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

[ThePhobiac]

I’m genuinely stunned by how much more I enjoyed Siren Charms as an instrumental album. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing musically mind-blowing – but there’s a lot of classic IF melodies here that aren’t easy to hear on the normal album. It’s amazing how smooth almost everything flows when the vocals are taken out. I remember saying at the time that it felt like the vocals were at odds with the music, and that is incredibly apparent when you listen to SC instrumentally. I remember this as a really fragmented and jarring album musically, but in actual fact the instrumentals flow together absolutely fine on pretty much every song (Rusted Nail is the exception, something weird going on with that one). It’s the vocals that create that fragmented, jarring effect across the album, because they don’t fit in properly with the music beneath on a significant portion of the songs. Not to mention the vocals are often hiding some really nice melodies and electronics.

This really makes me wish they’d release a remastered, instrumental version of ASOP. That would be awesome.

I especially like the title track with no vocals. I like Anders’ delivery in that song, but instrumentally-speaking it’s got such cool atmosphere (i.e. those twin harmonies in the second verse; nothing too flashy, but it doesn’t need to be).

It’s a pretty spare and restrained album, but musically very solid. I always thought it was a good example of the “less is more” approach that I didn’t think IF was really capable of. Probably why I like it so much. But ultimately, yeah, one’s enjoyment of SC really depends on one’s tolerance of Anders as a vocalist.

 

[Sister Of Destruction]

Btw I dont like lifestyle of guys like Anders or Bjorn, they only drink beer and eat unhealthy burgers they should go to the gym like Bryce and change their diet

 

[eochaid]

Burgers are unhealthy but tasty.

 

[galvanized]

The fries, beer and sitting around are the unhealthy part. Burgers alone aren’t so bad.

 

[Sister Of Destruction]

The fries, beer and sitting around are the unhealthy part. Burgers alone aren’t so bad.

I know that music is the main purpose of their life but c'mon they should represent something more, only Bryce work out in this band, Niclas has good genetics ( look at his strong legs but do nothing with that) and Anders looks like skinny santa Claus

 

[DE4life]

I think you need to go and join Krofius on bodybuilding.com. They could spend their spare time painting with their own shit for all I care, I just want them to make good music, damn it.

 

[galvanized]

I was listening to a random playlist and this Haunt song “Burst Into Flame”

The intro riff sounds like a direct rip off of In Flames but I can’t quite put my finger on which one. Is that the Alias melody?



Seems not quite right...

 

[galvanized]

Matt Heafy of Trivium is a pretty healthy dude, but he’s not a bodybuilder. Overall he seems like a good frontman to look up to.

 

[krofius]

I think you need to go and join Krofius on bodybuilding.com. They could spend their spare time painting with their own shit for all I care, I just want them to make good music, damn it.

Lol shots fired, i dont recall i’ve ever talked about bodybuilding here though, but i do indeed work out.

 

[Ilias7]

New CoB!! Love it!

 

[DE4life]

That's pretty cool, but where's the children's choir?

 

[Pallbearer]

Speaking of SC... if SOAPF was "Björn's album" and Battles "the producer's album" you could say SC was "Anders's album". He had a big influence on the album's final sound. There's an interview with Niclas and Björn, where Niclas says that when Björn first presented the demos to the band he was surprised at how raw and heavy they sounded, and Björn continues by saying they used to laugh about how some of the songs were "really, really death metal" in the beginning. But that was before Anders got involved. Björn says the atmosphere of some songs changed a lot from the initial demos, and that he was uneasy about Anders's soft, mellow vocal melodies and classic rock influences at first before coming to the conclusion the songs actually sound better that way.

The entire interview is at https://www.inferno.fi/uutiset/miehet-jotka-soittavat-rockia-haastattelussa-flames/ if someone wants to try it with Google translate.

 

[DE4life]

Sorry Bjorn, but the songs most likely did not sound better that way.

 

[galvanized]

That’s really interesting. So his momentum continued to S.C. and then everything was changed. No wonder he didn’t work hard planning out Battles. Why would he if they were going to rip it all up?

 

[eochaid]

Speaking of SC... if SOAPF was "Björn's album" and Battles "the producer's album" you could say SC was "Anders's album". He had a big influence on the album's final sound. There's an interview with Niclas and Björn, where Niclas says that when Björn first presented the demos to the band he was surprised at how raw and heavy they sounded, and Björn continues by saying they used to laugh about how some of the songs were "really, really death metal" in the beginning. But that was before Anders got involved. Björn says the atmosphere of some songs changed a lot from the initial demos, and that he was uneasy about Anders's soft, mellow vocal melodies and classic rock influences at first before coming to the conclusion the songs actually sound better that way.

The entire interview is at https://www.inferno.fi/uutiset/miehet-jotka-soittavat-rockia-haastattelussa-flames/ if someone wants to try it with Google translate.

So as I suggested Bjorn lacks a strong personality. What I failed to see is that he's also a pussy.

Now I understand those words feom Anders regarding how things used to be before Jesper left in flames. They had to come to agreements regarding the music. Now they coincide in everything. Bjorn has an idea, Anders says no and Bjorn accepts.

 

[eochaid]

And that's not the first time. Bjorn made a guitar solo for metaphor and he found, after the mixing process, that the solo had gone.

Nobody had told him this before doing it. Obviously a decission made by the producer and most probably Anders since they're friends.

No wonder that Jesper left after seeing things like this.

 

[DE4life]

And that's not the first time. Bjorn made a guitar solo for metaphor and he found, after the mixing process, that the solo had gone.

Nobody had told him this before doing it. Obviously a decission made by the producer and most probably Anders since they're friends.

No wonder that Jesper left after seeing things like this.

Am I right in remembering that Metaphor was initially written as an instrumental track, but Anders and the producer ended up convincing Bjorn to let Anders put vocals over it?

 

[eochaid]

Am I right in remembering that Metaphor was initially written as an instrumental track, but Anders and the producer ended up convincing Bjorn to let Anders put vocals over it?

Yep. You're right. The same happened to dawn of a new day.

 

[Pallbearer]

However, it must also be said that in the interview Björn himself talked about how In Flames is a business, how he doesn't miss having a day job and wants In Flames to be big enough they can decide to have a tour any time if they feel like it etc. So since he wants to make money with IF, playing more mainstream music must not be that disgusting to him.

Still, Nordström quite possibly was right when he said "you shouldn't have too much Anders in the studio" or something like that.

 

[DE4life]

I actually think Anders probably has a lot of good ideas. The problem is he isn't really skilled enough to pull those ideas off vocally. He'd likely make a decent producer for some pop-metal band (seems to be able to produce melodeath/metalcore bands pretty well too) but unfortunately his own vocals will never really be where he needs them to be. It's a case of knowing your limitations, and I don't think he wants to know.

For what it's worth though, as far as Metaphor and Dawn of a New Day are concerned, they are both probably better with vocals.