New album Foregone out February 2023
- Thread starter TheJestersDoor
- Start date
Foreskin is a back to the roots album only if you consider IF a generic US melodeath/metalcore band from mid 00s somewhat influenced by the Swedish scene of the late 90s-early 00s.
In that case generic melodeath light riffing and ATG drums can be considered a return to something. HB produced and autotuned Anders still fucks up even that line of thinking.
In general, my interest for IF is at an all time low after this album.
In that case generic melodeath light riffing and ATG drums can be considered a return to something. HB produced and autotuned Anders still fucks up even that line of thinking.
In general, my interest for IF is at an all time low after this album.
While I put Foregone at the absolute bottom
. I don't care about it being more aggressive. To me it's like Battles but with even more fakery.
Moonshield_
Member
Here is my opinion about the post ASOP records :
1. Foregone -> Only one song doesn’t do it for me, « End of Transmission », plus I really am a fan of SOSD/Foregone pt.1/In the Dark/Meet your Maker/Bleeding Out and all the remaining songs in fact.
BIG production too.
Great Artwork.
8/10
2. I the Mask -> Some very catchy songs like ITM/Call my Name/I am Above/Follow me/In this Life/Voices/All the Pain. Bad and average songs too with House/Burn/We will Remember/Deep Inside.
Plus nice crunchy production.
Amazing Artwork.
7/10
3. Siren Charms -> A few songs I really enjoy in this one with Dead Eyes/With Eyes Wide Open/Through Oblivion/Rusted Nails/In Plain View but too much awful songs like Filtered Truth/Paralyzed/When the World Explodes/Monsters in the Ballroom)
Weird Production.
Weird but classy artwork.
6.5/10
4. Sounds of a Playground Fading -> Too much bad/boring/filler songs such as Liberation/Enter Tragedy/Jester’s Door/Darker Times/The Attic that tend to spoil the album which has nevertheless some good ones like A New Dawn/Fear is the Weakness/Ropes/Where the Dead Ships Dwell/The Puzzle (the outro in this song is genius to me)/All for me
Production is not metal enough to make the good songs really shine.
Average artwork.
6/10
5. Battles (The End/The Truth are nice but that’s about it)
Weak production.
Weak artwork.
4/10
1. Foregone -> Only one song doesn’t do it for me, « End of Transmission », plus I really am a fan of SOSD/Foregone pt.1/In the Dark/Meet your Maker/Bleeding Out and all the remaining songs in fact.
BIG production too.
Great Artwork.
8/10
2. I the Mask -> Some very catchy songs like ITM/Call my Name/I am Above/Follow me/In this Life/Voices/All the Pain. Bad and average songs too with House/Burn/We will Remember/Deep Inside.
Plus nice crunchy production.
Amazing Artwork.
7/10
3. Siren Charms -> A few songs I really enjoy in this one with Dead Eyes/With Eyes Wide Open/Through Oblivion/Rusted Nails/In Plain View but too much awful songs like Filtered Truth/Paralyzed/When the World Explodes/Monsters in the Ballroom)
Weird Production.
Weird but classy artwork.
6.5/10
4. Sounds of a Playground Fading -> Too much bad/boring/filler songs such as Liberation/Enter Tragedy/Jester’s Door/Darker Times/The Attic that tend to spoil the album which has nevertheless some good ones like A New Dawn/Fear is the Weakness/Ropes/Where the Dead Ships Dwell/The Puzzle (the outro in this song is genius to me)/All for me
Production is not metal enough to make the good songs really shine.
Average artwork.
6/10
5. Battles (The End/The Truth are nice but that’s about it)
Weak production.
Weak artwork.
4/10
Last edited:
ThePhobiac
be at ease
After ASOP it was like this for me:
SOAPF - Big break from the typical IF sound. Jesper's absence was palpable. But I still quite enjoyed it. It hasn't aged all that well for me, but it's certainly not bad.
SC - Hits the spot for me, despite a couple of weak tracks and poor production that puts the drums ahead of everything else. Loved the laid-back and stripped-down approach they had here. Good for what should have been a one-off experimental record.
Battles - Pretty embarrassing. There's a couple of songs I like, but much of the band's worst material is on this record. Cliche, commercial, and fake. That SC gets lumped in with this will haunt me to my grave, lol
ITM - A step in the right direction, but not enough for me. It still inhabits the same space as Battles. There are some very good songs on here. But, again, a few of the band's worst tracks are on this record.
Foregone - Very nearly back on track for me, but the vestiges of Battles and ITM are still there, mostly in Anders' vocals and lame vocal melodies. But it's the first IF album since 2014 where I like every song except one or two tracks.
SOAPF - Big break from the typical IF sound. Jesper's absence was palpable. But I still quite enjoyed it. It hasn't aged all that well for me, but it's certainly not bad.
SC - Hits the spot for me, despite a couple of weak tracks and poor production that puts the drums ahead of everything else. Loved the laid-back and stripped-down approach they had here. Good for what should have been a one-off experimental record.
Battles - Pretty embarrassing. There's a couple of songs I like, but much of the band's worst material is on this record. Cliche, commercial, and fake. That SC gets lumped in with this will haunt me to my grave, lol
ITM - A step in the right direction, but not enough for me. It still inhabits the same space as Battles. There are some very good songs on here. But, again, a few of the band's worst tracks are on this record.
Foregone - Very nearly back on track for me, but the vestiges of Battles and ITM are still there, mostly in Anders' vocals and lame vocal melodies. But it's the first IF album since 2014 where I like every song except one or two tracks.
For what it's worth, I don't think SC and Battles are lumped together because people think they sound the same. Not for me, anyway. More because they both represent some of the worst stuff IF have put out. SC is the band in a state of discontent and it shows on the record with how disjointed and unfinished it sounds. Battles is the band trying to be someone else, so far removed from anything related to their original sound (barring The End and maybe Wallflower) that it's barely recognisable as In Flames anymore. I think SC and Battles are bad, in most people's eyes, for very different reasons.
The Grayfox
Nija
I can’t even fathom somebody liking SC over SOAPF. I just can’t comprehend it. Does not compute. Yeah, there are definitely a few mediocre tracks on SOAPF but SC is 100% awful. The only thing interesting about SC to me is the artwork.
ThePhobiac
be at ease
For sure, I totally get that. I'm okay with people shitting on SC (even though I do love to defend it
) but I bristle at the taint of Howard Benson being anywhere near it.I think it's because I've always looked at SC as a deliberately experimental release that's difficult to directly compare to their other stuff because it's trying to do something different. Whereas I view SOAPF as a good but flawed-and-missing-something follow-up to ASOP. Doesn't mean experimental releases can't suck ass, which is the consensus view of SC, but it just happened to be a hit with me. Some things just can't be explained, lol.
It's like how I view Assembly by Theatre of Tragedy. It's a complete genreshift into lame Europop, yet I like it more than some of their gothic metal classics.
The Grayfox
Nija
ThePhobiac
be at ease
The Grayfox
Nija
In terms of personal preferences Phobiac has always lived on the edge. He's the only person I know who ranks TJR and SC as his top two in Flames albums. I respect the total honesty and ability to explain why, even if I may not understand it.
The Grayfox
Nija
For sure. TJR and SC, that's just two completely opposite ends of the spectrum right there. It's like saying your two favorite Metallica albums are Kill 'Em All and St. Anger. But... maybe those are his two favorite Metallica albums, I don't know.
ThePhobiac
be at ease
@The Grayfox I love Aegis, though, lol. Hopefully that makes up for it.
I'm not a Metallica fan and I've never listened to any of their albums all the way through, so it's hard to say. I've heard great things about St. Anger, though...
I don't rank SC at #2 these days, lol. I think TJR, Reroute, and Colony would be my top three IF albums, in that order.
I'm not a Metallica fan and I've never listened to any of their albums all the way through, so it's hard to say. I've heard great things about St. Anger, though...
I don't rank SC at #2 these days, lol. I think TJR, Reroute, and Colony would be my top three IF albums, in that order.
Foregone is an aseptic album. It's not as if they've been putting too much passion in their latest efforts. But, the feeling that they're just in autopilot mode is there.
Even for the songs that I like, I don't feel any kind of emotion behind them. And I feel no emotion towatds them. They just serve to fill a playlist.
Even for the songs that I like, I don't feel any kind of emotion behind them. And I feel no emotion towatds them. They just serve to fill a playlist.
Xpyro125
Active Member
- Dec 1, 2021
- 568
- 276
- 63
I'm fucking living for the guy who's jumping up and having the time of his life there. The crowd seriously disappoints me- Even if you don't know the song, it's so fucking cool that you guys should at least be bopping to the solo.
100%.
Ah, shit, here I go.
S: Come Clarity, SoaPF, Whoracle
A: TJR, Colony, Clayman, Subterranean, maybe SC and/or ITM depending on the day
B: Reroute, STYE, maybe Foregone depending on the day
C: Lunar (I could make peace with the production if the songwriting was Subterranean-level), ASOP (It has sadly grown on me a bit)
D:
F: Battles
Oh, yay, post-Jesper rankings.
1. Sounds of a Playground Fading- Wow, that's a surprise. My top three favorite IF albums constantly go back and forth, but my most solid ranking is CC, SoaPF, then Whoracle. The album's fucking wonderful, but while I do quite "The Attic" and "Jester's Door" and acknowledge their purpose in the album, I can't help but feel like they're far too pace-breaking for everyone else. Otherwise, the bridge section in "All For Me" where Anders' vocals are at their absolute worst in sound, I can't think of a single moment from this album I don't like. That, and it's capped off with "A New Dawn" and "Liberation". That's just wonderful. It's a top tier IF album for me, even without Jesper, who is and always will be my favorite guitarist of all time, and it fucking sucks that SoaPF proves that Bjorn can craft an incredible album instrumentally.
2. Siren Charms- It's not good. Not at all. That being said, I dunno, I just really like this album. Unlike Battles, where it's a guilty pleasure when I'm in a pop mood, I just genuinely enjoy this album. Everyone here's said everything about the rushed nature of it and the communication issues there (Bjorn didn't even know there was going to be a feature on WTWE until the day Feldt recorded for it), so I won't go into that. The only songs I don't like are "Dead Eyes" and "Filtered Truth". The album definitely decays in quality as it goes on (Unless if you count the two bonus tracks, those are the absolute best songs from SC), and it never feels complete, but I love it. I often listen to an instrumental version of the title track because it's one of my favorite pieces of music from post-2000s IF (And because as much as I love Anders as a vocalist, the whiny nature of the lyrics and vocals here ruin the song). Even "Rusted Nail" is really cool to me, and I don't mind it peaking in the first half because there's always a different approach and little touches at each version of each part of the structure that I absolutely love. I'm sure that we would've gotten more stuff like that if the album wasn't rushed, but I don't really mind.
3. I, the Mask- I think even just a year ago this would've been above SC, but it's fallen out of favor a bit for me. It's great, yeah, but between Benson being Benson and just not feeling songs like "Follow Me", "Burn", and even "Call My Name" nearly as much as when I loved them, I just don't listen to the album as much as I used to, even with me making peace with "In This Life". We will not talk about "House". I will not. We don't talk about it.
4. Foregone- The more time goes on, the lower my opinion of this album sinks, same as with ITM. Difference here is that I can still appreciate and love ITM's desire to be more melodic and slightly poppy/alt metal-y. I do actually quite like IF striking that balance, and I really just wanted them to consider that sense of melody when getting heavier in a later release. They did not. I'll be completely honest when I say that I don't like much modern metalcore/deathcore, the sense of discarding melody to promote heaviness for the sake of heaviness (Bonus points for downtuning your guitar to double drop G or going on a downtuned eight string) is one of the biggest things in music that I'm against, and while some bands like Spiritbox, Polaris, and Sleep Token can pull off that kind of heaviness, that's because they actually keep the fucking sense of melody. Even worse than that with Foregone, it just sounds American. I don't normally mind that, but the Swedish style of melody is genuinely one of my favorite things in music ever, having completely changed the game on how I understand music ever since I discovered the band in 2016. Sure, it has a few moments where it's melodic, like the slap in the face opener that's genuinely lovely, Peak Light of Mind, TGD, and "In the Dark", but that's it for that. I was hyped for A Dialogue pre-release, but that groove metal section was short and only occurred once. "Cynosure" is pretty fucking cool though. Aside from those and part one of the title track, I just don't listen to any of the songs ever (And even then, a couple of the songs I listed don't get too many listens from me). Foregone is the biggest example I have of why you shouldn't go heavy for the sake of heaviness, even dethroning No Halos in Hell by Cyhra as the king of disillusionment in that regard. My interest in IF's future endeavors is even lower than it was for Cyhra after No Halos and the pre-release singles for TVT came out.
5. Battles- It's objectively atrocious. I hate it. When I'm not in the mood for 2010s pop and can't deal with objectively shitty music, I hate it. I hate that I love it when I'm in the mood for 2010s pop and am fine with objectively shitty music. "Drained", "Wallflower", and "Save Me" are the only songs I don't have any guilt for enjoying. It's one of the only albums in general that I refuse to recommend to friends, even if they'd love it. "In My Room", "Before I Fall", and "Underneath My Skin" would be in contention for the worst IF song if "House" didn't exist. "The Truth" has the worst lyrics I've seen in an IF song. The bonus tracks have aged seriously poorly for me, as while I used to enjoy them more than the rest of the album, somehow I just don't enjoy them ever now. I constantly forget that "Like Sand" existed. I could go on and on, and I do want to, but I also just want to do better things with my life. And honestly, that perfectly encapsulates Battles and my hatred for it.
Though "Through My Eyes" has grown on me slightly, and I have always quite enjoyed the title track.
The frustrating thing with Siren Charms is that it does have potential. The songs that sound complete - WEWO and Through Oblivion, for example - are perfectly fine. I'd even say I like those tracks in spite of Anders' questionable vocal skills. The rest, however, just feel like they needed a lot more work put into them. The verses especially. Production is also something that needed a lot more attention given to it. Even if the band had done all of this, I don't think I'd rate the album very highly, but I wouldn't be lumping it in alongside Battles anyway.
Speaking of which, fuck it, let's talk Battles.
Drained is one of those songs, like All For Me, that everyone seems to like except me. I have genuinely attempted to listen to it to try and understand why people like it, but I still don't get it. The first 55 seconds or so are fine, it actually reminds me a lot of Discover Me Like Emptiness from STYE. Then you have some generic alt-metal riffs, Anders yelling some juvenile lyrics about his heart being broken. The whole "you ripped da heart out" chorus just makes me want to slam my head into the desk. This encapsulates the fake, Benson-inspired bullshit that Battles is all about. A typical wanky Bjorn solo, then that stupid chorus again. No sir, I don't like it.
I remember hearing The End when it first came out and really enjoying it. I thought IF might be going in the right direction again. From memory it was the first single from Battles. Production was a bit weak, but it sounded like a lesser SOAPF-style track. I still think it's a decent song, just a shame the production is so muted.
Like Sand... Like Shit. Pointless, whiny nonsense.
The Truth is a bit of a guilty pleasure. It's an okay pop-rock track, it just has nothing to do with In Flames.
In My Room... I actually don't mind this one either. Lyrics are stupid, but that aside it's got an okay groove and Bjorn's best solo in recent times. Doesn't sound like In Flames, but then that could be the tagline of this album.
Before I Fall... I think was my favourite Battles track when the album first dropped. I still think the chorus is a solid IF-style earworm, just ruined by the excessive autotune and, again, limp production. Guitars are being bullied by the vocals and it drains the chorus of the power it should have. Anders also sounds like crap in the verses.
I hate how the prodiction sounds on Through My Eyes. It's so fucking anaemic. The guitars sound laughably wimpy. The autotuning on this one is awful. Just awful. I don't even know what to say about the guitar solo at 02:23 - why is it so many decibels higher than everything else? What were they thinking?
You know, I'm prepared to be ridiculed for this, but I've never had a problem with the title track. I really like the chorus. The riffs are simple but catchy. The production fits the song. Anders is obviously being autotuned, but it's not horribly excessive. I should be clear that this sounds like it was written for another band, and it's In Flames covering some unknown pop-punk outfit, but I dig it. There's another song I feel the same way about on this album, but we'll get there.
Here Until Forever, lmao. It's just so bad. At the same time, that stupid chorus did get stuck in my head for a while after I saw it live. It sounds objectively terrible though.
Underneath My Skin is emptiness personified. A nothing track that is the antithesis of music. What are those vocal melodies meant to be? They are all over the place. The guitars do absolutely zilch until 02:29 when we get a solo from Bjorn which feels wildly out of place.
Wallflower is alright. Niclas did a good job with this one. It's not one I listen to regularly or anything, but it feels like they went back to the TCP formula and refined it into something much more focused and clever. A rare example on this album of Anders actually writing something decent lyrics wise in the chorus. Shame about the autotune, but it is what it is. 04:01 - 05:30 is a nice passage. I really like how, unlike TCP, this song evolves throughout, rather than being a borefest for 6 minutes and having a decent ending.
Save Me I could deal with if it wasn't for the autotune, which is just ridiculous on this track. It's a bit like Scream in that there's a lot of good stuff here, but the chorus ruins it.
Greatest Greed isn't too bad either - within the context of the album. Feels like, along with The End, this is the closest they got to finding a decent sound for this album. The "ohhoohhhoohhhh" stuff is cringy, but I do like the riffs on this one.
Us Against the World is, like Battles, the other song I have a strange soft spot for. Again, it sounds like In Flames covering a different band, but I don't think it's bad.
In retrospect, I think I might actually agree with @eochaid and put Battles above Foregone, lmao. It's still a fake piece of shit, but it's a fake piece of shit I can occasionally get something out of. As has often been the case with IF, the production and autotuning of the vocals is what absolutely buries it. That and most of the songs sounding nothing like In Flames.
Speaking of which, fuck it, let's talk Battles.
Drained is one of those songs, like All For Me, that everyone seems to like except me. I have genuinely attempted to listen to it to try and understand why people like it, but I still don't get it. The first 55 seconds or so are fine, it actually reminds me a lot of Discover Me Like Emptiness from STYE. Then you have some generic alt-metal riffs, Anders yelling some juvenile lyrics about his heart being broken. The whole "you ripped da heart out" chorus just makes me want to slam my head into the desk. This encapsulates the fake, Benson-inspired bullshit that Battles is all about. A typical wanky Bjorn solo, then that stupid chorus again. No sir, I don't like it.
I remember hearing The End when it first came out and really enjoying it. I thought IF might be going in the right direction again. From memory it was the first single from Battles. Production was a bit weak, but it sounded like a lesser SOAPF-style track. I still think it's a decent song, just a shame the production is so muted.
Like Sand... Like Shit. Pointless, whiny nonsense.
The Truth is a bit of a guilty pleasure. It's an okay pop-rock track, it just has nothing to do with In Flames.
In My Room... I actually don't mind this one either. Lyrics are stupid, but that aside it's got an okay groove and Bjorn's best solo in recent times. Doesn't sound like In Flames, but then that could be the tagline of this album.
Before I Fall... I think was my favourite Battles track when the album first dropped. I still think the chorus is a solid IF-style earworm, just ruined by the excessive autotune and, again, limp production. Guitars are being bullied by the vocals and it drains the chorus of the power it should have. Anders also sounds like crap in the verses.
I hate how the prodiction sounds on Through My Eyes. It's so fucking anaemic. The guitars sound laughably wimpy. The autotuning on this one is awful. Just awful. I don't even know what to say about the guitar solo at 02:23 - why is it so many decibels higher than everything else? What were they thinking?
You know, I'm prepared to be ridiculed for this, but I've never had a problem with the title track. I really like the chorus. The riffs are simple but catchy. The production fits the song. Anders is obviously being autotuned, but it's not horribly excessive. I should be clear that this sounds like it was written for another band, and it's In Flames covering some unknown pop-punk outfit, but I dig it. There's another song I feel the same way about on this album, but we'll get there.
Here Until Forever, lmao. It's just so bad. At the same time, that stupid chorus did get stuck in my head for a while after I saw it live. It sounds objectively terrible though.
Underneath My Skin is emptiness personified. A nothing track that is the antithesis of music. What are those vocal melodies meant to be? They are all over the place. The guitars do absolutely zilch until 02:29 when we get a solo from Bjorn which feels wildly out of place.
Wallflower is alright. Niclas did a good job with this one. It's not one I listen to regularly or anything, but it feels like they went back to the TCP formula and refined it into something much more focused and clever. A rare example on this album of Anders actually writing something decent lyrics wise in the chorus. Shame about the autotune, but it is what it is. 04:01 - 05:30 is a nice passage. I really like how, unlike TCP, this song evolves throughout, rather than being a borefest for 6 minutes and having a decent ending.
Save Me I could deal with if it wasn't for the autotune, which is just ridiculous on this track. It's a bit like Scream in that there's a lot of good stuff here, but the chorus ruins it.
Greatest Greed isn't too bad either - within the context of the album. Feels like, along with The End, this is the closest they got to finding a decent sound for this album. The "ohhoohhhoohhhh" stuff is cringy, but I do like the riffs on this one.
Us Against the World is, like Battles, the other song I have a strange soft spot for. Again, it sounds like In Flames covering a different band, but I don't think it's bad.
In retrospect, I think I might actually agree with @eochaid and put Battles above Foregone, lmao. It's still a fake piece of shit, but it's a fake piece of shit I can occasionally get something out of. As has often been the case with IF, the production and autotuning of the vocals is what absolutely buries it. That and most of the songs sounding nothing like In Flames.
ThePhobiac
be at ease
Underneath My Skin is bad, but I think it perfectly illustrates how production completely ruins parts of songs (if not whole songs) that might otherwise be decent. If the part starting at 2:34 had Fredrik Nordstrom production, it would fit perfectly on Colony (think Insipid 2000). And that's not me trying to defend the song -- I can't stand it. But the sound is so flaccid that it ruins an otherwise surprisingly great moment.
Some Battles thoughts...
Drained reminds me of Adema, which was the first "metal" band I ever listened to. But Adema does Adema better than In Flames does Adema. Instrumentally it's pretty good, but Anders drags it down for sure.
I kind of like In My Room tbh. If you squint (with your ears) it almost has a SOAPF quality to it.
Before I Fall is still my favorite track off Battles. For some reason it reminds me of this, which elevates the song for me quite a bit:
The title track is a guilty pleasure. I've said this before but it makes me picture the video for Green Day's "Walking Contradiction" but with the IF band members.
Here Until Forever is the worst song the band has ever put out. I will not force myself to like Bring Me The Horizon just because In Flames is playing it.
I don't like Wallflower and I'm a little miffed that it's become a staple of their live set. It has a Passenger-like quality, which I appreciate, but Anders ruins it with painfully on-the-nose lyrics and cheesy vocal melodies.
I do have a strange nostalgia for the album, and these days I would put it on par with I, the Mask. Mostly because Battles does have a sort of poppy and colorful identity, whereas ITM is a little colorless and lacks that certain charm, even though the songs are generally stronger. It might be the album art for both that makes me think that way. Album art has a huge impact on how I feel about an album, lol.
Some Battles thoughts...
Drained reminds me of Adema, which was the first "metal" band I ever listened to. But Adema does Adema better than In Flames does Adema. Instrumentally it's pretty good, but Anders drags it down for sure.
I kind of like In My Room tbh. If you squint (with your ears) it almost has a SOAPF quality to it.
Before I Fall is still my favorite track off Battles. For some reason it reminds me of this, which elevates the song for me quite a bit:
The title track is a guilty pleasure. I've said this before but it makes me picture the video for Green Day's "Walking Contradiction" but with the IF band members.
Here Until Forever is the worst song the band has ever put out. I will not force myself to like Bring Me The Horizon just because In Flames is playing it.
I don't like Wallflower and I'm a little miffed that it's become a staple of their live set. It has a Passenger-like quality, which I appreciate, but Anders ruins it with painfully on-the-nose lyrics and cheesy vocal melodies.
I do have a strange nostalgia for the album, and these days I would put it on par with I, the Mask. Mostly because Battles does have a sort of poppy and colorful identity, whereas ITM is a little colorless and lacks that certain charm, even though the songs are generally stronger. It might be the album art for both that makes me think that way. Album art has a huge impact on how I feel about an album, lol.
Last edited:
Similar threads
