New album Foregone out February 2023

[The Grayfox]

December Flower sticks out like a sore thumb on that setlist, but damn is it cool to see it being played live after almost 30 years. And it actually sounded pretty good too. I still find it weird that they aren't playing more songs from Foregone. I figured this would be the place where they would play a few more songs from their newest album but they didn't. They threw in End the Transmission, but they had already played it a few times before. It's interesting because usually when In Flames puts out a new album, they promote the absolute hell out of it and that doesn't seem to be happening here.

Also, Battles is the best album ever and I hope next year at Dalhalla, they play it in it's entirety. Twice.

 

[DE4life]

Seeing that song live + the solo warms my heart. I like that Chris put his own flourishes on it, even if it sounded strange to me after only hearing the studio version for the past 20 years.

@Grayfox - What is it about Battles that makes it so good? I've always felt that it might be the greatest In Flames album of all time, but I can't put my finger on as to why.

EDIT: lmao, for some reason I thought @Pallbearer was the one who made that bet and that his post was self-referential. Sorry dude

I like that you edited this but still tagged the wrong person, lmao. User Grayfox is going to be like what does this have to do with me? With that said he's only posted twice and hasn't visited since 2013, so will probably never see the notification.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Haha, I realized as I was finishing editing that post that Grayfox isn't "The Grayfox", but I figured that The Grayfox posts here frequently enough that it wouldn't really matter. Had no idea "Grayfox" was a separate person lmao

 

[DE4life]

Everyone assumes it's the word "The", but in fact it stands for The Halo Effect Grayfox, in tribute to the saviours of MDM in the 2020s.

 

[The Grayfox]

Everyone assumes it's the word "The", but in fact it stands for The Halo Effect Grayfox, in tribute to the saviours of MDM in the 2020s.

I can confirm that this is the case. But I think now I'm going to change it to B Grayfox in honor of the greatest musical masterpiece of our time, Battles.

Also, for the longest time I've wondered what your avatar is but I always forget to ask or look it up. Until now. The only thing I've found is in relation to The Shield. That show has been on my watch list for like 20 years lol.

 

[DE4life]

It is indeed from The Shield. It's the calling card of the Strike Team, a special ops anti-crime unit that the show revolves around.

I can't really say enough good thngs about The Shield, it's one of my favourite TV shows of all time. In my view it's hugely underappreciated. I won't say underrated because most people who watch it do rate it very highly, it's just not enough people have watched it. It's seven seasons long but genuinely does not dip in quality once throughout its entire run. In fact, the last two seasons are arguably the best of the lot, with the final episodes especially being absolute masterpieces. No final episode disappointment with this series. They nailed it perfectly.

I'd definitely recommend to watch it when you have the chance - I've rewatched it multiple times over the years and it never gets old.

 

[The Grayfox]

I've watched some of Kurt Sutter's other stuff, namely Sons of Anarchy. I remember when I was watching that, people told me that it had similarities to The Shield in terms of the way the shows are written. I'm notoriously late to TV shows. I've grown accustomed to binge watching and I can't watch shows weekly anymore, with a few exceptions -- mainly UK shows. So if a show comes out and catches my attention, but is in it's infancy, I know I'm in for a long wait. The plus side is, I have a huge back catalog of material to catch up on at this point. I just recently finished both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and somehow managed to stay relatively spoiler-free. I'll get to the Shield soon. In fact, I think I'm going to watch Happy Valley season 3 and then maybe I'll start The Shield.

Or maybe I'll just listen to Battles on repeat instead, I don't know.

 

[DE4life]

I'm pretty much the same when it comes to a lot of TV shows, I often watch them long after the hype has died down. I watched a little bit of Sons of Anarchy - there are similarities to The Shield in presentation, but I'd say The Shield is far better. SoA didn't capture me in the same way The Shield did, and I didn't watch very much of it in the end.

I've probably rewatched The Shield half a dozen times over the past few years though.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

Me after hearing that quote about December Flower:

Damn, Bjorn, don't be getting my hopes up like that. With Anders' current vocals and Chris's lead guitar chops, I think they could absolutely own it, solo and all. Bjorn could even handle the first solo, and Chris the big one. If I were in the room, I would cry like the big fanboy I am.

I just had an inkling after that interview that Bjorn was thinking 'could be fun to revisit that one'. I think we all have @burank666 to thank for this. Called it on Bjorn taking the first solo and Chris taking the main one. I thought it sounded fucking magic, it's got great energy - aggression and melody both cranked up to the extremes and they really found a way to execute it live that did the studio version justice. It's their best song IMO and it should really be a regular feature of their sets.

I hope they had enough fun performing it to want to keep it there. I also really loved seeing the reaction of the old-school die hards in the crowd on both video versions that have made it to YouTube. I was definitely living vicariously through the guy in this video who absolutely loses his shit:

 

[The Grayfox]

The problem is, when they do play something old like this, even if it sticks around for a little while (see Stand Ablaze), they end up dropping it because of the non-reactions they get. Which is really their own fault for never playing this stuff. Songs like Only for the Weak are over 20 years old at this point but still get great reactions live, even among people who are more recent fans, because OFTW has been a staple in the setlist for so long. When you don’t play a song live in over 25 years, recent fans have no idea what the hell you’re playing.

Whatever happens, this proves that they don’t need 5 guitarists on stage (like they used to claim) to make this stuff work. Both December Flower and Stand Ablaze sounded excellent live. Of course, I’d be fine if they ditched December Flower for anything from Battles, because Battles is better than The Jester Race.

 

[galvanized]

The problem is, when they do play something old like this, even if it sticks around for a little while (see Stand Ablaze), they end up dropping it because of the non-reactions they get. Which is really their own fault for never playing this stuff. Songs like Only for the Weak are over 20 years old at this point but still get great reactions live, even among people who are more recent fans, because OFTW has been a staple in the setlist for so long. When you don’t play a song live in over 25 years, recent fans have no idea what the hell you’re playing.

Whatever happens, this proves that they don’t need 5 guitarists on stage (like they used to claim) to make this stuff work. Both December Flower and Stand Ablaze sounded excellent live. Of course, I’d be fine if they ditched December Flower for anything from Battles, because Battles is better than The Jester Race.

December Flower is different though. Pretty sure it has legendary status even among newer fans. Many people consider it to be among the best metal solos of all time. I don’t think it would get a poor reaction. Stand Ablaze is more obscure in comparison.

 

[DE4life]

Most nu In Flames have zero interest in anything related to The Jester Race. Slave repeatedly told us all it was a boring album that sounded like it was recorded on a cheap Chinese microphone. The IF fanbase is a different beast these days compared to the 2000s.

 

[drawntoblack]

Bit late to the party but that december flower cover doesn't sound half-bad!

 

[DE4life]

I just had an inkling after that interview that Bjorn was thinking 'could be fun to revisit that one'. I think we all have @burank666 to thank for this. Called it on Bjorn taking the first solo and Chris taking the main one. I thought it sounded fucking magic, it's got great energy - aggression and melody both cranked up to the extremes and they really found a way to execute it live that did the studio version justice. It's their best song IMO and it should really be a regular feature of their sets.

I hope they had enough fun performing it to want to keep it there. I also really loved seeing the reaction of the old-school die hards in the crowd on both video versions that have made it to YouTube. I was definitely living vicariously through the guy in this video who absolutely loses his shit:

Speaking of @burank666 , he never did post that full interview with Anders or Bjorn

 

[zade84]

End the transmission - Dalhalla Video Clip
End the transmission from dalhalla, anders does blegh around 0:30

 

[DE4life]

Blegh sums it up for me as well.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

The problem is, when they do play something old like this, even if it sticks around for a little while (see Stand Ablaze), they end up dropping it because of the non-reactions they get. Which is really their own fault for never playing this stuff. Songs like Only for the Weak are over 20 years old at this point but still get great reactions live, even among people who are more recent fans, because OFTW has been a staple in the setlist for so long. When you don’t play a song live in over 25 years, recent fans have no idea what the hell you’re playing.

Whatever happens, this proves that they don’t need 5 guitarists on stage (like they used to claim) to make this stuff work. Both December Flower and Stand Ablaze sounded excellent live. Of course, I’d be fine if they ditched December Flower for anything from Battles, because Battles is better than The Jester Race.

I've watched a few videos from Dalhalla now, and I don't see that much of a difference in the reactions to December Flower, Trigger, Delight and Angers or Where the Dead Ships Dwell. The crowd on the whole seems pretty reserved (with a few people here and there being much more energetic), which is the same as how it looked last year. Bit of a shame for the band, really, I think their performance merited a bit more.

I have read that Swedish crowds do tend to be quite low-energy, but obviously we've seen that 2004 video of Only For The Weak, which is one of the most impressive examples of a crowd all jumping together I've ever seen, also the crowd at Sticky Fingers on the Used and Abused DVD looked great too, so I don't know if we can apply that generalisation. I've still to watch Only For The Weak, but that's one of those songs where Anders typically tells the crowd to jump, so they're a bit more prompted to act, therefore I don't think we can compare... and I haven't watched any songs from Battles yet, which you know will get the strongest reaction because of their musical magnificence .

The point is that I don't think that December Flower was a 'meh' moment relative to any of the more established songs in the set (and actually, you can see people within the crowd who knew exactly how cool it was to hear it played), it was just a pretty 'meh' crowd.

 

[The Grayfox]

I've watched a few videos from Dalhalla now, and I don't see that much of a difference in the reactions to December Flower, Trigger, Delight and Angers or Where the Dead Ships Dwell. The crowd on the whole seems pretty reserved (with a few people here and there being much more energetic), which is the same as how it looked last year. Bit of a shame for the band, really, I think their performance merited a bit more.

I have read that Swedish crowds do tend to be quite low-energy, but obviously we've seen that 2004 video of Only For The Weak, which is one of the most impressive examples of a crowd all jumping together I've ever seen, also the crowd at Sticky Fingers on the Used and Abused DVD looked great too, so I don't know if we can apply that generalisation. I've still to watch Only For The Weak, but that's one of those songs where Anders typically tells the crowd to jump, so they're a bit more prompted to act, therefore I don't think we can compare... and I haven't watched any songs from Battles yet, which you know will get the strongest reaction because of their musical magnificence .

The point is that I don't think that December Flower was a 'meh' moment relative to any of the more established songs in the set (and actually, you can see people within the crowd who knew exactly how cool it was to hear it played), it was just a pretty 'meh' crowd.

Yeah, I guess I’m thinking of US crowds. I’ve been at In Flames shows where they’ve played some deep cuts (Worlds Within the Margin, Satellites, Jester Race medley) and the crowds were just lost except for a few people.

 

[Jester Slave]

pretty good quality

 

[DE4life]

Setlist is a bit meh - why not play Episode 666 for a while instead of constantly playing The Hive? Why would you pick Darker Times as one of the SOAPF songs to play? I don't mind it but it's a pretty average song.

Just saw the second Dalhalla setlist. Nothing too exciting - they played Ordinary Story for the first time in six years which is cool. They also played Delight & Angers for the first time in six years which is not cool. Also the tour debut of Here Until Forever which I'm sure will please @eochaid greatly.