New album Foregone out February 2023
- Thread starter TheJestersDoor
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ThePhobiac
be at ease
Seems that there are still plenty of heavy songs on the album, but they happen to have slower choruses with clean singing like Meet Your Maker.
Not like a lot of albums I've purchased in the past where the lead single is a banger and literally every other song on the record is a fucking ballad.
Not like a lot of albums I've purchased in the past where the lead single is a banger and literally every other song on the record is a fucking ballad.
With I, The Mask, most of the heaviest tracks were the singles. Most of those were also the best tracks. I think by the release of the album, Voices and Deep Inside were the only heavier songs still unreleased. Deep Inside was the best song on the album for my money, and the bridge from that song is one of my favourite things In Flames have ever done. I'm hoping that the remaining unheard songs (apart from the opening instrumental we already know about) are of similar quality to Deep Inside, and not Follow Me, We Will Remember, In This Life or All the Pain.
I actually don't mind All the Pain. Follow Me could have been really good, but Howard Benson happened to it.
In This Life is up there with the absolute worst when it comes to the In Flames Hall of Shame. I cannot even begin to truly articulate how much I despise that song and everything it represents. We Will Remember is just a nothing song. I don't hate it, but I also doubt I'll ever listen to it again on purpose.
I generally think of ITM fondly. Benson bullshit aside it's a decent effort. In my opinion the songs on there feel more like In Flames than anything so far released from Foregone. That isn't a comment on the quality of the material, just the overall vibe.
In This Life is up there with the absolute worst when it comes to the In Flames Hall of Shame. I cannot even begin to truly articulate how much I despise that song and everything it represents. We Will Remember is just a nothing song. I don't hate it, but I also doubt I'll ever listen to it again on purpose.
I generally think of ITM fondly. Benson bullshit aside it's a decent effort. In my opinion the songs on there feel more like In Flames than anything so far released from Foregone. That isn't a comment on the quality of the material, just the overall vibe.
- Jul 25, 2016
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All the pain is musically a very cool song, and I like what Anders was going for, but the autotune is just a bit too over the top for my liking. One of the better off the album in all honesty though. Deep Inside is the best I agree.
I went back and listened to ITM after listening through all 5 new singles yesterday and the first thing I noticed was how bad the drums sound on I, The Mask. The cymbals are so tinny and constantly ringing that any fast or heavy parts of the album just sound like trash, it's honestly pretty sad as a lot of that album would be really quite good if it had foregone production and Tanner's drumming.
I went back and listened to ITM after listening through all 5 new singles yesterday and the first thing I noticed was how bad the drums sound on I, The Mask. The cymbals are so tinny and constantly ringing that any fast or heavy parts of the album just sound like trash, it's honestly pretty sad as a lot of that album would be really quite good if it had foregone production and Tanner's drumming.
The Grayfox
Gravesinger
The problem with Foregone so far is that they don't feel like In Flames songs. They feel like Anders listened to a bunch of late-era nu metal/early metalcore. I'm right at the front of the list of people who don't like SC/Battles and feel very 'meh' about ITM but as DE said, at least those records still feel like it's In Flames. This one is a group of guys trying way too hard. It's like when Metallica released Death Magnetic. People were so blinded because it was the heaviest thing they had done in 20 years and then only later realized it was a subpar album that had very little merit -- and was poorly produced to boot.
That being said, I do want to hear the full album before I establish a final opinion on it. There are moments in the released singles that I think are decent. I'm hoping for a few more. Meet Your Maker isn't one of those decent moments for me though. It's F(r)iend lite. The video is even worse. All I see is a 50 year old man trying to be 15. Fucking give it up guy.
That being said, I do want to hear the full album before I establish a final opinion on it. There are moments in the released singles that I think are decent. I'm hoping for a few more. Meet Your Maker isn't one of those decent moments for me though. It's F(r)iend lite. The video is even worse. All I see is a 50 year old man trying to be 15. Fucking give it up guy.
ThePhobiac
be at ease
For me, I the Mask starts off strong with the first two tracks, gets wobbly starting with Call My Name, teeters on the brink with House (I don't hate that song as much as others do), and falls off a cliff with We Will Remember, and remains there with In This Life and Burn (which is the Underneath My Skin of ITM, in my opinion). It recovers with Deep Inside and All the Pain, and ends on a wobbly note with Stay With Me. Four mediocre songs and three outright bad ones is not what I want from an In Flames album. At most I'll accept a bad song and/or a couple mediocres.
Annoying Benson hallmarks aside, Foregone is -- so far -- the band getting back on track as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather have an album with a couple mediocre songs and a handful of annoying aspects than an album with two or more songs that I actually hate.
Annoying Benson hallmarks aside, Foregone is -- so far -- the band getting back on track as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather have an album with a couple mediocre songs and a handful of annoying aspects than an album with two or more songs that I actually hate.
- Jul 25, 2016
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I hard disagree with a few exceptions
State of slow decay does for the most part sound more at the gates-ey
Great Deceiver is in flames through and through
Foregone pt.1 is a bit metalcore-y but that bridge and solo is pure IF
Foregone PT.2 musically is 100% classic in flames, vocals add the modern sound.
Meet Your Maker intro and verse is straight outta STYE. Chorus uses same chord progression as take this life and with a similar-ish lead guitar pattern - trust me once you notice you won't unhear it.
Thing is you give say, Foregone PT.2 whoracle production and it won't sound out of place (vocals aside), give meet your maker STYE production and it fits right in, give TGD some SOAPF production and vocal style and again it fits. He'll give foregone pt1 R2R production and it's not too far out of place. its just the sound they have now is so detached from how they used to sound pre Benson that his influence is almost as audible as the actual music - and that's why this album sounds so polarising in my opinion, it's a complete fusion of sounds we've heard before but not at the same time, and it sounds alien to some people because of it.
- Jul 25, 2016
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All the Foregone singles also sound like In Flames to me.
If anything, it feels like their entire career's been put in a blender for these songs (unfortunately this includes bits of the Siren Charms/Battles era), but I can hear sounds in there that I thought they'd abandoned permanently during the 2000s and 2010s.
Without trying to justify it intellectually, I think the proof is that I've listened to all of the singles repeatedly and I feel like they comfortably belong on shuffle alongside songs from TJR, Whoracle, Clayman, Colony etc.
I guess this contradicts what DE and Grayfox are saying, but for me, SC/Battles felt like a different band entirely, whereas Foregone sounds like In Flames with slightly more simplistic lyrics and occasionally overproduced clean vocals.
If anything, it feels like their entire career's been put in a blender for these songs (unfortunately this includes bits of the Siren Charms/Battles era), but I can hear sounds in there that I thought they'd abandoned permanently during the 2000s and 2010s.
Without trying to justify it intellectually, I think the proof is that I've listened to all of the singles repeatedly and I feel like they comfortably belong on shuffle alongside songs from TJR, Whoracle, Clayman, Colony etc.
I guess this contradicts what DE and Grayfox are saying, but for me, SC/Battles felt like a different band entirely, whereas Foregone sounds like In Flames with slightly more simplistic lyrics and occasionally overproduced clean vocals.
ThePhobiac
be at ease
Siren Charms was the last album that sounded like In Flames to me, despite being a big departure from their sound. Battles and ITM felt like a completely different band, with brief flashes of the In Flames sound here and there. To me Foregone (so far) feels like the album that should have been released after SC.
Jester Slave
Narcissist
I am disappointed with the lack of love for Stay With Me.
Not to mention that you actually picked a record, well 5 of its songs anyway, which sound more old-school IF than anything since ASOP. You guys do bring up some decent points from time to time, but because of fucking bullshits like this is why bands should never listen to their fans. Just do the music, perform it live, assess the reaction and draw the conclusion. Don't bother with people whose opinion is straight up 20+ years old now, and on top of that, factually wrong - unlike 20+ years ago, when they were kinda right at least.
How can you still write bs like this? Ever since R2R these fucking sentences could have been applied to all of their records. After... let me count... 8,5 records, isn't it high time to finally let go of this bullshit?
Not to mention that you actually picked a record, well 5 of its songs anyway, which sound more old-school IF than anything since ASOP. You guys do bring up some decent points from time to time, but because of fucking bullshits like this is why bands should never listen to their fans. Just do the music, perform it live, assess the reaction and draw the conclusion. Don't bother with people whose opinion is straight up 20+ years old now, and on top of that, factually wrong - unlike 20+ years ago, when they were kinda right at least.
There have been step changes in the bands history where the sound has changed significantly. In hindsight the changes may not sound that huge because you got used to the songs but at that point in time people have said its a different band.
Whoracle to Colony
Clayman to R2R
Sense of Purpose to SOAPF
SC to Battles
All of these step changes involved change in band members or a producer which is normal.
I think thats just the nature of the band, personally i am happy for their sound to change signifiacntly from time to time as long as the quality remains good, which is the case for Foregone but not Battles for example.
Whoracle to Colony
Clayman to R2R
Sense of Purpose to SOAPF
SC to Battles
All of these step changes involved change in band members or a producer which is normal.
I think thats just the nature of the band, personally i am happy for their sound to change signifiacntly from time to time as long as the quality remains good, which is the case for Foregone but not Battles for example.
None of the foregone singles sound IF to me. More like a metalcore American band that has been influenced by IF and other melodeath bands.
So far, the music sounds, to me, and this is a pattern with Bjorn, like random riffs and melodies made without too much thinking and joined without too much effort.
So far, the music sounds, to me, and this is a pattern with Bjorn, like random riffs and melodies made without too much thinking and joined without too much effort.
Jester Slave
Narcissist
So what sounds IF to you? ITM? Because it sounds like a juiced up Battles, and Battles doesn't sound IF at all. SOAPF? Because it is vastly different than anything they have done before. STYE? It's like the least IF sounding record ever alongside with Battles, yet in many ways more IF than SOAPF.
You see what I mean? Shadow said it well, that they had more or less 4 significant changes on the records he mentioned. "Sounds like IF" has no meaning. If Foregone doesn't sound like IF then I don't know what you have been listening. The songs have callbacks to pre-R2R IF, CC era IF and the sound is easily compareable to ITM. You can't say it is not IF.
If someone only listened to two IF records ever and they are from the same "era", I'd understand them saying shit like it doesn't sound IF: But you guys should know better by now.
You see what I mean? Shadow said it well, that they had more or less 4 significant changes on the records he mentioned. "Sounds like IF" has no meaning. If Foregone doesn't sound like IF then I don't know what you have been listening. The songs have callbacks to pre-R2R IF, CC era IF and the sound is easily compareable to ITM. You can't say it is not IF.
If someone only listened to two IF records ever and they are from the same "era", I'd understand them saying shit like it doesn't sound IF: But you guys should know better by now.
The Grayfox
Gravesinger
Uh, because its my opinion and couldn't possibly be "factually wrong" because it's just an opinion? That's probably how I can still write stuff like that. I'm not asking you to not like these songs. I'm pointing out why I don't. Whether an opinion is 20 years old or 5 minutes old is irrelevant. It's not any less significant to the person who holds the opinion. You like the songs and I don't. End of story. Neither of us is right or wrong because it just doesn't fucking work that way.
You know my opinion about those albums. They don't sound like IF at all.
But, what's relevant here is them and people claiming that this goes back to their roots. Just because they do more aggressive riffs and put some acoustics doesn't mean that they're doing that because it's about how everything is constructed and put together. Old IF never sounded like this. And Anders is more than ever less Anders.
Jester Slave
Narcissist
Are your replies AI generated? Because you try to play out the "it's subjective" card in an argument where we discuss something which is very much so an objective fact. You can't just say "well, my opinion is that 1+1=3, so don't tell me I'm factually wrong!" That is not how it works.
FIrst of all, who said I like these songs? I think Foregone 2 is a huge mess, and MYM is disappointing. The other three are okay I guess, but has nothing on the best of ITM.
And the reason you are factually wrong is because it is not up to your or my personal opinion of whether something sounds like IF or not. We have hard evidence (their discography) of what IF sounds like, so we can factually say whether something sounds like IF or not. These songs have callbacks to early IF material, like accoustic breaks, and some of them could straight up be included on R2R or Come Clarity - with the production of those records, obviously. MYM literally starts and ends like F(r)iend from STYE, which is an In Flames record, and the song overall sounds a lot like tracks from Come Clarity. You simply can not say it doesn't sound like IF and not be wrong about it.
You can say it doesn't sound the IF you like.
Jester Slave
Narcissist
Well then speak in complete sentences... because "doesn't sound like IF" and "doesn't sound like old-school IF" are not the same. You were reflecting on the statements which claim that these songs are a return to their roots. Though where do you draw the line exactly? Some of these songs are the most CC-era sounding songs they have produced since... well, CC, but obviously they are not on the same level. So can you say they sound like they used to back then or not? Because the answer is "it depends".
If you expect Crawl Through Knives, then no, they don't. If you expect something which is more akin to MDM than to alternative rock, which they have been doing since SOAPF till ITM, then they kinda do, yeah.
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