New album Foregone out February 2023

That's a bit like mixing pop songs. Isn't it? Vocals have preeminence over the music. While, in metal, there's a balance, or should be.

Before someone blames Benson. No. They chose the final mix so it's their own fault.
 
The thing with pop songs is that most of the singers can... well, sing. Even if there's autotune involved it still sounds pleasant.

With Anders I find it better for the cleans to be a bit further back in the mix, to try and hide the excessive autotune and allow the instruments to supplement the weak singing. Having the vocals front and center just highlights the problem further.
 
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I think Siren Charms is Anders’ peak when it comes to singing. He really did a good job. He took chances, he sounded raw and real, and I think it paid off. Yeah I only like 2-3 songs off the album but that’s not because I hate his vocals.
 
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I honestly agree. Passenger is his peak in terms of clean vocals, imo, but I think he comes close to reaching that level on SC.
 
So, what do you expect them to ask him what he eats for breakfast? How is sex with his wife? If he's willing to write another song to his children?

Yeah, I'm into it. "Anders, when you have sex with your wife, does she just lay out on her back like a starfish? Or is it more of a pegging you with her strap-on type of situation?"

As far as the clean vocals are concerned I could probably improve them with my 20 year old version of Cool Edit Pro 2.1.

Wooo, Cool Edit Pro!


Good god, I would say the guy is a troll if it wasn't for the tattoo. That entire subreddit is one big circle jerk. From the horrid 1995 design to the recent tier list spam, I just look at the entire thing as a joke. Seriously though it needs re-theming immediately. It hurts my eyes to look at it. We should all make throwaways and have some fun over there. :D
 
An online In Flames community that's even remotely positive about the band is as rare and precious as a snow-white colt. It must be preserved.
 
https://offers.nailthemix.com/howard-benson

I'm not paying $350 for this as I'm not a professional and don't have that kinda money to drop on some behind the scenes on In Flames - although this existing opens the possibility that they recorded a "making of" video for the album for the band to release.

The real reason I share the link is in the second video down on the article (part 1) they talk about the direction of the album and Howard literally says the band's aim for the album was to go back and make a heavy album in the vein of Clayman.

The next video down is an interesting behind the scenes look at Anders recording vocal lines. The rest is pretty boring stuff about setting up drums and Joe Rickard showing how he adds drum triggers into a session so they can program things in during mixing if so required.
 
Look, I hate on Howard Benson like everyone else, but I have to admit his coaching of Anders on SOSD in that video was spot on. Improved the delivery immensely.

Also, as someone who programs my own drums, I can confirm that drum editing is a pain in the ASS. I use a free drum VST, so probably not as complex as Superior Drummer (apparently Adrian Erlandsson from AtG uses that, too).
 
The next video down is an interesting behind the scenes look at Anders recording vocal lines. The rest is pretty boring stuff about setting up drums and Joe Rickard showing how he adds drum triggers into a session so they can program things in during mixing if so required.
In 06:35 Howard is explaining how he usually deals without autotune, because he likes the imperfections :rofl:
 
They first think about how songs are going to be live, then they come with something that everyone knows Anders is not going to be able to perform live.
 
"Heavy in the vein of Clayman". Yeah, except Clayman isn't a heavy album. Would have made more sense to say STYE or Come Clarity, but then that would require an understanding of the band's history that Benson doesn't possess. Not sure Anders does either. He probably thinks Siren Charms is In Flames' peak, whilst Benson would go with Battles and proclaim In This Life as their magnum opus.

Basically, these lads talk shit.
 
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I thought Clayman was considered pretty heavy. Especially after twenty years of hearing about how Clayman was the last heavy IF album before they went pop with R2R, lmao

Which always struck me as bizarre, actually. I remember thinking CC was super aggressive when it came out, but it wasn't considered heavy by the older fans (and people in my music circle back in the day) because it was "emo," therefore it wasn't metal.
 
I thought Clayman was considered pretty heavy. Especially after twenty years of hearing about how Clayman was the last heavy IF album before they went pop with R2R, lmao

Which always struck me as bizarre, actually. I remember thinking CC was super aggressive when it came out, but it wasn't considered heavy by the older fans (and people in my music circle back in the day) because it was "emo," therefore it wasn't metal.
I have said it once and I’ll say it again…as the future repeats today needs to be played live way more often
 
I thought Clayman was considered pretty heavy. Especially after twenty years of hearing about how Clayman was the last heavy IF album before they went pop with R2R, lmao

Which always struck me as bizarre, actually. I remember thinking CC was super aggressive when it came out, but it wasn't considered heavy by the older fans (and people in my music circle back in the day) because it was "emo," therefore it wasn't metal.
It’s more like, heaviness was never the defining characteristic of Clayman. People never listened to it because it was “so heavy”. They listened for other reasons.
 
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People who think Clayman is heavy simply can't listen to much metal. I'm sure IF's modern fanbase considers Clayman heavy, but in reality it's massively melodic and the only real "heaviness" are the vocals.

Truth is IF have never been a heavy band. A handful of songs in that category but they've always hung their hats on melodies and upbeat energy. That's why the Foregone stuff sounds completely different to what they've done previously, and is not 'back to the roots". IF was historically described as Iron Maiden meets death metal. Would anyone describe Foregone as that?
 
I have said it once and I’ll say it again…as the future repeats today needs to be played live way more often

If only. One of the top three songs on Clayman, and for my money the most underrated IF song of all time.
 
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Definitely. I remember doing the same last summer, played As The Future Repeats Today five times in a row LOUD with the windows rolled down as I was driving around.

My Clayman favorites:

As The Future Repeats
Suburban Me
Swim
Brush the Dust Away

not sure about how they rank, but those are the ones I listen to over and over again. Honestly pretty much skip the rest.