New album Foregone out February 2023

Question for people who don't like the cleans in this song: would they work if the singer was someone other than Anders? Seeing some negative reaction to the chorus in this one and I'm wondering whether it's his voice specifically or the vocal melodies themselves that's bothering people. I can imagine Bjorn Strid doing vocals on this song and it would work well imo.
No. Not for me. Autotune aside, I don't think that they match the song and I don't think that they're anything special. I also don't think that they put too much effort into this. Anders should seriously go back to work with his previous vocals producer.
 
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Worth noting that F(r)iend is one of my least favourite songs from STYE and the older era in general, so my original comment on the similarities wasn't a positive for me :D
F(r)iend is a song that I tend to skip when listening to IF. It feels generic. The only cool thing, for me, is the intro.
 
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So far, when compared to their previous efforts, I must say that I prefer I the Mask. And I don't think that this is better than SC or, god forgive me, battles. It's just heavier but equally generic.

The songs feel, to me, generic, boring, uninteresting. And it's not just that Anders cannot do cool vocal melodies anymore, the melodies from the guitars rely too much into being heavy, but they lack the melodies that made the old albums something special.

Still, it's an album that I strongly recommend to anyone having trouble to sleep.
 
F(r)iend is a song that I tend to skip when listening to IF. It feels generic. The only cool thing, for me, is the intro.

It's just kind of boring for me. It's a bit like Everything's Gone where they're trying to be really heavy even though that hasn't ever really been what the band is about.
 
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So far most of Foregone has unfortunately felt this way for me, In Flames trying to be heavy when they've always been more about the melody. That's not to say what they're putting out is bad, necessarily, it just doesn't really sound much like In Flames to me. But then, from my perspective it has arguably been that way since SOAPF.

SC - lack of energy, lack of basic cohesion
Battles - Howard Benson mutant version of the band
ITM - the above but a little less deformed
Foregone - so far at least like a tribute album for heavy bands IF never sounded anything like, with the usual Howard Benson virus creeping in at various points
 
No. Not for me. Autotune aside, I don't think that they match the song and I don't think that they're anything special. I also don't think that they put too much effort into this. Anders should seriously go back to work with his previous vocals producer.

For me Anders got his cleans as good as they could realistically get on SOAPF. No doubt there's autotune there but it isn't excessive or egregious. The cleans are still beyond his capability to do outside of the studio, but on CD at least it sounds fine. Even good sometimes.

Current cleans just sound out of place and irritating every time they show up. The autotuning is so obvious and right in your face, because the production isolates those cleans away from the instruments.
 
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Expected worse based on these comments. Definitily Friend vibes at the beginning and the end, and overall the instrumental part is pretty cool imo. The biggest letdown is the chorus, but not because of the autotune, but because it is indeed boring. These songs should be merged with Battles, which had very catchy choruses, but toned back instrumentations.

Or scratch that, just work a bit longer on the choruses. After Anders pitches up his vocals at the end of "...mascaradeee", just continue with doing what he does best, which is sounding like a broken man, and bring the pitch down with the next line, like he did in many songs before. Like in OFTW "the tale of a bitter man, here i am", or in Borders "Oblivion can no longer shape you, reminded by the tattered tissue". Don't know what it's called, but it's satisfying like a drop.

But MYM sounds fucked up. The "your time's up (now there's hell to pay?)" line should be downpitched or wtf is the proper word. After that, it completely collapses, because Anders can't even fill the fucking melody, so not only "it's down from here" is STILL fucking high pitched, he has to do a "heeeeereeeeeee" so he can fit the melody. Even the last fucking line starts out with an upward pitch "you(d/ll?) think..." and then he screams, but it just feels so unsatisfying. It has to be the musical equivalent of edging.

And it's not the first song which has weirdly bad vocals, and I don't mean quality, but structure. Foregone 2 is still worse though, because it is just all over the place. Both that song and MYM are songs which I'd totally listen, because I think the instrumental parts are great, but the vocals are not simply bad, by the numbers (like ASOP), but they are straight up fucking with my mind, because they make no sense.
 
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Yes. I don't think that's bad in itself. Just... How to say this. When compared to their old times... It doesn't stand. It's a far paler version of the band without a lot of the elements that made them... Interesting.
 
Or scratch that, just work a bit longer on the choruses.
I cannot believe what I'm about to write but SC was far more creative when it comes to vocals, specially the choruses. Now, I feel like there's either a lack of effort or inability to create better vocal lines.
 
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Problem with SC is that even though Anders probably did put a lot of effort into his vocal lines and melodies, he didn't seem to communicate any of this with the rest of the band. So you have vocal melodies that may be somewhat creative at times, but don't align with any of the instrumentation and creates this frustrating, fragmented effect with makes almost every track on that album feel disjointed.

The other major issue, of course, is that Anders can't sing and production on SC rarely helps him there either.
 
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Agreed. And I'm not saying that they're good in any way. But, there was some effort (failed effort) behind them.

Of course there's still the influence of his previous producer.

Now, the lack of creativity is more evident when listening to the choruses. To me, it doesn't transmit what's needed to make a song great.
 
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Meet Your Maker 8/10 - great melody in the chorus + great Anders clean vocals idk why you all have problems with auto tune
State of Decay 7/10- nice main riff, cool evil vibe, great friden's growl
Foregone pt1 6/10- this song sounds like some shanties in metal version, Chris solo kicks ass
The Great Deceiver 5/10 - nice melody, cool riffs but nothing special
Foregone pt2 3/10- boring shit
 
Meet Your Maker 8/10 - great melody in the chorus + great Anders clean vocals idk why you all have problems with auto tune

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Should be banned from music completely.

"it's only down from heeEEEeereee...". Oh fuck off.

Autotune and bad Battles leftover chorus aside, the rest of the song is quite terrible as well. All that guitarwork is just a bunch of nonsense guitar players do when they're bored and waiting for other guys in the band to tune their instruments. Zero effort and idea behind this.

And I have issues with drumming as well. Ok, guy has some energy, but really do you have to overdo every section of every song? Leave some space bro, sometimes less is more and all that.
 
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I could have sworn that Chris played the first solo and Bjorn the second, but I stand corrected.

As cheesy as Patric Ullaeus is -- dude even managed to make DT look silly with the Uniformity video -- performance videos are always my preference.
 
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