New album Foregone out February 2023

[Moonshield_]

Unfortunately both of these things have happened to me.

I'd still rather relive one of them than listen to Bottled.

This made me laughing hard though

 

[DE4life]

I'm just glad he said unfortunately rather than fortunately my bro would be facing some serious questions otherwise.

 

[Man Made Bod]

Scream has a cheesy chorus, but it's at least got some energy. Bottled just sounds like the band members were on valium when they recorded it.

 

[mindd]

.
Cool footage from the ASOP bonus DVD, was watching this earlier.

Man, I always laugh my ass off watching naked Daniel sitting on wooden beams drinking beer, drooling and screaming like a mad bird

 

[mindd]

This one at 7:50 - 8:15


Poor naive 2011 Anders, he didn't know yet what the future holds for him...

 

[GraemeSinclair]

That tiny bit with the harmonised lead guitars that recurs twice in Bottled is pure old-school In Flames, the rest of it is just a fairly mediocre chugfest.

 

[MySweetShadow01]

Sup, I've been reading this forum for some time now (not nearly as long as others though) and decided to join in on the festivities.

Honestly, I actually really liked Foregone. It just resonates with me a lot. Yes, Anders' cleans are the biggest weak point of the album but they don't take away my enjoyment. There's just a lot of cool riffing, melodies, and aggression on this album that is more lacking on the previous few albums.

I will say that End the Transmission is the weakest song on the album, which the song's weakness seems to be a common opinion. I definitely don't dislike the song but it just isn't on the same level as the other songs on the album.

I'd give the album an 8.5/10. Flawed but enjoyable. Now if they'd just ditch Benson and bring back Bergstrand at least (Nordström would be better but Bergstrand is more likely).

 

[The Grayfox]

Unfortunately I don't see them shitcanning Benson. Just a guess though. There was a point in time that I didn't think Metallica would get rid of Bob Rock and they did. It probably comes down to wanting to try something fresh. I would ASSUME that if they do ditch him, it'll be to work with somebody new, not necessarily go back to a familiar face. I'd love if they worked with Fredrik again but that doesn't seem to be IF's style. Anders and Bjorn are very clear that they do not want to revisit the past, they want to move forward and grow. I understand that. Benson does need to go however. It seems that Anders and Benson have a really good partnership/friendship so my guess would be Benson is here for the long haul.

However long that ends up being. I can definitely see IF wrapping it up in the next 5 years. I don't know that Anders' voice is going to last until he's 60. Plus Anders and Bjorn are probably set monetarily at this point due to IF's success and outside business ventures. I hope I'm wrong because I like seeing musicians that still have a passion for what they do continue to create and tour until an older age.

 

[J_msh84]

In flames - Foregone Japanese Edition
Bonus Truck
1. Bottled 2023 *Produced by Howard Benson

 

[J_msh84]

If they really want to go back to metal, they should part way with Benson. I don't think making Blinded by Fear 2023 with him is a wise move. Either way, they are half-assed there now.

 

[MySweetShadow01]

Unfortunately I don't see them shitcanning Benson. Just a guess though. There was a point in time that I didn't think Metallica would get rid of Bob Rock and they did. It probably comes down to wanting to try something fresh. I would ASSUME that if they do ditch him, it'll be to work with somebody new, not necessarily go back to a familiar face. I'd love if they worked with Fredrik again but that doesn't seem to be IF's style. Anders and Bjorn are very clear that they do not want to revisit the past, they want to move forward and grow. I understand that. Benson does need to go however. It seems that Anders and Benson have a really good partnership/friendship so my guess would be Benson is here for the long haul.

However long that ends up being. I can definitely see IF wrapping it up in the next 5 years. I don't know that Anders' voice is going to last until he's 60. Plus Anders and Bjorn are probably set monetarily at this point due to IF's success and outside business ventures. I hope I'm wrong because I like seeing musicians that still have a passion for what they do continue to create and tour until an older age.

I wonder if they'd be willing to work with Colin Richardson. He was behind Heartwork after all. And if they wanted to work with someone that has worked with younger bands, Richardson has worked with Bullet For My Valentine and Trivium.

I don't think they're gonna break up in 5 years. It will probably be closer to 15 years. I think they've got enough steam to go on for at least 15 years, if not more.

 

[Xpyro125]

Looking around setlist.fm as I occasionally do, is their worst setlist ever? I think it is.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/in-flames/2017/the-sse-hydro-glasgow-scotland-43e19313.html

God damn, that's brutal. I'd be pissed if I went to see that show.

Man, I counted six songs I'd be happy to see live in that set, and I set my standards low just to get six. Fuck that.

My first IF show was at Cambridge in 2005 when they were supporting Motorhead.

View attachment 32792

At the time I was somewhat underwhelmed, although as it was my first IF show I was still buzzing to have seen them. Some good stuff in there though - TQP, System, Episode 666, Clayman, Colony.

Aside from System, I'd love to see all of those live. At the same time, you never see System performed anymore, so it'd actually be awesome to bring it back like how Stand Ablaze got its rerun.

If I could write their set (in a realistic way) for supporting their new album and still keeping a song from almost every album in there, I'd do something like this:

01. The Great Deceiver
02. I, The Mask
03. Trigger
04. Foregone Pt. 1
05. Foregone Pt. 2
06. Crawl Through Knives
07. Clayman
08. Meet Your Maker
09. Embody the Invisible
10. Food for the Gods
11. Ropes
12. Artifacts of the Black Rain
13. Wallflower
14. Crawl Through Knives
15. I'm the Highway
16. State of Slow Decay
17. My Sweet Shadow
18. Behind Space

Keeping in mind, they're probably going to play the 5 singles from Foregone. Also keeping in mind, this won't happen. But it's an example of something they could do to keep new and old fans happy.

My setlist (Not my ideal setlist, just an ideal one for getting everything) what would probably go something like this

1. The Beginning of All Things (I think the title was cut off in iTunes, but eh)
2. Foregone Pt. 1
3. Everything's Gone
4. Cloud Connected
5. Behind Space
6. Artifacts of the Black Rain/December Flower (I know December Flower probably won't happen, but Chris is 100% good enough to do the solo now)
7. Episode 666 (Still pissed I didn't get to hear it live, even if I do love The Hive too)
8. The Great Deceiver
9. Scorn/Colony (Scorn's more likely, yeah, but I'd love to hear Colony, and it's more realistic than too much else)
10. Stand Ablaze (Sadly, there weren't nearly as many people excited for this as I would've hoped when I went)
11. Deliver Us
12. Only For the Weak (This one's never getting replaced, that's just a fact)
13. F(r)iend
14. Alias/The Mirror's Truth (I'd prefer to hear the latter, but I doubt it'd stay over Alias)
15. Wallflower
16. Foregone Pt. 2
17. I Am Above
18. Take This Life

It's a bit rough around the edges, and yeah, it's mostly just the hits, but... That's pretty much 90% of what they perform these days unless we get lucky, which we have been recently, in fairness. My ideal setlist just for what I'd want to see is a lot different, but that's probably for another time.

That's just fucking grim. Luckily it was all festivals, I'd hate to pay for a club show and to get any of those lists.

I have a very hard time going back to ASOP nowadays. Partially because I've listened to it so much when it came out that I've ruined it for myself from that alone, but also overwhelmingly due to how much I can't stand its production today. Plastic guitars and distorted vocals that lack high end in its fidelity. I find it very grating. Song itself isn't all that bad, I think compositionally ASOP is fairly strong, it has only two flaws: Alias and The Chosen Pessimist. First is boring and latter is straight up offending at how bad it is.

Production and vocals are ASOP's fatal flaws. And in retrospect I think production also had a big impact on how the vocals sound. If you really listen to SOAPF vocals they actually aren't significantly different to ASOP vocals. They just work far better on Sounds than ASOP due to the production and mixing choices.

No one else mentioned it here, but I fucking hate a lot of ASOP's lyrics as well. It's overly emo, and ingenuine-feeling at that. I like the first four songs, even if Disconnected is probably the edgiest song they've had lyrically that doesn't randomly contain rape. It's kind of all downhill after that, with only Move Through Me being a standout after that (Though Drenched in Fear's seriously grown on me, I wish he did more growls like on that and one or two other songs). I want to love TCP, but it's just too drawn-out with too little interesting happening/too few changeups. I love Deafheaven, Harakiri For the Sky, A Whisp of the Atlantic's title track, and Wallflower as well, it's just that those songs have enough happening in them to justify their length. It almost works, but not quite. That being said, everything you guys said also applies.

An interesting question just came to my mind (as I'm still not able to get the hate toward Bottled) :

Do some of you would go as far as claiming to prefer Scream over Bottled?

I hope not.

A million times yes. I enjoy Scream, but not enough to ever play it individually. If I'm listening to the entirety of Come Clarity, it's still a good time, and the chorus works for me because it feels like it'd work perfectly live... Which it barely was. Great job, everyone. It's definitely the weakest track on CC by a longshot, but it doesn't detract much from the overall experience, and it keeps that adrenaline rush going akin to Mindtricks.

I totally missed the hated songs of the "previous generation". If it wasn't for you, I never would've guessed that Scream or Transparent are hated. The latter is straight up awesome.

Completely agreed. It and Free Fall are my top two from R2R, peak fucking specimens right there. Cloud Connected and Trigger are great too, don't get me wrong, but Transparent and Free Fall are amongst the most underrated songs in the middle era of IF's discography in my opinion.

"here's one we haven't played for a while - at least 20 minutes - here's Crawl Through Knives!"

Eochaid & Grayfox:

This one got me completely off-guard, I can already feel that I'm gonna be laughing to myself about this at work tomorrow.

 

[The Grayfox]

I wonder if they'd be willing to work with Colin Richardson. He was behind Heartwork after all. And if they wanted to work with someone that has worked with younger bands, Richardson has worked with Bullet For My Valentine and Trivium.

I don't think they're gonna break up in 5 years. It will probably be closer to 15 years. I think they've got enough steam to go on for at least 15 years, if not more.

Time will tell. Personally I don't see Anders screaming into a microphone when he's 60 years old though.

At this point, I would be on board for anyone but Benson. I'd like to see what someone else could do at the helm. Back in the day I always wanted them to work with Andy Sneap. Colin Richardson could be good. Zeuss as well. Just somebody to mix it up a little bit.

 

[drawntoblack]

From the recent Anders interviews, they way he speaks highly of Benson reminds me of a way an indoctrinated cult member talks about their leader. No way is that relationship ending any time soon.

 

[Moonshield_]

Alright, last chance everyone before I leave this place for ever :

House or Bottled?

 

[J_msh84]

Alright, last chance everyone before I leave this place for ever :

House or Bottled?

My friend, I never want to lose you, but Anders' gasping at 2:10 in Bottled is the creepiest thing in the history of heavy metal
Every time I hear that, I feel as if I had stepped in dog shit buried in the snowy road and crushed it.
House is autotuned trashy song with ridiculous lyrics, but at least there are no turds buried in the snowy road.

 

[The Grayfox]

Alright, last chance everyone before I leave this place for ever :

House or Bottled?

Bottled is literally at the very end of my In Flames songs list. It was will lose every time.

 

[Pallbearer]

Alright, last chance everyone before I leave this place for ever :

House or Bottled?

Bottled!

EDIT: And no, it's never been among my favourites, but I don't quite get all the hate for it either. Some are speaking of Bottled as if the song was comprised solely of the band just playing some random annoying noises and taking turns in yelling all kinds of insults at the listener.

 

[Moonshield_]

My friend, I never want to lose you, but Anders' gasping at 2:10 in Bottled is the creepiest thing in the history of heavy metal
Every time I hear that, I feel as if I had stepped in dog shit buried in the snowy road and crushed it.
House is autotuned trashy song with ridiculous lyrics, but at least there are no turds buried in the snowy road.

Bottled is literally at the very end of my In Flames songs list. It was will lose every time.

At least you could have tried. As I was meant to be easy... I'm leaving you with scars. But let's not pretend this is the first time we just don't belong.

Bottled!

Dear god, eventually someone has kept his sanity in this asylum

 

[The Grayfox]

Bottled!

EDIT: And no, it's never been among my favourites, but I don't quite get all the hate for it either. Some are speaking of Bottled as if the song was comprised solely of the band just playing some random annoying noises and taking turns in yelling all kinds of insults at the listener.

The band making some random noises and hurling insults at me would be preferable. In fact, because I never miss an opportunity to throw this out there, I have actually been insulted by a member of the band. Anders called me an asshole. User bar coming up!