New album Foregone out February 2023

[eochaid]

I actually prefer SC over Battles even though i rarely listen to either.

Battles is forgettable. There are a couple of songs that I like (In My Room, Save Me, Wallflower) but nothing else has stuck and production is terrible at best and guitar-wise nothing interesting.

I prefer SC to Battles and I think that SC is shit. So you can guess what's my opinion on Battles.

 

[eochaid]

Exactly, so if going with a "safe" producer after SC was the plan, it didn't really work out. But again, I'm just conspiracy theorizing.

I think that a safe producer would have been working with some well known from the European extreme metal scene.

What they're (desperately) trying is to be popular in the USA even if they have to renounce to everything that they've been in the past.

 

[ThePhobiac]

I think that a safe producer would have been working with some well known from the European extreme metal scene.

What they're (desperately) trying is to be popular in the USA even if they have to renounce to everything that they've been in the past.

My bad, what I meant by "safe" was "a producer who churns out generic American metal that doesn't rock the boat." Like, they were almost guaranteed to get play on American metal radio with Benson. The price being the integrity of their music. And I did hear The Truth and The End on SiriusXM Octane when the radio was tuned to that station at my previous job; the problem is that it sounded like every other band.

 

[eochaid]

A whatever album that could have been made by any band. I mean, it doesn't say "In Flames" anywhere. It lacks a distinctive personality. At least SC has that.

 

[DE4life]

There are parts of SC that I like and even appreciate what they were trying to do, even if it's not very good by IF standards.

Battles... just nothing. Worthless. Wallflower the only song on the album with any creative merit.

 

[DE4life]

"Drained"
Written By: Anders Fridén Björn Gelotte Howard Benson Niclas Engelin James Michael

It took 5 people to write that piece of shit sure.

 

[ThePhobiac]

One of the reasons Battles frustrates me is that it's the only In Flames album that Niclas wrote for, and it's hard to hear his influence because it's diluted by all the other randos who worked on the album. I really like Engelin's style and you can hear it in places (everything but the chorus of Drained sounds like an Engel song, Wallflower is very Passenger, etc). When he joined the band I was excited to hear his style integrated into the IF sound, but it never really happened.

There are parts of SC that I like and even appreciate what they were trying to do, even if it's not very good by IF standards.

Battles... just nothing. Worthless. Wallflower the only song on the album with any creative merit.

Yeah I've always said that, whether you enjoy it or not, Siren Charms is still an In Flames album. Like STYE, they were trying to do something different, but you could tell it was the same band. I can't say the same for Battles (or I, the Mask, personally).

 

[DE4life]

Yeah I've always said that, whether you enjoy it or not, Siren Charms is still an In Flames album. Like STYE, they were trying to do something different, but you could tell it was the same band. I can't say the same for Battles (or I, the Mask, personally).

You can potentially break IF into various periods...

1994 - 1997 - Jesper's In Flames, comprising Lunar Strain, Subterranean, Jester Race and Whoracle. Fair to say Jesper was the main creative force during this time period.

1999 - 2000 - Jesper & Bjorn's In Flames - Musical creative duties shared with Bjorn. Sound changes to a more standard 'heavy metal' feel, with the folky elements removed and significant emphasis placed on the Iron Maiden-esque guitar work.

2002 - 2008 - Anders, Jesper & Bjorn's In Flames - Anders begins to get involved a lot more in the creative process. The band's sound becomes extremely eclectic, changing from album-to-album, and the quality and production values become noticeably erratic as well.

2011 - 2014 - Anders & Bjorn's In Flames - Skewed in a much more commercial, alt-metal direction with Jesper's influence now gone. One solid album in SOAPF, one bizarre album in Siren Charms, the reaction to which seems to knock Anders & Bjorn's confidence, leading to...

2016 - Present - Howard Benson's In Flames - "Splinters of a poem, fragments of what you used to be. Habitual and gullible, run down memoirs is all that's left".

 

[ThePhobiac]

That's pretty accurate, though I don't know if it's ever been confirmed that Anders actually wrote any music until Siren Charms (outside of helping with arrangements for vocal parts). Could be wrong, of course. I know he has credits on Morphing Into Primal. I've always considered it like:

1994-1995: Proto-In Flames

1996-1997: Early Classic In Flames

1999-2000: Late Classic In Flames

2002-2004: Early Modern In Flames

2006-2008: Late Modern In Flames

2011-2014: Post-Modern In Flames

2016-present: New In Flames

I personally consider 1999-2004 to be In Flames at its prime. I don't extend it to 2006 because because while Come Clarity's an excellent album, there's something fundamentally different about it compared to the albums that came before.

 

[Ilias7]

I've been thinking about it and I actually consider Chris and Tanner good additions to the band.

Chris is an experienced guitar player with amazing background (Megadeth, Nevermore). He has worked with Jeff Loomis and Dave Mustaine, the latter claiming that he is the best guitarist he has ever worked with. He can really bring something extra and thrashy, if they give him some space. I noticed in some Instagram stories (without sound) that he was playing in the studio something that looked like a solo. He was also using a 7-string guitar, but that probably means nothing.

Tanner seems like a cool dude and he is a great and dedicated drummer, who practices a lot. Just check his covers on Instagram. In the comments section he gets praised by Mario Duplantier (Gojira), Corey Taylor (Slipknot) and Josh Middleton (Sylosis, Architects). He is a
much better drummer than Joe Rickard and his soulless playing and probably better than Daniel (who is surely respected and decent). The small clip that he uploaded from the new album shows that they gave him some freedom...the double bass sounded cool.

The new guy that I can't stand is Bryce. This anti-vaxxer/anti-masker is almost a dealbreaker for me, I don't even know if I want to support the band for keeping him. He also doesn't seem much dedicated to music.

Anyway, the recording of the new album will be done in the next days, considering the UK tour is about to start. They've been working on it for more than a year, so maybe we can hear some actual effort on it. I am as optimistic as I can be, considering they are still working with Benson.

SC is not a good album, but it surely has a character. Battles got me excited the first month, I got bored of it quickly and I barely revisit it. I can say that I enjoyed 3/4 of ITM and I'm still listening to it.

 

[DE4life]

That's pretty accurate, though I don't know if it's ever been confirmed that Anders actually wrote any music until Siren Charms (outside of helping with arrangements for vocal parts). Could be wrong, of course. I know he has credits on Morphing Into Primal. I've always considered it like:

1994-1995: Proto-In Flames

1996-1997: Early Classic In Flames

1999-2000: Late Classic In Flames

2002-2004: Early Modern In Flames

2006-2008: Late Modern In Flames

2011-2014: Post-Modern In Flames

2016-present: New In Flames

I personally consider 1999-2004 to be In Flames at its prime. I don't extend it to 2006 because because while Come Clarity's an excellent album, there's something fundamentally different about it compared to the albums that came before.

1996 - 2000 will always be prime In Flames using any objective metric, but from an individual perspective I can understand using different time periods (unless it's between 2014 to now, then you're just a lunatic).

As far as including Anders on my list in the 2002-2008 period, it's mainly from the perspective of his overall influence as opposed to actually writing the music. Pre-2002 the guitars were very much at the forefront, with the vocals an accompanying instrument. From Reroute onwards the vocals became a key part of the composition, and often carried the melody where in past times the guitars would have done so. To be clear I'm not blaming Anders for this - he himself has said that he was surprised on STYE, for example, that there weren't more guitar melodies - but he obviously had to step up and contribute from a vocal perspective after 2000 as Jesper & Bjorn didn't seem to want to put in the same effort they had during the earlier years on guitar.

 

[DE4life]

I've been thinking about it and I actually consider Chris and Tanner good additions to the band.

Chris is an experienced guitar player with amazing background (Megadeth, Nevermore). He has worked with Jeff Loomis and Dave Mustaine, the latter claiming that he is the best guitarist he has ever worked with. He can really bring something extra and thrashy, if they give him some space. I noticed in some Instagram stories (without sound) that he was playing in the studio something that looked like a solo. He was also using a 7-string guitar, but that probably means nothing.

Tanner seems like a cool dude and he is a great and dedicated drummer, who practices a lot. Just check his covers on Instagram. In the comments section he gets praised by Mario Duplantier (Gojira), Corey Taylor (Slipknot) and Josh Middleton (Sylosis, Architects). He is a
much better drummer than Joe Rickard and his soulless playing and probably better than Daniel (who is surely respected and decent). The small clip that he uploaded from the new album shows that they gave him some freedom...the double bass sounded cool.

The new guy that I can't stand is Bryce. This anti-vaxxer/anti-masker is almost a dealbreaker for me, I don't even know if I want to support the band for keeping him. He also doesn't seem much dedicated to music.

Yeah I pretty much feel the same way. Chris and Tanner are cool. Bryce is abhorrent and it's shameful that Anders & Bjorn choose to associate with people like that, and give them a platform to espouse their views. It's their choice to do so, though.

 

[DE4life]

Random note, but I just noticed on the Reroute to Remain reissue that they changed the tagline from "Fourteen Songs of Conscious Insanity" to "Fourteen Songs of Conscious Madness" - wtf? Why? was 'Insanity' considered offensive?

 

[eochaid]

I don't extend it to 2006 because because while Come Clarity's an excellent album, there's something fundamentally different about it compared to the albums that came before.

While I think of CC as a mix of everything that they did before.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

I have a small amount of optimism in me about Tanner and Chris's influence on the sound of this album, combined with the amount of time spent on writing it.

The past few albums are the reason I'm caging that optimism and not letting myself get carried away, as my expectations are still low.

 

[eochaid]

How do we know how much time?

 

[TheJestersDoor]

How do we know how much time?

Bjorn posted on his Instagram in Feb last year mentioning he was writing new material, so the rough timeline is a year. They probably didn't properly enter writing mode until late last year though.

 

[eochaid]

Uhm... They were writing three months before entering the studio for Battles.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

Granted but with battles it's well known that shit was completely ripped up and changed from the demos once they got to the studio

 

[eochaid]

Wasn't that SC?