New album Foregone out February 2023

[The Grayfox]

As much as I like DT, Live Damage is one of the worst live album/DVDs I've ever heard. It's poorly mixed and Mikael sounds terrible. Great setlist though.

 

[drawntoblack]

DT themselves stated on numerous occasions how dissatisfied they are with Live Damage. It's an interesting time capsule at very least, I liked that line up.

 

[DE4life]

Good setlist and lineup for sure... just a shame about everything else. They were just unfortunate to record at a time when Mikael's vocals were shot. In contrast, In Flames were lucky to record at a time in 2005 when Anders was sounding pretty solid vocally. If the DVD had been recorded in 2002/2003 it would have been a different story, even with overdubbing, as Anders sounds terrible on almost all boots I've heard from that period. He had a bit of a resurgence between 2004-2007 until the Come Clarity tour seemed to wreck his voice for good. I don't think he's ever returned to that kind of sustained screaming, nowadays opting mostly for lower growls.

The weird thing about Live Damage is that, if you look at reviews online, literally nobody seems to mention that Stanne's voice is messed up. All you see is "amazing performance, incredible show" - even on fan submitted reviews. Leaves me wondering if I'm hearing something totally different to everybody else, but glad to know I'm not the only one!

 

[ThePhobiac]

This is going to sound conspiratorial, but I've long had a suspicion that Mikael simply gets a pass that Tomas Lindberg and Anders don't, and it's almost entirely because of his stage presence and enthusiasm. It's hard not to like the guy.

That's in regards to his poor-ish vocal performance in the early 2000s, of course. On average the guy is rock solid and the praise for his vocals is overall well-deserved.

 

[DE4life]

I tend to agree, in all of the live shows I've heard from 2000-2003-ish Stanne doesn't sound good live at all. I can remember reading that his throat was in pretty bad shape and he took time out to recover, and when you look at setlist.fm there are only 12 shows listed for DT in 2004. Although there are also only 13 listed for 2001 which seems on the low side as well, but regardless it's obvious that when Character dropped Mikael had changed his vocal technique and it's been pretty solid ever since. Not as expressive as his pre-2005 style, but I imagine much more manageable.

 

[Xpyro125]

I haven’t watched much live stuff from them, so I can’t really comment on that, but I’ve personally felt that Mikael’s vocals starting in Character/Fiction through Construct always felt far weaker to me than anything surrounding them. Maybe the production and his projection’s just gotten better since Atoma, but I’ve always felt a noticeable enough improvement since then.

Though I do think he was alright in the performance of Blind at Heart that I saw.

 

[DE4life]

His vocals post-Damage Done are definitely different. I think they sound fine on Character and Fiction, but not so great past that point. I wouldn't call them bad at any juncture on record, but there is a noticeable change. Seems to have kept his voicebox pretty healthy up to present day though, so if it works for him then that's great. DotL is probably the best he's been since the Character/Fiction era, to me at least. His DT stuff on Atoma and Moment is fine, too, but I feel like the production on DotL does a better job with his growls than the production for the DT records. With that said, I'd say his cleans sound better with DT, although again not bad on either.

His vocals on Damage Done are quite unique in general, as he's pretty much at breaking point vocally by then. Weirdly, much like Anders on Clayman, it actually works really well for that album and the music... but live during that era it's not so good.

 

[drawntoblack]

It's difficult to compare these nuances that are often very subjective too. If I was to be completely honest I would put it like this - Stanne's objective peak as in him sounding his best was very likely Character. The combination of him still pushing his voice hard + voice post-production still being fairly minimal compared to what was to come with Fiction and onward.
My personal favorite album in terms of how his voice sounds is easily Haven. It's raw and very charismatic. Interestingly enough I wouldn't exactly say either of these two albums are my favorite DT stuff. That would be Damage Done, as a whole.

After Fiction his growls got very standardized in terms of energy, aggression and loudness. He fully developed and grew into what works very well for him in terms of sounding pretty good yet not straining his voice. Downside is that you simply don't hear that aggression anymore. There are tricks to hide this, you layer vocals, add distortion and other bells and whistles effects. But admittedly it doesn't pack much of a punch anymore. If we are being honest, it's highly questionable even i he wanted to truly go all out with his voice, would it even fit with what DT have been doing for the past 15 years? Their music certainly got a lot more mellow, not even the guitar work is aggressive anymore. Add his age into the mix and you really can't fault a 50 year old death metal singer much.

Especially when you consider that he had maybe one phase of a few years where he was off. Compare that to Lindberg who sounded like shit throughout his career and Anders who was essentially a coin-flip on average.

 

[DE4life]

I think my personal favourite album for Stanne's DT vocals is probably The Gallery. He still has that raw edge which would slowly disappear as time went on. He's less controlled, but it's metal, totally controlled vocals aren't really a requirement - especially in a genre like MDM. It is incredible how much better he sounds on The Gallery compared to Lunar Strain, when you factor in those albums must have been recorded around or less than a year apart. I don't think Stanne has changed his technique on TG compared to Lunar, rather it's just proof of how crucial producing and mixing is. It goes without saying that production on TG is a million miles ahead of Lunar. It also shows how far Nordstrom had come as a producer for that style of music in a very short space of time, although I'm guessing he had a lot longer to produce TG.

 

[Xpyro125]

I think my favorite vocal performances from Stan’s so far are from Haven and Damage Done— Though admittedly, Damage Done is far and away my favorite DT album from what I’ve heard so far.

I haven’t listened to much of The Gallery, and Punish My Heaven’s the only track from it I listen to with the slightest bit of regularity, so I can’t really judge his vocals there yet. I think he did get a massive glow up from Lunar Strain to The Gallery, similarly to how Anders did going from Skydancer to TJR— Though maybe that’s me feeling that his vocals fit TJR so much better than Skydancer. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Skydancer in full, so I can’t really judge that too much either.

 

[The Grayfox]

The Gallery is a classic. It has some really good songs on it. Punish my Heaven, Edenspring, Lethe, Of Melancholy Burning. Definitely worth listening to that one. My favorite DT album is a tough call. I like The Gallery a lot. I think it might be Projector though. Or the Mind's I. Or Fiction. I don't know. They're all pretty good up until We Are The Void.

 

[DE4life]

Lethe is an all-timer for DT, one of my absolute favourite tracks by them.



This live version is absolutely incredible, but also showcases how much Stanne's vocals deteriorated in the years afterwards. His passion in this performance is genuinely captivating though, you can see the emotion pouring out of him in a way you rarely see in any metal performance. You can see from around 02:25 he's become completely engrossed in the track as a performer, and it's really awesome.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Hard to argue that Stanne isn't a top-tier frontman, and he clearly thinks of DT's music as more than just "metal". Lethe is a good track, especially the intro, whether it's the bass version they were doing in the 90s or the piano version they did afterward. Personally speaking, it's not my favorite off of The Gallery because I think Stanne overdoes it, but still solid.

I think my favorite vocal performances from Stan’s so far are from Haven and Damage Done— Though admittedly, Damage Done is far and away my favorite DT album from what I’ve heard so far.

I haven’t listened to much of The Gallery, and Punish My Heaven’s the only track from it I listen to with the slightest bit of regularity, so I can’t really judge his vocals there yet. I think he did get a massive glow up from Lunar Strain to The Gallery, similarly to how Anders did going from Skydancer to TJR— Though maybe that’s me feeling that his vocals fit TJR so much better than Skydancer. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Skydancer in full, so I can’t really judge that too much either.

You need to listen to all of their albums with all due haste -- to quote Anders from Transparent: "Even if it's a struggle, make this your priority..."

 

[Xpyro125]

You need to listen to all of their albums with all due haste -- to quote Anders from Transparent: "Even if it's a struggle, make this your priority..."

I actually just finished listening to Construct in full three days ago, and despite it generally being lumped in with WATV as DT’s worst (Yeah, I’m with them on WATV, even if it’s not actually bad), I actually really liked it a lot. The only tracks I didn’t care for were the opener and closer, which are pretty egregious for me, but everything else was actually pretty good. Uniformity, The Silence in Between, What You Only Know, and Endtime Hearts have been nonstop listens for me since then.

The only ones I need to finish listening to are actually The Gallery, The Mind’s I, Projector, and Character (I stopped about halfway through because it just hasn’t been doing much for me). I don’t think the band’s works ever hit In Flames’ highs for me (Save for Damage Done, I fucking love that album so much), but they never come even close to sinking to IF’s lows, and I really appreciate that.

I’ll probably give a ranking of their albums once I’ve finished listening to them and refreshed my memory on the ones I haven’t listened to in a bit.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Construct seems to be a love it or hate it kind of thing. Glad you enjoyed it! Uniformity and The Silence in Between are definitely highlights. I also like For Broken Words and State of Trust.

Funny that you should mention stopping halfway through Character. That was my first DT album and it took me a long time to get into it. It just felt homogenous and one-note to me. I think it's great these days, though. Totally agreed re: Dark Tranquillity's consistency vs. In Flames' oscillation between amazing and terrible.

 

[Xpyro125]

Construct seems to be a love it or hate it kind of thing. Glad you enjoyed it! Uniformity and The Silence in Between are definitely highlights. I also like For Broken Words and State of Trust.

State of Trust is also pretty good, and Weight of the End does something for my inner nu metal fan that I don’t even know how to put into words— The riff genuinely feels like a nu metal version of In Broken Trust (Or rather IBT feels like the melodeath version), and I love that.

I don’t mind None Becoming on its own, but it’s horrible when listening to tue album in full, and I think it’s a really poor way to end the album.

Funny that you should mention stopping halfway through Character. That was my first DT album and it took me a long time to get into it. It just felt homogenous and one-note to me. I think it's great these days, though. Totally agreed re: Dark Tranquillity's consistency vs. In Flames' oscillation between amazing and terrible.

I really like Out of Nothing and The Endless Feed (TEF especially, holy fuck, it’s everything great about DT), but that’s it so far. I’m hoping to get into the rest of the album, but everything else I’ve listened to just feels like it was done better on Haven, Damage Done, and Fiction.

 

[DE4life]

I listened to Construct in full a while back to see if I'd been giving it too hard of a time, but I still didn't like it for the most part. I went through it song by song but from memory the ultimate takeaway was not enough melody or creativity. I get the vibe they were going for but it wasn't for me. I do really like Endtime Hearts though - that's a great little track.

WATV is by far the DT album I enjoy the least. I can remember someone on the DT UM forum creating a "technical guide" for the album - which is probably still on that forum - and I remember thinking if I need a fucking technical guide to appreciate the album then it definitely isn't for me. Obviously for others that might be awesome though.

 

[Xpyro125]

I listened to Construct in full a while back to see if I'd been giving it too hard of a time, but I still didn't like it for the most part. I went through it song by song but from memory the ultimate takeaway was not enough melody or creativity. I get the vibe they were going for but it wasn't for me. I do really like Endtime Hearts though - that's a great little track.

I’d say give Uniformity and What Only You Know another chance out of any of them if there’s a chance your mind could change on them. I don’t need to give Uniformity a huge pitch— Especially with the ending portion and drum solo— and What Only You Know feels like Iridium if it had a standard song structure/was more mid-tempo. That might take points off of it for you, but I fucking love Iridium, so making that connection only made me love it more.

I saw a comment that said that Endtime Hearts’ intro felt like a melodeath game show theme, and I haven’t been able to get that out of my head. It’s such a fun-sounding song, and I kinda wish they went in on that even more than they did. It also reminds me a ton of Self-Deception by Lacuna Coil, which is my favorite track off of Comalies back when they were actual gothic metal.

WATV is by far the DT album I enjoy the least. I can remember someone on the DT UM forum creating a "technical guide" for the album - which is probably still on that forum - and I remember thinking if I need a fucking technical guide to appreciate the album then it definitely isn't for me. Obviously for others that might be awesome though.

I think I know the one you’re talking about just going through the music. I actually quite liked that— Probably more than most of the tracks, but therein lies the problem.

I like Dream Oblivion and The Fatalist, but Iridium is definitely the highlight. Easily one of the best DT songs ever, probably in my top two with White Noise / Black Silence. So it makes sense that it was actually a Fiction leftover because yeah, Fiction’s compositions were some of their best, and Iridium shines even more with the band not using plastic production like on that album. I actually made a little dissection of the song’s lyrics a couple years ago, and it’s so fucking good especially in conjunction with the visuals in the music video for it.

 

[DE4life]

As an aside I came across a list on Rate Your Music which quoted me on Episode 666 I didn't remember writing this quote, but I checked the profile and indeed it was me. I apparently had some time on April 24th 2003 as I reviewed all In Flames' albums from Lunar to Clayman (although admittedly some of these can't really count as reviews as they are barely a couple of paragraphs). I also wrote a Siren Charms review in 2020 ripping it apart, so that's nice. Anyway, let's see if I agree with my own sentiments from nearly 21 years ago...

Lunar Strain

Stainne does a pretty good job, I especially liked his vocals in "Behind Space". It's a good start, and it's definately an album I could listen to. Worth a buy if you are into In Flames(and I'm not talking about into _Reroute to Remain_, if you are in that era and then you go to this album you won't like it, I can almost guarentee). If you aren't really into them, don't bother getting it, as it doesn't feature the best production.

Well, I'm not so big on the original Behind Space these days, but I concur with the overall conclusion. Keep in mind at the time Reroute was IF's most recent album, and I didn't bother to review that so I assume I wasn't a fan of it at that point.

Subterranean

I personally liked this release a lot. Although it only has five tracks, they are all superb songs.

I do still like Sub, but I'm not sure I'd call all of the tracks superb.

Stainne no longer on vocals, they got some other guy in ... I've forgotten his name, but, I thought the vocals on this were good.

Okay young me, firstly if you're going to namedrop Stanne then spell his name right. Secondly, don't be fucking lazy. Even in 2003 it wouldn't have taken that long to confirm Henke Forss was the vocalist. Google was a thing back then too. As for the vocals being good... my view has changed somewhat on that. They aren't awful but nor do I particularly like them.

The lyrics look bizarre, In Flames writing about love? Ah well, they pull it off well.

If you enjoy vampire lite-erotica, sure, otherwise not really mate. I don't think I partook in such literature back then but I did read a book by Poppy Z Brite when I was younger, so who knows.

Absolutely wonderful guitar work(check out the start/end to "Biosphere")and some cool, recognisable songs such as "Ever Dying" and "Subterranean" ... Stand Ablaze is a brilliant track too, one of my favorites. I think they still play this in live concerts sometimes, actually. The short instrumental "Timeless" is a creepy little tune which nicely sets up Biosphere actually. All around, great release. I was very impressed. Some songs may sound the same in melody, such as Subterranean and Ever Dying but it doesn't matter, the songs still rock. Not bad lyrics either, although a little basic.

Alright, so why do you (or I, whatever) call Ever Dying and Subterranean "recognisable" only to them say they have the same melody a few sentences later. Make more sense bro. As for playing Stand Ablaze in live concertts sometimes, no mate. Not since 1999 and not again for another 20+ years. Don't get people's hopes up with comments that haven't been fact-checked.

The Jester Race

In Flames' breakthrough album. _The Jester Race_ is simply amazing.

Good lad.

"The Jesters Dance" is the first out of two instrumentals, and a Godly one at that.

Lol, not sure I'd go as far as calling TJD "Godly", but yeah, it's nice enough.

Finally, "Dead God in Me" closes off the album averagely, in my opinion. It isn't a track you tend to remember.

Agreed.

Black Ash Inheritence

The live version of "Behind Space" is interesting, because you get an insight as to how Anders Friden differs from Mikkel Stainne.

Okay, now I'm getting annoyed. Not only do I spell Stanne as "Stainne" again, proving it wasn't a typo the first time, but I managed to spell his first name wrong too. Embarrassing.

Whoracle

Personally, I loved this album as much as I loved _The Jester Race_, the melodies, to me, seem to have gotten even better, and some of the songs on here are classics.

Eh, not sure I'd say the melodies have gotten even better. Whoracle is arguably a bit less melodic than TJR, although there are indeed many classic tracks on this album.

"Food for the Gods" Is slightly softer, and more emotional. Anders seems to spit out the vocals a little more personally in this one, adding some emotion.

I have no idea where I'm coming from on this one. FFTG is not really softer than Jotun nor would I say Anders or the song as a whole is "emotional". Maybe I was having a premonition of Siren Charms or something.

"Dialogue With The Stars" is a really good instrumental. Personally my favorite instrumental on the album, the usual way above par guitar work is at times mesmerising.

Bro, other than the "Whoracle" outro it's the only instrumental on the album, so a bit redundant to say it's your favourite.

"Jester Script Transfigured" at first did nothing for me, but, upon second listen, it's actually become one of my favorites. The vocals get more relaxed and lose the growl until the chorus, which is stunning when first yelled out, as the chorus repeats during the song it isn't quite as noticeable, in my opinion. The lyrics in this actually make little sense to me, I'm sure Anders had a meaning(Nikolas Sundin of Dark Tranquillity helped him translate his Swedish into English for this album and possibly _The Jester Race_ too)but I'm unable to pick up much. Something about a biological creation, perhaps? Who knows. The melody of the song more than makes up for that anyway.

Once again young me is spreading misinformation. Sundin wrote the lyrics for TJR and Whoracle and helped translate some of the stuff on Colony, chief. Get your facts right if you're going to put it in the review. I think from memory Sundin may have translated Episode 666 more literally from Anders' lyrics, but nothing else. In terms of the lyrics being vague and difficult to comprehend, yeah, that much is true.

"Episode 666" is arguably the most popular In Flames song ever. This song is catchy, brutal, and has flawlessly combined heavy and death metal together in an ecstatic harmony that makes "Episode 666" simply awesome.

Nice description there, young me. Good job. This was the line some rando quoted from me on his list. With that said, even in 2003 "arguably the most popular In Flames song ever" is perhaps debateable, as OFTW was likely ahead of it on that front, and Cloud Connected and Trigger both existed by this point too. Although granted both had only been out for about a year and OFTW for two years, so... I dunno, I could have been right at the time.

"Whoracle" is the instrumental that softly and calmly finishes the album off. It isn't as good as "Dialogue with the stars" but isn't a bad way to end _Whoracle_ ... although some think "Episode 666" would have been better suited to end the album.

Pretty sure I didn't poll anyone about this before writing the review, so by "some" I presumably meant "I".

These guys could almost make their lyrics complete crap(like Cannibal Corpse) and still make the songs sound terrific.

Hah, good to see I was shitting on Cannibal Corpse back then too.

Colony

_Colony_ was mainly an album In Flames' fans either loved or despised. It was certainly a change for the Swedes.

This sounds like the start of a Reroute review, not Colony. Wut? Admittedly Colony did get some criticism back then and evidently I was aware of it, but reading this back is quite amusing considering what we've heard since.

"Embody The Invisible" is possibly the best starting track I have ever heard on an album. Unbelievable! A fast-paced, catchy and brutal song that gets right in your face and blows you away. Awesome, what a way to start off.

Yeah, I still feel like Embody is a perfect opener.

"Coerced Coexistance" brings us right back to the hard metal. Starting off brutally and continuing that throughout the whole song, whilst managing to be extremely melodic and catchy. Another great solo in here. Good drumming too.

I mean, generally I still agree but "starting off brutally" ? My threshold for brutality at the time must have been quite low.

"Clad in Shadows '99" is an average track, really. I think it was only on the Japanese versions of _Colony_... I didn't really get into the _Lunar Strain_ version, so getting into this one was unlikely. It's got an okay melody and the vocals are done well, but, the other songs on the album are better.

Dafuq are you talking about you idiot? CIS '99 is awesome - although I do agree that the LS version isn't particularly great.

"Man Made God" finished the Japanese version of _Colony_. This is a great instrumental! Four minutes or so of jaw-dropping guitar work. This is the guitarists of In Flames at their magnificent and stunning best. Anyone who hasn't heard this can go download it at www.inflames.com ... and I highly recommend it. This is the way to finish an album.

Effusive praise here, although you can no longer download the song from the In Flames website. I'd forgotten they had it on there back in the day.

If I was an In Flames fan, _Colony_ would be in my collection automatically. Any metal fan should check this out. People not into the melodic death style should probably get _Reroute to Remain_ or _Clayman_ before giving this a look, though.

Being a little elitist there pal.

Clayman

"Only For The Weak" is my favorite song on this album, and my favorite song ever. Seriously, this is the greatest metal track I've ever heard. From the beginning riffs, to the varied emotional vocals, to the awesome solo ... this has it all. I can't see how anyone can dislike this song. This was the song that brought me into the world of In Flames and metal, it has remained my favourite and may stay there for quite some time. It's almost worth buying the album just to hear this song...it also has a video.

This is cute. The greatest metal track I've ever heard... okay. In my defence I hadn't heard anywhere near as much as nowadays, but still, chill out bro. OFTW is indeed awesome but I wouldn't quite go that far. As for it being my favourite song ever... hmm, you know, maybe. I've listened to it so much nowadays that it doesn't pack the same punch as back then, of course, but it did open the gateway to IF and extreme metal for me, so, it has distinction in my storied history.

"Square Nothing" is the first song that really experiments. It starts off VERY slowly, with the vocals barely above a whisper, about half way into the song the chorus comes in and from there the song accelerates into the usual In Flames hard rock sound.

I'm sorry, what? The In Flames "hard rock" sound? Get the fuck out of here with that nonsense. I seem to once again be having premonitions of SC. Or I'm just lazy and stupid with my genre definitions.

"Satellites and Astronauts" experiments In Flames sound to the extreme, but it is just beautiful. An odd word to use when describing an in Flames song, I know, but I love this. It's so soft, but still has the In Flames sound and has a perfectly placed solo too. The lyrics are generally mumbled just above a whisper, screaming at some parts too, they are written with raw emotion, yet skillfully, too. I don't care what anyone says, this song is decent.

Jeez, this is a bit defensive. Although to go from "beautiful" and "I love this" to "I don't care what anyone says, this song is decent" is a bit of a step down within the same paragraph.

"Suburban Me" offers more hypnotic guitar frenzies, along with some enigmatic drumming and brilliant vocals. Nice solo, too.

Hypnotic guitar frenzies and enigmatic drumming. I had my thesaurus out for this one.

This isn't really death metal ... if you're looking for In Flames' Death metal, check out _The Jester Race_ and _Whoracle_, if you're looking for progressive metal, _Colony_ and _Clayman_ are better.

For goodness sake, stop getting genre definitions wrong. TJR and Whoracle are not death metal, and Colony/Clayman are certainly not "progressive metal", JHC.

So ultimately as a reviewer in 2003 I had good intentions but was also a bit of a bell. Life moves on, and so do we.

 

[Xpyro125]

Can’t believe you prophesied their spiral down to Siren Charms, I’ll never forgive you.

In all seriousness, it is pretty funny to see reference to them going soft and having hard rock moments in regards to their older material. I can kind of see that when trying to think of what it was like when their releases only lead up to Reroute, but man, hindsight with everything that’s come out since makes all of that sound fucking crazy. I can’t help but love that.