Making the 'perfect In Flames album'

[Dantess9226]

If you could take aspects from each album and combine them to make your ideal In Flames album, or take elements from certain songs, what would you choose?

I'll start us off:

Solos: I loved the amount of solos on SOAPF, they are almost on par with Colony (fantastic solos) IMO.

Riffs: The heavy parts of Colony and Clayman (Colony's title track, Pinball Map, Bullet ride)

Melodies: Probably Colony, Embody the Invisible and I like the leads on RTR (when you can hear them over the mud).

Vocals: Come Clarity. I don't give a shit if the choruses are autotuned or too whiney, I think the choruses are damn catchy and Anders' screams are raw.

Lyrics: A tough one. I'd like to see Anders revisit his earlier lyric-writing, as we saw signs of in the SOAPF title track! But I like the political and end-is-nigh lyrics in Come Clarity.

Song length: Variety is always good- but no songs that barely reach 3 minutes (unless an instrumental), they just seem radio-built. Loved SOAPF for variety- two long songs closing out the album. I've also noticed a lack of instrumentals of late- RTR onwards (not counting STYE passages and The Jester's Door, spoken word interlude )

Keyboards: Gotta be STYE. My Sweet Shadow, The Quiet Place, Discover me Like Emptiness all have brilliant atmospheric keys and loops.

If In Flames could combine all these aspects they would be onto a winner in my books!

 

[DE4life]

Hmmm...


Solos: Thought there were too many solos on SOAPF, they all come in the same predictable place in the song and lose meaning. In Flames have never really been big on solos and their best solos in the old era were written by people not in the band (December Flower, Coerced Coexistence, Suburban Me). I'd rather they focused on good leads and interesting song structures, limiting the solos to a few songs where they sound special.

Riffs: A mixture of TJR - Clayman. Some of the riffs on TJR/Whoracle are mesmerising (Gyroscope for a start!) but songs like Episode 666 show that more modern leads can be incorporated into the older sound, so if they mixed these elements together it'd sound pretty awesome.

Melodies: Again, TJR - Clayman all have excellent melodies. A mixture of these would be fine.

Vocals: Colony, no contest. Anders has never sounded as good as that. Growls and screams are amazing, the cleans sound decent as well. Would rather he limited the cleans to a minimum.

Lyrics: Colony was great for lyrics, but the written English left a lot to be desired. Clayman leaned towards the "woe is me" perspective that's plagued most of their new albums (most of Come Clarity and some of SOAPF aside) but was still very good. Mix Colony, Clayman and Come Clarity and they'd be onto a winner. Throw in a few of the more mystical elements from TJR & Whoracle and it's even better.

Song length: In Flames don't really do long songs, so between 3-5 minutes per song is fine. If TCP is any indication of what happens when they try and make a longer song I'd rather they didn't bother.

Keyboards: Don't consider them majorly important, I've always thought if In Flames were so serious about keyboards they should bring in a keyboardist, otherwise keep them to a minimum like on Colony and Clayman.

So to sum up... take most of the stuff from the old albums and sprinkle in a couple of bright points from the newer albums and voila, In Flames sound great again

 

[A88]

Take Clayman, add some TJR imagination, SOAPF keys and beat the shit out of Anders if he tries to sing. That's about it.

 

[drawntoblack]

I dont want to sound like a dick, but I stopped reading at "SOAPF solos".

 

[Deadbeat]

Solos: I love the solos on SOAPF (I like Wha-wha but he doesn't need to use it on every solo) and I like the bluesy feel on most of them. So moore solos like that but skip the wha-wha on some songs.

Riffs: I like the heavy mid tempo riffs in songs like Colony, Darker Times, SOAPF, MSS. And more melodic riffs like Pinball Map, Insipid 2000, Suburban Me, Crawl Through Knives, Ropes.

Melodies: Most of the melodies on Colony, Clayman and SOAPF are great so mix them up. There's also some good melodies on RTR and CC that can get thrown in the mix.

Vocals: SOAPF vocals are the best so more of that But more of the growls from A New Dawn on more of the songs and also would be nice to hear Anders live growls that he always use have a more leading role then just in the background on the albums. Also love the old thing he used to do on Colony in the choruses of Insipid 2000, Colony, Coerced Coexistence.
I would also like some more clean singing like on Ropes and WTDSD

Lyrics: probably a mix of Colony, Clayman, CC, SOAPF.

Song length: if they're over 3 minutes I don't care. Would be nice with some longer songs like 5-6 min if it's abit more progresive and not that many riffs that reapeat themselves.

Keyboards: Synt, beats and effects from SOAPF

 

[Deveianse]

A mix of Bottled, Scream and Alias+ the length of like say TCP, less harsh vocals more melody singing, lyrics about more brutal inner struggle

 

[TrickySkittles]

Vocals - Colony - Anders really came into his own on this album and he hadn't made it to the point of attempting to sing.
Melodies - Colony, Clayman - Two most well written albums from cover to cover as far as guitars go, loaded with catchy riffs.
Solos - Not In Flames, if I had to pick it would be SoaPF - Their best stuff (December Flower, Suburban Me) is done by guest guitarists. Personally I agree that Bjorn's best lead work is on SoaPF, very melodic and natural sounding.
Lyrics - Either sing My Sweet Shadow to a different tune for every song or sing in Swedish so I can't understand as the lyrics are generally terrible for the entire discography.
Drums - SoaPF - Drum production was absolutely immaculate on this album. If you haven't listened through good speakers you need to.
Keys/Samples - STYE - If only by default...

 

[JesterScript]

Vocals-ASOP
Melodies-ASOP
Solos-ASOP
Lyric-ASOP(Pluuuheeeesseeee heaaaaaallllll meeeeeee)
Drums-ASOP
Song Length- 3-7 minutes

hell yea!