Not going to go into too much detail at this point, but my initial ratings...
The Beginning of All Things - Bjorn can write this stuff in his sleep. Sounds fine, but what's up with the title? Might as well just be called "Start of Album". Lol. Come on.
State of Slow Decay - It's okay, and I don't think the chorus is so bad, but I can't give a song which rips off BBF this hard anything higher than a 6. So - 6/10.
Meet Your Maker - Improves with the vocal volume turned down. Nonetheless, a quite basic track with annoying Benson chorus. 6/10.
Bleeding Out - Generic as fuck. Boring. 3/10.
Foregone Part 1 - Sounds better now, but still nothing special. 6/10.
Foregone Part 2 - Anders says this one is like Gyroscope. Sums the current state of the band up in many ways. 5/10.
Pure Light of Mind - Could work really well for another band. I don't want this from IF though. As noted in my other posts, vocals sound so, so fake. 5/10.
The Great Deceiver - Probably my favourite song from the album. Cool melodies, and with vocal volume turned down and Joey line removed this one is decent enough. ITM level. 7/10.
In the Dark - Battles song with better production. When I listen to this I just feel like saying, if you don't want to be In Flames anymore then don't be In Flames. Do a side project for stuff like this and Pure Light of Mind, Create a full, cohesive album with this kind of music on it. I'd have no interest, but maybe others would. Shoehorning this kind of song on an album that also includes songs like SoSD and Foregone Part 1 is just dumb to me. Anders talks about Siren Charms being schitzo - how is Foregone any different? Oh... 3/10.
A Dialogue in B-flat Minor - Stupid title, why call it this when there's a song with an extremely similar title on the Clayman rerelease? Anyway it's just a boring metalcore song. 5/10.
Cynosure - I actually kind of like the opening 30-40 seconds of this one. That's about it though. 5.5/10.
End the Transmission - Yes, please do. Boring. 3/10.
Become One - Do one. 0/10.
Probably tied with SC for lowest initial scoring of an album. With Battles there were at least a handful of songs I sort of enjoyed before later realising they all sucked. ITM had a few songs I really liked, alongside some garbage. This album is just... well, it's not In Flames to me. I've felt that way since I heard the first couple of singles drop, and it hasn't really changed.
Overall 5/10, for now. I'll listen to some of these songs again tomorrow and see if I'm feeling more (or less) generous.
