New album Foregone out February 2023

[ThePhobiac]

I feel like a lot of the negative impressions I'm seeing are coming from a point of view of "let's see what these washed-up has-beens can cynically try to pass off as good music, because they aren't going to fool me."

Mostly kidding, because I realize it's all a matter of taste. But I will say I'm really baffled by how much hate you guys are giving it, even beyond the vocals. I feel like I'm missing something, or that this album was never going to impress to begin with.

 

[drawntoblack]

I feel like a lot of the negative impressions I'm seeing are coming from a point of view of "let's see what these washed-up has-beens can cynically try to pass off as good music, because they aren't going to fool me."

Just kidding, but I will say I'm really baffled by how much hate you guys are giving it, even beyond the vocals. I feel like I'm missing something, or that this album was never going to impress to begin with.

It might come off like that but I assure you it's not. When I read my own post I can even tell how my tone starts off optimistic and open and then around the halfway of it I start getting progressively more annoyed. I sat down and gave this album my full and undivided attention and I tried to get into it with an open mind.

I've written this around the time the last album came out and I still think it's true - Anders is only half of the problem. Bjorn desperately needs another songwriter to bounce ideas to and from, the music is not only really bad in quality but also overly homogenous and self-recycled.

 

[Xpyro125]

I've listened to the album three more times since last posting on here, and... I still quite like it, but it just isn't an In Flames album. Although I've come around to something like The Great Deceiver, my feeling that these just aren't the In Flames melodies I've come to know and love- Not even Bjorn's classic melodies- hasn't changed whatsoever. But it's more than that, these just don't feel like In Flames songs, which I can only also say for (Almost) everything from Battles. I checked my thoughts on everything a few times, and I realized that outside of saying "Hey, this is pretty good for modern In Flames", I didn't have any sort of feelings for it as an In Flames album, maybe aside from the opener and mentioning SC riffing once. I said before that the opener is classic In Flames, but it's also the only real In Flames song. I'd love to add SOSD to the list, but everyone's already brought up Blinded By Fear (Which I'm still able to get past myself). There's a little bit still here and there with A Dialogue's pre-chorus, In the Dark's riffing (To be fair, it's just SC riffing) and chorus guitarwork, TGD's lead melody before it goes full modern metalcore, all of Pure Light of Mind's guitarwork (Though part of me feels like the entirety of it strangely fits with the weirdness of In Flames' catalogue, particularly reminding me of Liberation in the style of Here Until Forever), Foregone Pt. 1 as a whole, and all the little acoustic bits- But that's just it, a little bit here and there.

I realize that my tastes are more than just In Flames, hence why I still do love the album. It's an overall compartmentalization of ITM with less melody and more modern metalcore, which is the bane of my existence musically, but that does work well enough for me to love it as an album. I don't love it as an In Flames album whatsoever, but I do love it as an album. It doesn't feel like Battles' brand of disingenuity, it feels more like the band being genuine in doing what they want... Which isn't In Flames. Also, include Howard Benson in the band at this point, he's created a deformed mess of their DNA about as much as all of their other producers have done wonders for their discography. It's a great album seriously marred by In Flames shedding their identity. That's what half the people here hates about the album. If this was made by any other band who didn't have such a classic and simply wonderful sound as In Flames, I don't think there'd be half the issues there are. It's difficult to even say what about this is In Flames aside from the lineup involved, which genuinely hurts. Only Battles had this 'honor'. I think it's important to make all of those distinctions.

 

[ThePhobiac]

That's totally fair, @drawntoblack, and definitely appreciate you expanding on your thoughts (and I'm not coming at this like "why don't you like this as much as I do?" ). I don't really understand what's so bad about the music itself (Anders I totally get), other than the fact that it's a bit homogenous, as you said. But SOAPF was also a collection of very similar-sounding riffs throughout, so I feel like that's not unusual, and I guess that's why the repetitiveness doesn't bother me too much. I think it's more that if the music really was as bad as some of you are saying, I would most likely agree -- from these reviews it sounds like these are some real disasters, lol.

 

[DE4life]

I feel like a lot of the negative impressions I'm seeing are coming from a point of view of "let's see what these washed-up has-beens can cynically try to pass off as good music, because they aren't going to fool me."

Mostly kidding, because I realize it's all a matter of taste. But I will say I'm really baffled by how much hate you guys are giving it, even beyond the vocals. I feel like I'm missing something, or that this album was never going to impress to begin with.

In fairness my friend your views rarely match people like myself, Eochaid, A88, drawntoblack, etc... So why confused? I'm baffled that you rate TJR as your #1 and SC as your #2, but that's just how you roll

 

[ThePhobiac]

In fairness my friend your views rarely match people like myself, Eochaid, A88, drawntoblack, etc... So why confused? I'm baffled that you rate TJR as your #1 and SC as your #2, but that's just how you roll

Haha, yeah, I realize I have little ground to stand on there (to be fair, I put SC around 5 or 6 these days -- I love that piece of shit, but I can't say it's better than Colony with a straight face ). I guess what it comes down to is that I could definitely see if this was a case of me liking the album and other people not liking it, but some of the impressions are talking as if this is as bad as (or worse than?) Battles, or that some songs are 0/10, and that seems a bit extreme to me. If this was as bad as Battles or worse than ITM, I'm pretty sure I would be right there with you guys shitting on it, lol. So that's where the disconnect is coming from for me.

Then again, I remember when STYE was getting comparisons to St. Anger, and I never understood that then, so I suppose this variety of reactions isn't anything new.

 

[drawntoblack]

That's totally fair, @drawntoblack, and definitely appreciate you expanding on your thoughts (and I'm not coming at this like "why don't you like this as much as I do?" ). I don't really understand what's so bad about the music itself

I feel like Bjorn should've kept his shit filter way higher for this album, 30% of the guitar parts should've been taken back to the drawing board. A lot of guitar parts sound overly minimalistic, like things you randomly chug out on the instrument when you first pick it up while you are warming up. Now, this kind of approach can work if you consciously want to create a minimalistic part that serves simply as a vessel for other instruments, synths, vocals. But that is almost never the case here. There is simply too much generic filler.

I've listened to the recent interviews you guys posted here and I've noted Bjorn often says how he doesn't really listen to much music. Well, maybe it's time for him to start. It's almost as if he isn't even aware of how limited his songwriting is in this day and age compared to what his peers are putting out. And speaking of peers, I've put on The halo effect album right after. As far as that album goes, I didn't rate it as high as most of you here did, in fact it also felt like a subtle letdown. I haven't played it since last august and I have to say it sounds like a 10/10 after Foregone, back to back. What an incredible bunch of songs full of lush guitar melodies.

 

[DE4life]

Haha, yeah, I realize I have little ground to stand on there (to be fair, I put SC around 5 or 6 these days -- I love that piece of shit, but I can't say it's better than Colony with a straight face ). I guess what it comes down to is that I could definitely see if this was a case of me liking the album and other people not liking it, but some of the impressions are talking as if this is as bad as (or worse than?) Battles, or that some songs are 0/10, and that seems a bit extreme to me. If this was as bad as Battles or worse than ITM, I'm pretty sure I would be right there with you guys shitting on it, lol. So that's where the disconnect is coming from for me.

Then again, I remember when STYE was getting comparisons to St. Anger, and I never understood that then, so I suppose this variety of reactions isn't anything new.

As I said man, I recognise it's not a bad album. For whatever reason it just isn't my kind of album. I haven't microanalysed the reasons, but it just doesn't interest me. And this is coming from someone who liked SOAPF and ITM, so not just an old school elitist.

 

[ThePhobiac]

It's a great album seriously marred by In Flames shedding their identity. That's what half the people here hates about the album. If this was made by any other band who didn't have such a classic and simply wonderful sound as In Flames, I don't think there'd be half the issues there are. It's difficult to even say what about this is In Flames aside from the lineup involved, which genuinely hurts. Only Battles had this 'honor'. I think it's important to make all of those distinctions.

Appreciate you typing this out, and I can definitely see your perspective. The Benson influence is still there, I agree, and unfortunately it's still holding them back and adding an element to their sound I'd rather not be there. That's the big issue I have with this album.

As far as whether or not this isn't really In Flames, I was there with you guys on Battles (and ITM, for those who didn't like it) but here I feel that they've *mostly* returned to form enough that this seems like the typical new In Flames album, where the sound is just different than what came before (like how R2R is different from Clayman, STYE is different from Reroute, SOAPF is different from ASOP, etc). I see Foregone as being just "different" from, say, SOAPF, rather than being "not In Flames". That's not meant to persuade or argue, of course -- again, all subjective.

 

[galvanized]

Still haven’t listened yet.

But I will not judge the album based on whether or not it sounds like IF. To me they already stopped sounding like IF a long time ago. First 23 years ago, then 13 years ago with SOAPF and after diverging even more. But I still found songs I could enjoy.

They have done this so many times, I won’t be surprised by it.

 

[eochaid]

I feel like a lot of the negative impressions I'm seeing are coming from a point of view of "let's see what these washed-up has-beens can cynically try to pass off as good music, because they aren't going to fool me."

Mostly kidding, because I realize it's all a matter of taste. But I will say I'm really baffled by how much hate you guys are giving it, even beyond the vocals. I feel like I'm missing something, or that this album was never going to impress to begin with.

It's just not the kind of music that I like to listen at. Maybe I would like the guitar work coming from another band with a different past and style. But this has nothing to do with what I liked from IF.

And the vocal work is on the opposite side of what I like. And I'm not talking about the overprocessed vocals, the autotunes or my usual hate for Anders (something that just came to happen in the recent years). It's about the vocal melodies. How they are constructed. It's a kind of music that I tend to dislike and sometimes, even hate. Why? Well. I cannot know. I cannot control what kind of emotions music makes me feel. It's something primitive, or so I can explain.

It's like, just making an example with something that I have near (though it's far more strange to the part of Spain where I live than people tends to know), I cannot stand listening to more than tend seconds of Flamenco music. It makes me mad.

Well, this is not that extreme but it's similar.

 

[eochaid]

So, it's not that I hate this album. This is not a Battles part two. But, if I have to considere how much of their music I have liked since SC, then it's clear that what they're doing is not for me anymore.

 

[A88]

A lot of guitar parts sound overly minimalistic, like things you randomly chug out on the instrument when you first pick it up while you are warming up.

This!

I'm always amazed when people are impressed when they hear double bass, random chugs and 0-7-9-10 with some low growls over all that.

It is something that every metal band on the planet can come up with in like 120 seconds.

If something like this was done by a band called In Water from Latvia, and this was their first album, nobody would care. But it is In Flames, so it's a return to the form, unparalleled melodic brutality, staying true to themselves while pushing boundaries of modern metal music and similar nonsense.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

This!

I'm always amazed when people are impressed when they hear double bass, random chugs and 0-7-9-10 with some low growls over all that.

*O578, In Flames haven't played in standard C since R2R :'(

 

[DE4life]

One of the flaws Foregone shares with SC is a lack of inspiration, imo, on verse instruments. Where it improves on SC is that the vocals and instruments generally flow correctly together and the songs are structured in a professional way. Also solos are somewhat improved thanks to Broderick handling some of these duties. Bjorn's solos are as boring as ever. Dude just needs to stop doing them, or just copy and paste from previous songs. At this point nobody would be able to tell the difference.

Meanwhile Foregone also inherits Battles' flaw of having horribly overproduced and fake sounding vocals, along with some tracks that simply don't belong on a metal album. Where it improves on Battles is overall production, and there are some genuinely OK metal songs on the album, although nothing outstanding. Also no children's choirs which is always good.

 

[miniroch]

Also no children's choirs which is always good.

Children's choir in SepticFlesh tracks are awesome!

 

[DE4life]

Children's choir in SepticFlesh tracks are awesome!

Hopefully they stay there and far away from HB's In Flames.

 

[Ilias7]

It has been a hell of a day with studying and working, but I found time to listen to the album in full some times.


The Beginning of All Things: A simple but beautiful piece of acoustic work. It is very atmospheric, but also very repetitive. It could be better if Bjorn developed this melody a bit more. 7/10


State of Slow Decay: My favourite single, fast riffs (I do not consider it plagiarism, but heavy influence from ATG), cool energy, growls and a chorus that actually works pretty well. Generic solo no.273. 9/10


Meet Your Maker: I love the death metal intro right from STYE era. The chorus is not bad (the guitar work on it is amazing), but it feels out of place and the autotune is overused. I really dig the 2-part solo. 7/10


Bleeding Out: 2 actually good riffs in the intro gone to waste with this song (one riff reminds me of Like Sand). Imagine dragons verses, cool screams in the pre-chorus and a chorus that it tries to be big, but ends up generic and bad even for Battles standards. Seriously, I caught myself skipping the chorus while listening to the song. The solo is technically good, but not that interesting for my taste. 3/10


Foregone pt1: I found myself listening to it more pleasantly in the context of the album. The riff in the verses is my favourite in the album. At times it feels heavy, just for the shake of being heavy. 6/10


Foregone pt2: Actually is one of the tracks I enjoy the most, with many mood changes. I love the guitar work, the (kind of) solo fits well within the song and it gives a melancholic vibe. The chorus is great, despite the autotune. 8/10


Pure Light Of The Mind: Instrumentation is excellent with guitar melodies everywhere, both acoustic and electric. Anders tried something different in the verses and it feels weird and not him. However, I am not going to lie, this chorus is stuck in my head. 7/10


The Great Deceiver: The single that was just ok for me at first, but now I love it. Ferocious riffs, tempo changes, guitar melodies and Anders is a fucking beast. I am trying to ignore the Joey line. 9/10


In The Dark: A song with an evil vibe. I like the screams, but the verses seem to drag. I am ok with the pre-chorus and I do hear the folk influences in the chorus, which I like. Extra bonus for the 2 solos. The solo after the first verse is small, but cool and fitting. The second one is again divided into 2 parts, I prefer the second one. I also love the climax in the final chorus. 8/10


A Dialogue in B Flat Minor: The intro is lovely, I could listen to it again and again. Great guitar work. I also like the change from the verse to the evil Korn-y pre-chorus. I haven’t decided if I like the chorus, it is not bad but something doesn’t sit right with me. The lyrics are actually quite well. 8/10


Cynosure: Obviously the bass is cool and the verses have a nice groove. The chorus is huge and addictive. Autotune works well here. It is a very interesting song overall, but the things is has to offer are limited. They could have worked on it a bit more. 8/10


End The Transmission: Riffs are just ok, it gets a bit boring at some parts, but Anders’ growls are straight from hell (1:35 and the bridge before the final chorus). At first the chorus felt weird and too poppy, but actually it somehow works. One of my favourite solos here and I like the way the song passes to the solo. 6/10


Become One: Generic, but at least listenable. 5/10


An overall score of 7/10. I think I had rated ITM higher ( maybe 7.5?) and I really cannot explain that, since I feel like I enjoy this album more. Some general thoughts:

The guitar work is amazing throughout the whole album. Lots of riffs and cool melodies. Bjorn actually tried for this one, I don’t know if this has to do with the presence of Chris. Tanner is great everywhere, he really takes the band to another lever. I am not the one to judge the bass, it seems ok. Anders sounds better than ever when screaming, but also uses autotune more than ever when clean-singing. I like the lyrics (with some obvious exceptions), maybe some themes are too repetitive though.

The important thing for me is that it sounds like an album that they DID put some effort on it. Different song structures, acoustic breaks, tempo changes, melodies, riffs, solos, guitar duels, blast beats, cool theme and vibe, experimentation, everything is there. Not all of them are good, but if ITM was a step to the right direction, I feel like this is two steps.

 

[Moonshield_]

I've listened to the recent interviews you guys posted here and I've noted Bjorn often says how he doesn't really listen to much music. Well, maybe it's time for him to start. It's almost as if he isn't even aware of how limited his songwriting is in this day and age compared to what his peers are putting out. And speaking of peers, I've put on The halo effect album right after. As far as that album goes, I didn't rate it as high as most of you here did, in fact it also felt like a subtle letdown. I haven't played it since last august and I have to say it sounds like a 10/10 after Foregone, back to back. What an incredible bunch of songs full of lush guitar melodies.

In Flames was a band admired mainly for its guitar work and it is obvious they have hugely impoverished this aspect since 2011. That’s why it’s been a long time since I consider this band to be an Anders & Bjorn project and not the legendary In Flames they used to be.

Still haven’t listened yet.

But I will not judge the album based on whether or not it sounds like IF. To me they already stopped sounding like IF a long time ago. First 23 years ago, then 13 years ago with SOAPF and after diverging even more. But I still found songs I could enjoy.

They have done this so many times, I won’t be surprised by it.

You said it all. Except that 23 years ago, although they drastically changed in style, music kept on being awesome.
Whereas nowadays we have to struggle to just find it « good ».

BUT, eventually I find this new album to be very enjoyable!

-Very good production with big guitar/drum sound
-Killer growls
-Some catchy choruses
-A return of agressiveness
-Good little acoustic parts here and there

Let’s add the surprisingly cool artwork and we have a rather nice releasing from the Anders & Bjorn + the american boys project.

We should realize the chance we have not having to suffer children choirs anymore ffs!

Even the alt rock side of the album is somehow tolerable unlike on Battles where production was too weak to improve and hide the lacking effort compositions.

So the only songs I struggle with are :

« Bleeding out », what the hell is this intro, do they think they’re Muse or something. Fortunately the growls are present and the chorus is passable.

« End the Transmission » whose chorus is not catchy enough, above all when considering it is the final song of the album.

Super happy with the oldschool acoustic intro. Plus the fact that « State of Slow Decay » (that I loved from first hear thanks to the ressemblance with « blinded by fear ») and Meet your Maker are following each other makes a very solid beginning to the album.

Then arrives « Bleeding out » which is average but just after that we once again get a very strong modern IF song with « Foregone pt1 » followed by the rather enjoyable « pt2 »!

Then come a really cool acoustic intro to a rather good ballad (if you forget about the awkward singing) that is « Pure Light of Mind » which somehow makes me think of Ghost.

It’s now time for « The Great Deceiver » which is high modern IF quality, followed by « In the Dark » whose I find the chorus to be addictive.

« Dialogue » has heavy verses, a nice catchy chorus and a rather cool solo. It’s a perfect example of what battles should have sound like if it was good.

« Cynosure » has not so good verses but once again the chorus is nice.

« End the Transmission » is disappointing .

« Become One » is good but the chorus should have been better.

On a negative side I’d say they clearly went too far with autotune (it is downright embarrassing on «Pure Light of Mind »).
It’s too bad when we think what it could have been using the good old Anders’ authentic and emotional broken voice.

Don’t know yet which one is better between Foregone and I, the Mask but what I know for sure is that Foregone wins production wise.
And again… no children choirs here

 

[krofius]

Gave it a spin, the ''metal'' side is definitely an improvement over the last couple albums at least. Really like Anders utilizing his death growls continuously on the album.
However like the last 2 albums, the overprocessed cleans turn me completely off of basically every song they feature. They are to ''catchy'' sounding and poppy. SOAPF is probably my favorite album when it comes to Anders cleans. A prime example being Where the Dead Ships Dwell. One of my alltime favorite choruses from IF/Anders, and it's purely because of the vocals. They are unique sounding.
I get people like the catchy and poppy choruses, especially people who aren't into the more heavy stuff, for them it can probably be a good bridge dynamically with the heavier sounding verses on the album. But for me it's just fucking boring honestly. It's way to much "anthem" sounding. And even in the verses with clean vocals, like Pure Light of Mind, they have this processed effect which ruins it completely. There is plenty of other songs where he can do the calm cleans in a good way imo, like The Chosen Pessimist, Come Clarity, Dawn of A New Day & Metaphor. Those still sound unique and hard to copy (whether you like it or not), recent couple albums the cleans has lost the Anders touch imo.

I'm sure people a lot of people will love the album though, especially people who love more catchier/poppier sounding clean vocals. That's completely fine, it's just not for me. Rhythm guitars are the biggest step-up imo. I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout most of the album. Drums also really nice.

Pros:
Production is much better than Battles & I, The Mask. Much more crispy, crunchy and clear sounding guitars and drums, without sounding overproduced.
Instrumentally it sounds better than in many years
Anders harsh vocals sound great, especially the increased utilization of death growls

Cons:
The overprocessed poppy sounding vocals completely drags the album down. And the cadence/melodies sometimes just sounds so fucking weird and off to me. And every song doesn't need to go for a catchy chorus with the same formula either..

Sadly, like last couple albums, won't probably be spinning this one much. Maybe it can grow on me a bit like other albums have, we'll see. But I just know the overly poppy sounding vocals does not scream high replay value to my ears.

But then again, I don't really listen to that much IF anymore anyways. But I will say, they sounded fucking great live when I saw them in December. So I will probably catch them live more times for sure.