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

[Ilias7]

Have you checked the latest singles of Bullet For My Valentine?
They've been advertising how heavy and brutal this album is going to be, but so far are just generic "heavy" songs with nothing more to offer. Simple riffs, vocals recorded with a phone and painfully cringey lyrics.
Honestly, I'd rather have another Siren Charms than this.

 

[DE4life]

Sounds like they covered Everything's Gone based on that description!

 

[eochaid]

Have you checked the latest singles of Bullet For My Valentine?
They've been advertising how heavy and brutal this album is going to be, but so far are just generic "heavy" songs with nothing more to offer. Simple riffs, vocals recorded with a phone and painfully cringey lyrics.
Honestly, I'd rather have another Siren Charms than this.

Not having really paid attention to the band, are they very different from their previous works?

Edit: I have listened to such singles. Well, they're heavy and brutal. And generic and boring as the most of the bands into the genre. But that doesn't make SC any better.

 

[ThePhobiac]

They have like two songs I think are pretty fun. Let me check them out. Be right back.

 

[ThePhobiac]

I'm back. Stopped by Dunkin' Donuts on the way.

"Parasite" was actually decently fun. Corny, but that's what I expect. "Knives" is not my thing.

 

[DE4life]

I don't go to bands like BFMV for 'brutal' or 'heavy' songs, so I wouldn't listen to them for that anyway.

 

[eochaid]

I like melodies. This kind of bands, the melodies that they do, are not appealing to me.

 

[DE4life]

There are a couple of BFMV songs I like...





Nothing special but they're alright, I guess.

 

[ThePhobiac]

I forgot what show I was at in 2008-ish but there was this group of people who wanted to take a picture with me because they said I looked like how the singer of BFMV looked at the time. Can't lie, I actually did. I still do, too, except now I have Anders-grade hipster glasses.

 

[Daniel_36]

When it came out I didn't like "I, the Mask" (the song) but nowadays it's one of my favourite songs from the album. It could have been much better tweaking some things but for a modern In Flames song I like it.

I am even used to the 'the Jester that wants to be freeeee' part. One of those parts makes my left ear bleed a bit but overall a good song.

And I am a bit late in the Bryce discussion but I think he is as replaceable as they come. They could hire a touring bass player and Bjorn or anyone could record the bass parts in the next albums and nobody would notice the difference.

Checking his twitter his latest posts are about guns, anti masks and antivaccines stuff. Not my cup of tea.

 

[DE4life]

The guy is a total douche. I won't be buying or going to any IF stuff that he's a part of going forward.

As for the song I, the Mask - it's a decent enough modern IF song. The opening 25 seconds or so is great. Anders' with really intense vocals, some heavy riffing and decent enough drumwork. My favourite part of the song is "I will follow anyone who brings me to you, but the sense of time is catching up with me" - really solid scream by Anders at the end of this line, enhanced by the melodic guitarwork that bursts through at the same time. The rest of the song isn't quite as intense as the opening but I still like it a lot. Anders' clean vocals don't bother me at all on this track. I actually think he & the autotune machine sound fairly good. I quite like how in the chorus he mixes the scream and cleans for "here I am, in the mask, the jester that wants to be free".

The breakdown part is the weakest part of the song for me, mainly because it's a half-hearted ripoff of the breakdown section in I'm the Highway. Every time I hear this part of the song I expect Anders to say "forget the promised land there was never an invitation" ...

Solo is one of the better ones on the album. Fits in well, not as generic as Bjorn's usual fare.

So yeah, overall this one is good. Compared to the disaster that is In This Life it's a fucking masterpiece.

 

[eochaid]

My favourite part starts at 0:20. Nice and intense riffing. The bridge is ok. The chorus is still too punk for my taste. After listening to this album again, my ratings are something like:

Voices 7/10 (as an intro, reminds me somehow of r2r)

I, the Mask 6/10 (Not a big fan of Offspring)

Call My Name 5/10 (Anders almost lost his voice here but it wasn't enough to save the song)

I Am Above 6/10

Come Clarity part II 4/10 (far worse than the first part)

We Will Remember 5/10 (worse possible homepage to the good old times)

In This Life 1/10 (directly taken from the sc sessions)

Burn 5/10

Deep Inside 6/10 (nice Iron Maiden cover)

All the Pain 6/10 (not enough pain)

Stay with Me 7/10 (would be a solid 8 or even 9 if it wasn't for the weird voice effects and the fact that Bjorn only uses two different riffs during the whole song)

 

[DE4life]

Hmm, I like the album as a whole a little more than that

Voices 7.5/10 - before hearing this song live I didn't care much for it, but listening to it in a live setting made me like it a lot more.

I, the Mask - 7.5/10 - good riffing, lyrics aren't terrible, good screams and tolerable cleans

Call My Name - 5/10 - I only remember the chorus and it's not really a good memory

I Am Above - 6.5/10 - Seemed amazing when it came out, just because it was so different to what we'd heard on SC and Battles, but in retrospect it's nothing special really

Follow Me - 6.5/10 - I quite like the instrumental side of this song. Autotune machine is out of control here though and knocks a few points off

We Will Remember - 5/10 - Ironic name as this isn't memorable at all

In This Life - 0/10 - a middle finger to the listener. Awful

Burn - 7.5/10 - I have always liked this one. Follows a similar formula to the title track and Voices, and isn't any worse in terms of quality

Deep Inside - 8.5/10 - best track on the album for me. Sounded great live too. My only criticism is "the light have died" lyric which is a really poor oversight considering this was being produced by people who speak English natively

All the Pain - 7/10 - pre-chorus is stronger than the chorus, and should have been the chorus imo. The song itself is fine but again, autotune is being overused and it's annoying

Stay With Me - 8/10 - up there with their other ballads for me, starts to become a bit derivitive towards the end and could have done with some tightening up in production

Album as a whole is still probably a solid 7/10 for me. Some way below the classics, and not as good as SOAPF either, but a step in the right direction following two absolutely appalling efforts in Siren Charms and Battles.

 

[eochaid]

I still cannot listen to Battles.

 

[DE4life]

I listened to it a while ago to see if it really was that bad and... I dunno, it's more like a bad joke. Like, they weren't really being serious when they made it. Siren Charms is shit but I think they were trying on that one - it's just that whatever they were trying to do was either a really bad idea or wasn't executed well at all.

Battles just feels like no effort at all. Totally basic songs with no creativity, no passion and no reason to exist. In my view it is their worst album.

 

[eochaid]

I agree.

 

[ThePhobiac]

"Voices" and "I, the Mask" are the best one-two punch of any In Flames album since Come Clarity, imo; the former is still my favorite from that album.

The album itself starts strong and ends decently strong; unfortunately the run from "House" through "Burn" is weak enough that I can't in good conscience consider it anything but a Bottom 3 In Flames record (I personally rank it above Lunar Strain and Battles, but no higher). An IF album can have one or two sub-par songs at most, imo, and I, the Mask has four. Can't let that slide.

Still an improvement over Battles, but if we get a legitimately good IF album next year or in 2023, I would have no problem lumping both Battles and ITM into my personal Dark Age of In Flames category.

 

[DE4life]

Come on, you're seriously saying Siren Charms doesn't have more than one or two sub-par songs? No matter how hard you fanboy over that album that's nonsense.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Gun to my head I'd say Everything's Gone and Rusted Nail would be the 2 sub-pars on that album. And even then I think EG would be perfectly fine if the production was better, since it's basically a R2R song (even though the production on that album is also bad, but I prefer it to that of SC since it actually has weight).

 

[eochaid]

At this point, I try to understand how someone sane can defend that piece of crap that is SC.

It's so bad in every level that it even fails in being the worst IF album.