar rules unto himself and I find it kind of charming. Especially how he seems to think Anders wrote an entire album about being an actual mask as opposed to the mask being a metaphor.

 

[Ilias7]

This is ridiculous. They lied. Kmowing that the lie was going to be discovered when the album was released. The question is, why?

I don't think they were lying, knowing they will be soon exposed. Probably, Howard got more credit than what he deserves. Doing a couple of arrangements on the songs and saying "throw this" or "keep this" doesn't make you a songwriter...supervising everything it's just the producer's job. If you create a riff or a melody or something from scratch, then you are a songwriter.

can't help but notice in Deep Inside there is a line where Anders says "the light have died", The light have died. That makes no grammatical sense. It's clearly the light HAS died.

I know. I am not a native English speaker and I often make mistakes, but "the light have died" is just annoying.

 

[eochaid]

I don't think they were lying, knowing they will be soon exposed. Probably, Howard got more credit than what he deserves. Doing a couple of arrangements on the songs and saying "throw this" or "keep this" doesn't make you a songwriter...supervising everything it's just the producer's job. If you create a riff or a melody or something from scratch, then you are a songwriter.

This makes no sense.

 

[DE4life]

I know. I am not a native English speaker and I often make mistakes, but "the light have died" is just annoying.

It's bad enough to be one of those hilarious foreign english memes. The only way it makes sense is if "the light" are a group of something. The only way a sentence like that works is if it's constructed like "the animals have died" or "the people have died" (even then you'd probably say "those people") ... the light have died. Anders' fucking brain have died.

 

[Jester Slave]

https://www.facebook.com/inflames/photos/a.135143819867719/2066257083423040/?type=3&theater

Is this headlining now? Or should their name be on top of the festival name?

 

[Vermyn]

I don't think they were lying, knowing they will be soon exposed. Probably, Howard got more credit than what he deserves. Doing a couple of arrangements on the songs and saying "throw this" or "keep this" doesn't make you a songwriter...supervising everything it's just the producer's job. If you create a riff or a melody or something from scratch, then you are a songwriter.



I know. I am not a native English speaker and I often make mistakes, but "the light have died" is just annoying.

Similar to when he says he “I regret not telling you all the tings” during siren charms on dead eyes

 

[ThePhobiac]

Motherfuckers, STOP LETTING NON-BAND MEMBERS WRITE YOUR MUSIC.

So disappointed. I have a feeling Benson is just getting more credit than he deserves in the writing credits, so I’m willong to let that slide but with a lot of side-eye (similarly, I recall Anders getting writing credit on some of the 00’s albums, but as far as I recall he didn’t write, just worked on vocal arrangements). But ditch those fuckers who worked on “In This Life”.

Fuck. You have two new band members, and who cares if they’re American and were likely in pre-school when TJR came out? They’re IN THE BAND. They should get first dibs on writing instead of these other dudes. Seriously, I’d much prefer Bryce and Tanner writing stuff than Benson and Skolnik and whatever.

Get a new producer.

Album is as illegitimate and shit as Battles was, imo.

 

[eochaid]

https://www.facebook.com/inflames/photos/a.135143819867719/2066257083423040/?type=3&theater

Is this headlining now? Or should their name be on top of the festival name?

What's the relevance of the festival? What's the relevance of the other bands. Who's more benefited of this relationship? This I want to know before making a judgement.

 

[eochaid]

Motherfuckers, STOP LETTING NON-BAND MEMBERS WRITE YOUR MUSIC.

So disappointed. I have a feeling Benson is just getting more credit than he deserves in the writing credits, so I’m willong to let that slide but with a lot of side-eye (similarly, I recall Anders getting writing credit on some of the 00’s albums, but as far as I recall he didn’t write, just worked on vocal arrangements). But ditch those fuckers who worked on “In This Life”.

Fuck. You have two new band members, and who cares if they’re American and were likely in pre-school when TJR came out? They’re IN THE BAND. They should get first dibs on writing instead of these other dudes. Seriously, I’d much prefer Bryce and Tanner writing stuff than Benson and Skolnik and whatever.

Get a new producer.

Album is as illegitimate as Battles was, imo.

Sarcasm?

Anyway, most of the album choruses have te Benson signature behind them. So there's no way he was not part of the writting process. I'm more dissapointed about them not telling the truth.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Not sarcasm. I’m legitimately disappointed. I hope they switch things up for the next album.

 

[eochaid]

Ok. But, after listening to voices, I the mask or burn, you didn't know those were, most probably, Benson's work?

 

[eochaid]

I'm also dissapointed. Bands like In Flames shouldn't be rellying on external people to write their songs.

A producer's work should be to take the best of the band and give advise, not to be part of the writting team.

This takes away the essence of the band.