In Flames -Sounds of A Playground Fading (Upcoming 10th album)

Man, this really is a day for leaks... turns out the promo front cover for R2R has been leaked... they didn't go with it in the end, cos their record label told them it was "offensive" :devil:

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:yow:
 
after a couple listens id say that its 'ok. out of all these songs i could only see myself listening to about 2 of them again in the future.
 
after a couple listens id say that its 'ok. out of all these songs i could only see myself listening to about 2 of them again in the future.

Hmm, I think longetivity wise the title track, A New Dawn, Fear is the Weakness and Enter Tragedy will be songs I listen to in the future. The rest probably won't get too much listening time after the initial "newness" of the album has worn off. It's still a hefty increase on ASOP, which has a grand total of zero songs I would even consider listening to now :D
 
So who made the songs then!? Hm, a mystery...

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Although, there is one person with dreads who was rumored to be involved in R2R... And I'm not talking 'bout Bob Marley...

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Compared to two years ago this board is basically in a state of total peace :D I kind of miss the days when I used to argue with Clay-Man, Krofius and HotKnifingHash :D

rofl fuck why'd you bring up HotKnifingHash
That guy was nuts
 
No he was annoying if I remember correctly.

Anyways, I think Anders did a really great job on this album. His cleans are great. He's got down the yell-singing thing for sure.
 
Early Grades:

SOAPF: 8.5
Deliver Us: 5.5
All For Me: 6
The Puzzle: 7
Fear is the Weakness: 8.5
Where the Dead Ships Dwell: 6.5
The Attic: 5
Darker Times: 7.5
Ropes: 7
Enter Tragedy: 7.5
Jesters Door: 5
A New Dawn: 10
Liberation: 7.5

numbers will probably change after a while, but a new dawn is not going to change :Smokedev:

As for how these will translate live with anders' vocals.......ehhh not so much. Going to be rough.
 
Anyways, I think Anders did a really great job on this album. His cleans are great. He's got down the yell-singing thing for sure.

Agreed. Plus there's a lot of variety in his singing/screaming/growling this time.

Either way, everything's grown on me except "Where the Dead Ships Dwell." Still working on letting that one sink in.

Next time I see Bjorn I'm going to...I don't know, fucking shake his hand. So much killer material on this record. I can't even fucking get up to go make another coffee because I don't want to pause the music.

EDIT: Yeah. Grades. Everyone's doin' it, though these'll probably change sporadically over the next year or so.

SOAPF: 8.5
Deliver Us: 9
All For Me: 10
The Puzzle: 10
Fear is the Weakness: 8
Where the Dead Ships Dwell: 6-ish
The Attic: 10*
Darker Times: 9
Ropes: 8
Enter Tragedy: 8.5
Jesters Door: 8.5*
A New Dawn: 10
Liberation: 9

*These are difficult to compare with the rest of the songs due to them being "interludes", so I judged them based on similar tracks in IF's catalog, like "The Jester's Dance" "Whoracle" and "Pallar Anders Visa."
 
NO LEAK? LEAK NOW! :)


Are you still around? Seriously this thread is still going? Nice!

First thoughts on this, tomorrow could be different.
Well fifth time through, this is my 2 cents:

01. Sounds Of A Playground Fading - 9 (Metallica intro (LOVE), almost perfect!)

02. Deliver Us - 8.5 (This track growed on me a lot, it's probobly the best first single they realesed yet!)

03. All For Me - 10 (Another intro thats great! Anders shines, Daniels drumming is brilliant and not to forget Björn's awesome guitar work!)

04. The Puzzle - 6 (Well, I feel that Soilwork already did this track on "A Preditors Portrait". Not bad not great.)

05. Fear Is The Weakness - 7 (I am sure they all will grow but this needs more listening beacause it has something. Still that Soilwork wibe in the chorus. Nothing bad with that, just saying)

06. Where The Dead Ships Dwell - 8 (I really like the way Anders sings, specially the "light the way for me" part, and the growling just before that. Cool electronic stuff going on aswell.)

07. The Attic - 9 (Very nice "moody" song! I really loved "the chosen pessimist", so I kinda wanted this song to go on for a couple minutes more to have that really epic "burst-out-moment")

08. Darker Times - 6 (This tracks only strong point is "I have a better plan" part! That part is just brutal!)

09. Ropes - 7 (Again Anders does very good "clean parts". Nothing special otherwise.)

10. Enter Tragedy - 9.5 (Slash my soul and "Plan" it's got it all! Probobly the heaviest song on there.)

11. The Jester's Door - 8 (Great track, reminds me of a Prodigy song. And also an CSI NY episode where a girl dies infront of a webcam playing her own music (the track is kinda like this) to one of the CSI dudes.

12. A New Dawn - 10 (Along with "All for Me" the best track on the album, Anders is KING on this)

13.Liberation - 7.5 (Anders does a great job on this track! Outro of the track is a little boring without any real content)

I'm sure some tracks will grow on me, this is just after listening to the album 5 times. But if I compare album SOAPF to ASOP then it's maybe tied fo now.
And I loved ASOP, so that's a good thing! :)
 
Listened to the album twice there, then listened to Morphing Into Primal just to ground myself, make sure that I wasn't just talking bollocks off the high of having new music from In Flames. But no, I can within my head completely justify this as the same band who wrote Whoracle and Colony, this feels like a completely logical progression for them into the 21st century where some of their efforts (STYE, ASOP) did not. The most important thing is that the MELODY is back at the core of everything again, it was present but buried on Reroute and more prevalent but still secondary to "chugga chugga" on Come Clarity.

From the very beginning to the final strains, melody defines this album. Even if it's melody played on synth that the purists will hate, or vocal melodies that just seems to be expanding on In Flames' musical repertoire. This was the same on TJR, Whoracle, Colony and Clayman: and THAT is why I feel this album can stand proud as the best In Flames release since that era. Stand out tracks for me are the title track, All For Me (has strains of Gyroscope written all over it to my ears) Fear is the Weakness (love that synth line, gives me some crazy beautiful mental images), The Attic (the haunted feel is really something special) Ropes (Bjorn is no fucking slouch, really upbeat and inspirational too) Enter Tragedy (hearing it in CD quality really brought out the power, it's the closest thing on this album to Artifacts of the Black Rain) and A New Dawn (obviously a masterpiece as previously discussed by pretty much everyone).

Weakest track would probably be Dead Ships in my opinion, perhaps its that we've two synth driven tracks next to each other and one is infinitely stronger, but it feels like they could really have capitalised more upon this theme. Still not a bad song by any sense of the imagination. Darker Times is pretty good, although it uses exactly the same chorus chord progression as Sounds of a Playground Fading, I guess that could be seen as kinda cool, cementing the album as a contiguous entity by throwing in little references, kinda like Coheed and Cambria do on their concept albums... or you could complain about it.

Overall an extremely solid effort, best album released by my (joint) favourite band in years. At the moment I'm giving it 8/10 but I really hope it's a grower!
 
Amazing! Thank you so much for finding the leak and making my day. Listened to it all day at work (on top of that I come home and the At The Gates Terminal Spirit Disease arrived in the mail...added it to my collection).

My ratings:

Sounds of a Playground Fading 8/10 (very catchy, good intro to what is to come)
Deliver Us 6/10 (most "cookie-cutter" song on the album but still good)
All for Me 7.5 (Heavy shit. Has a good atmosphere with the synth and awesome intro. However, could have used the vocals form A New Dawn)
The Puzzle 8/10 (Very fast pace. A New Classic)
Fear is the Weakness 9.5 (Powerful chorus. Great interplay of synths into the melody)
Where the Dead Ships Dwell 7/10 (Has a good melody but just doesn't stick in my head like others)
The Attic 8/10* (Organ fits very well, lyrics make you think a little)
Darker Times 8/10 (2 solos!! Nuff said)
Ropes 9/10 (very melodic and great chorus)
Enter Tragedy 9/10 (Fast pace and heavy. Love the chorus)
Jester's Door 6/10* (True fucking talk. Didn't think the organ was used as well as in the attic...interesting ending)
A New Dawn 9.5 (IF 99 reunion. Like the deeper vocals and violins)
Liberation 6.5/10 (Not bad. New sounds. I didn't see this coming. I like it, though)

*Hard to compare to the rest.

Overall: 9/10
 
dunno why dead ships is scoring so low on your guys grading sheets, i think its a brilliant song. one of the catchiest on the album. strong melodies too! the solo is one of the most melodic on the album.
 
I think In Flames would be much better off without Anders. He rarely uses a good scream anymore, and he's an awful clean vocalist. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against clean vocals or vice versa (quite the opposite, actually). But he is not pulling this off well! On top of that, his lyrics are horrible. He used to write amazing lyrics. It's fine and dandy if someone decides to change what they write about, but his lyrics now just sound boring, whiny, uninspired, and immature.

It's too bad, really, because vocals aside, this album is REALLY solid musically. Probably some of the best material they've written post-Clayman...minus the vocals.
 
I think In Flames would be much better off without Anders. He rarely uses a good scream anymore, and he's an awful clean vocalist. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against clean vocals or vice versa (quite the opposite, actually). But he is not pulling this off well! On top of that, his lyrics are horrible. He used to write amazing lyrics. It's fine and dandy if someone decides to change what they write about, but his lyrics now just sound boring, whiny, uninspired, and immature.

It's too bad, really, because vocals aside, this album is REALLY solid musically. Probably some of the best material they've written post-Clayman...minus the vocals.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with your statement. honestly, i'm not sure if we're both listening to the same album. are you sure that you don't have ASOP playing through your speakers? :D I think that his vocals have gone through a vast improvement on this album. Plus In Flames without anders would be a pretty terrible idea. He's been around since TJR, and replacing him would not be a smart move. Album wise, i think his vocals are quite awesome. If anders wants to pull them off live, he should just practice more. but he has his moments live... thats for sure.