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

[drawntoblack]

I agree. That song is like 10 times more heavier when played live. Though my personal fav when it comes to STYE is probably Evil in a closet. I just love that song, plus that scream in the middle of it is probably one of my favourite moments on the whole record. Same goes for the solo

 

[CyberInflames]

STYE has a couple of catchy tracks as well ("The Quiet Place", "My Sweet Shadow", the superb "Evil In A Closet", "Borders And Shading" (yeah, I like this one, especially for the chorus)).

 

[DE4life]

The live version of f(r)iend is a million times better than the album version, and Anders' performance of it on Used and Abused is pretty fucking great. Still, I never listen to the album version cos it's boring

As a metal album STYE is okay, as an In Flames album it's poor IMO. It's kind of like R2R minus the older In Flames magic and with a larger dose of American metal. Anders vocals on it are actually stronger than R2R (I think that's down to production, though), unfortunately the songs and lyrics negate that positive.

The only songs I listen to off STYE nowadays are TQP & Evil in a Closet ... that's it. The rest really bore me - especially Bottled, what a turd of a song that is

With the back-catalogue In Flames' have I honestly don't know why anyone would choose to listen to STYE... it just sounds so uninspired, it's almost anti-Gothenburg metal. It's In Flames - American Metal Style. I guess it just isn't for me. I think people more partial to nu-metal, Slipknot, etc would like this album more (that's not a dig btw, just how I see it).

 

[A88]

Dead alone, My sweet shadow and solo from Evil in the closet, are the only things I can listen from this album.

What were they hoping to achieve with those terrible vocals, shitty guitar and drum sound is beyond me...

Actually, first IF song I ever heard is The quiet place. I was into Carcass, Death, ATG, Arch Enemy and stuff like that, and my friend recommended me In Flames. Listened to this song and I was like...Wtf is this? Terrible! Luckily, I listened to Bullet ride next...the rest is history.

 

[drawntoblack]

Well yeah, but when compared to Reroute, STYE's production is simply divine And since Reroute is the first IF album I heard, I kinda like STYE production. At least you can hear the guitars properly.
I like pretty much all of the songs from it, except the last 3. Not that they are that bad, riffs are alright, but choruses are simply too boring.

@A88, funny that you said that. I think, for an example, that In Search For I is pretty much classic Gothenburg sound That intro riff is awesome.

 

[A88]

I like RTR production better. A bit muddy yes, but it is pleasant. RTR is by no means one of my favorite albums, but I can listen to it and it never really bores me. STYE on the other hand is very annoying.

As DE4life said it is too american-modern-numetal for my taste. And those "cleans"...

 

[belmer]

First song I heard from IF was Free Fall from R2R. I liked it a lot and then I started listening to CC and afterwards I started with Lunar Strain (not of my favorites) and the rest is history.

Personally I think the sound in STYE wasn't that all bad, in R2R you could barely hear the bass drum. I think the best sound in quality was Clayman, it had that "POWER" feel to it every single time the snare drum got hit, and the vocals were great, not to mention the guitar riffs, especially "Swim" (that one gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it).

All of this IMO.

:hotjump:

 

[DE4life]

I hope Anders gets a bit more power into his cleans on the upcoming album, listening back he sounds best when his cleans have real power behind them (eg. Insipid 2000, Leeches, Crawl Through Knives). He sounds alright on SOAPF, but I have no idea why he doesn't use his powerful clean voice more often, the rare times he busts it out it sounds great. All too often (eg the entire of ASOP) he uses the whiny voice, I can only assume because it's less effort?

 

[A88]

Maybe he thinks that his whiny style is good?

 

[drawntoblack]

You should take into account that a lot of "whiny style", as we call it, has to do with the production, and in the end with the producer himself. This is fairly obvious since he doesnt have that much of variety when it comes to his vocals live.

 

[DE4life]

If he thinks the whiny style is good then that's his perogative. I'd hope that isn't the general concensus, though.

To an extent production affects it, but there's a massive difference in the way he vocalises the choruses of the songs I mentioned and most of the others. It might be too hard for him to replicate, I don't know... it's just a shame. I can remember hearing Leeches and thinking 'WOW, he's actually learnt how to sing with confidence and/or use protools'. ASOP destroyed that belief.

 

[drawntoblack]

I'm going to get so much crap for saying this, but ASOP destroyed much bigger beliefs than Anders' voice Thats why most of us so eagerly expect SOAPF

 

[DE4life]

ASOP was, overall, a massive disappointment on every level. The nice thing about SOAPF is they'd struggle to make a worse album, so I'm probably going to be positive about it no matter what. The two leaked songs certainly suggest that they're back in business.

 

[A88]

It is just so weird that a experienced musician and producer like Anders, can't make it sound good. Listen to Superhero of the comp.rage... I mean, wtf is that clean "singing"? On CC it's decent. Than an ASOP its whiny. Every second word ends with whiny stuff. Yes, he talks like that also, so it seem it is natural and on purpose.

I don't know if you noticed, but there is a lot of In Flames songs where he sings unorthodox vocal lines, and then seems to struggle with it live. So he changes it, cuts it, change vocal style etc.

It could all be down to the fact that he is not a great singer and still struggles to find a style he feels comfortable with. Obviously he can't growl properly anymore (for a longer period. even I can make awesome growls for 5-10 sec), screams can't fit all songs, his "powerful" cleans aren't so powerful without backing vocals and harmonies... so we are left with this half scream/yell - half whiny stuff.

Hope I make some sense, as my English is not that good.

 

[drawntoblack]

I forgot to mention that. I, for one, am not the biggest fan of backing tracks. Especially since In Flames use them a lot, and they will often be way louder than the guitars and other stuff. But the thing thats really getting on my nerves are vocal back tracks. They will top Anders' live voice, where his real voice would often go into falsetto, sounding even weaker and thinner.

If you cant deliver it properly live, then dont play it at all, for God's sake.

@A88, I dont know if you saw them live when they were here 2 years ago, but his growls were pretty spot on then. He can do growls, he just doesnt want to.

 

[TheCharade]

I think that he's been practicing his singing for this new album. they've mentioned that they've given more time for vox this time around.. and from the 2 tracks i've heard so far, he's found that sweet spot for his scratchy cleans.

 

[A88]

Can you guys sing along to chorus of SOAPF? Can you really hit that notes? It just feels unnatural. Try it. It's all mishmash of stuff, layers, effects, weird notes etc. And this is Anders on a good day.

Then try to sing along with let's say Katatonia - My twin, Soilwork - Nerve, Opeth - In my time of need etc.etc.

To hit Anders stuff properly you need to go all the way up to girly voice, or all the way down to something unsustainable for great majority of people, OR you can catch it if you capture your voice in half scream-half clean...which is also very hard. Can't really explain it. It is just unnatural.

 

[TheCharade]

it's possible to hit those notes if you're really belting out out. if you're singing at a room level volume, it won't come out as powerful... i've tried in the shower. lmao.
and i'm sure if you're at a concert, you're singing as loud as you can.

 

[PlainVanilla]

And sometimes, he can make it sound really good on stage.

 

[drawntoblack]

I'm not much of a singer (quite the opposite haha), but still, the song came out like two days ago, I still dont know it good enough to try effortlessly singing it.

But yes, a lot of Anders' vocal melodies are quite oddly composed. That also might have to do with the fact that a lot of his vocal lines have been transcribed from something what were originaly guitar melodies. I think Jesper or Bjorn talk about this on Making of ASOP.