New album Foregone out February 2023

[GraemeSinclair]

It didn't -quite- live up to my highest hopes, but overall, I'm coming away from it feeling pretty positive. It's not above Come Clarity or SOAPF in my ranking, but it does some things better than both of them (mainly the harsh vocals, but also some of the instrumental work).

After listening through Siren Charms and Battles for the first time, I just... didn't go back and listen to them again, which was really the ultimate indictment. I didn't feel like I needed any more time with them to conclude they weren't for me and I've largely stuck by that conclusion. The same goes for the songs I didn't like on I, The Mask, I made a playlist with the six songs I liked and I've never really listened to the others again. I've listened to everything on Foregone at least twice so far, so that's a positive sign that even the worst songs on this album don't belong in the pit of despair.

For me, there's a lot to like on Foregone, but I'm not deaf to its problems. The overproduction of clean vocals is pretty egregious across the board, in lots of places during sustained vowels Anders sounds like a tape cassette being fast-forwarded, at points there are so many vocal tracks together that it sounds like "Some Nights" by Fun, which is not a comparison I ever thought I'd be making with an In Flames album. I love harmonised vocals, but quite often two or three voices is enough. As someone with synaesthesia, I can "see" two vocal lines (or guitar lines) moving next to another as streaks of colour - at times on Foregone, Anders sounds like he's vomiting a rainbow.

Sometimes he still tries to fit too many syllables into a line and loses the flow, but overall, the vocals and the music are meshed together much better than they were on Siren Charms and Battles.

For me, this is the best Anders' harsh vocals have sounded since Clayman, and I'm really happy that lower growls are so prevalent throughout the album (this might even be the most he's growled on a record since Colony). It's always been one of my favourite parts of the In Flames sound and I feel it's been criminally underused in every release since 2000, so that's a massive deal for me and really helps to elevate Foregone.

The Beginning of all Things - Deserves its place alongside Acoustic Medley, Pallar Anders Visa and Varmlandsvisen in the pantheon of gorgeous IF folky acoustic instrumentals. I did worry having heard YouTube recordings of it that I'd be bored by it, but hearing it on the record, it sounded lush and I enjoyed the little B-section with the low strings. It would have been nice to have a bit more of a segue between it and the start of SoSD, but that's really nit-picking. (8/10)

State of Slow Decay - Covered most of it when it came out, but it's nice to hear it in the context of the album. Could maybe be a bit more fleshed-out, but it's grown on me as it is. I enjoy the thrashy, chaotic feel, the harsh vocals (especially the pre-chorus), the harmonised solo. I wasn't familiar with Blinded by Fear before I heard SoSD, but I've listened to the two of them and it doesn't feel like a blatant rip-off for me, even if there are some similarities. (8/10)

Meet Your Maker - I like the verses, both instrumentally and vocally, although the lyrics are pretty basic. First overproduced chorus (although I do like the harmony on 'at the end of the masquerade' - I'd like to hear it sung live by a couple of good vocalists with no post-production). I love the dancing guitar melody behind the chorus. It definitely compensates for the vocal element. After a meandering start, the solo is solid, especially the end of it where it harmonises and meshes with the chords. (7/10)

Bleeding Out - At first, I was like "oh, okay, this is different, but potentially pretty cool". It had a kind of bouncy pirate vibe to me. There's a little leading guitar line at about 30 seconds in that's just signature In Flames and could be from any of their records. The harsh vocals sound good, but they don't entirely compensate for the issues with the clean vocals. Solo is a bit wheedly and directionless. (5/10)

Foregone Pt. 1 - I enjoy this song a lot. It feels excoriating, but in a good way. The chaotic verses remind me of Morphing Into Primal, especially the riff at 0:43. Probably the most unbridled aggression In Flames have had in a song in a very long time, but still retains a sense of melody throughout, with the three bar acoustic break and the solos from both Bjorn and Chris that have distinct voices but both feel like they're saying something rather than just noodling. (9/10)

Foregone Pt. 2 - I always liked the harsh vocals and the guitar melody on this one. The clean vocals on the verses have grown on me too, particularly where there's just one track. The solo could be a bit longer and more developed. It does give me -some- of the same vibes as Moonshield, but I think that's just time signature and tonality. (7/10)

Pure Light of Mind - I like the intro melody, it feels very In Flames. It was interesting hearing Anders try something approaching falsetto. The choruses are overwrought, as per. Instrumentally there are some nice things going on without it fully living up to the potential of that first melodic passage. As In Flames ballads go, it's somewhere above The Chosen Pessimist and the ones from SC/Battles, and somewhere below Come Clarity and Evil in a Closet. (6/10)

The Great Deceiver - Very solid, up-tempo slice of melodic death metal. The main melodic hook isn't the most inventive that In Flames have ever created (when it's competing with the likes of Swim, Resin, Jotun and Embody the Invisible, there's steep competition), but it does have that signature In Flames tonality to me. Reminds me a bit of the lead guitar in Dark Signs. I like Tanner's drum work a lot (actually he does really well throughout the record and they're mixed really well), and Anders sounds great here, with more of a mid-range scream, similar to the tone he used on Self vs. Self. The solo is just... there, but I do wish they had expanded the mellow section at 2:50 into something longer. It has a beautiful atmosphere (although melodically, it is very similar to The Attic). (8/10)

In The Dark - I LOVE THIS SONG. For me, Anders' harsh vocals here sound straight out of Colony. When I heard the growls on that clip a few days ago, I was quite hyped and I really hoped that passage wasn't the only use of harsh vocals on the song. I'm glad that all of the verses were growled. I'm fine with the basic Bottled-style riffing in 6/8 at the start, but I really enjoy it when that folky acoustic melody kicks in and the rhythm guitars get melodic. It does remind me of some of the 6/8 sections on The Jester Race (I know... I know... these things can be buried in there). I also enjoy the solo, and I agree with @ThePhobiac that the triumphant-sounding bit at the end is evocative of Clayman. It also has probably my favourite clean-sung chorus on the album. It has a good melody, feels mostly within Anders' range and the harmony vocal tracks are buried better in the mix. (9/10)

A Dialogue in Bb Minor - Instrumentally, there are some nice things happening here. Straight away, that verse riff is fun and reminds me of Reflect the Storm. There are some more cool melodic flourishes as things go on... But the chorus of this song is probably the biggest offender with the worst issue on the album and although I've tried, it's hard to look past it. It's just too much, too many layers. Especially that last chorus... Yikes. Acoustic outro is nice, for what it's worth. (5/10)

Cynosure - It's that kind of alt. rock that featured heavily on Siren Charms and Battles, and I feared would be their direction forever. It's not badly written music, it's just not really what I listen to In Flames for. The rhythm section did really well here. The chorus melody doesn't really work for me and the vocal overproduction is nearly as bad as Dialogue. (6/10)

End the Transmission - I'd say this one's comparable to Darker Times or Vacuum, a mid-tier song based predominantly on down-tuned riffing without much melody outside of its chorus. The chorus isn't the most stand-out melody they've ever written either. I like the growls, though. The fact that Anders sounds like this again blows my mind, and he does it with abandon throughout this song which livens up the verses. (6/10)

Become One - Feels like a filler track from Reroute, Come Clarity or ASOP, until the chorus... Jeez. (5/10)

Overall, I'm giving Foregone a first-impression rating of 7/10 which means it would fit into my album tier list as follows:

The Jester Race/Whoracle (10/10)
Clayman/Colony/Sounds of a Playground Fading (9/10)
Come Clarity (8/10)
Foregone/Reroute to Remain (7/10)
Soundtrack to Your Escape (6/10)
I, The Mask/A Sense of Purpose (5/10)
Siren Charms/Battles (2/10)

Just realised it's been a year since hearing Foregone all the way through for the first time, so I decided to go back and revisit my first impressions. Overall, I don't think my perspective has changed significantly. I haven't had the moment where I've thought "You know what? Maybe I've been trying too hard to like this thing".

I still get where a lot of you guys are coming from with the criticism I've read on here. The plastic, over-layered clean vocal production is really unnecessary. I think if they had treated them like the clean vocals on Reroute, Soundtrack, Come Clarity or SOAPF, there could still have been effective, hooky, melodic choruses without sounding so artificial. Likewise, I feel like the lyrics are generally less creative and thought-provoking than they were during either the 90s or the early 00s. I also feel like some ideas are underdeveloped (for example, State of Slow Decay just being verse-chorus-solo-verse-chorus-end). It would be nice if fewer of the songs adhered to a formula, and some ended up going in totally different directions from where they started rather than generally finishing with multiple repetitions of the chorus.

It's not like listening to some of their classic records where I'm so wowed by the melodies, the instrumentation, the lyrics and the vocals all at once that I can think of nothing I would change, or even know how to make better... Where I'm left wondering "how did you make something this flawlessly cool?"

However, having put that caveat up front, I think I still have to admit that I love Foregone. I've listened to it front to back several times a week since it came out and never been bored. It's become both comfortable background listening and something I can really vibe to when I want to pay attention. And, at the risk of sounding like I don't really understand some of my all-time favourite albums, I love Foregone for a lot of the same reasons I love The Jester Race, Whoracle, Colony and Clayman. I know it's not a complete return to their classic sound. Clayman was their last 'pure' classic-sound album, everything since has been a mongrel of alternative metal with varying amounts of melodic death metal influence that seemed to become nonexistent by the time we got to Battles... However, as I hear it, Foregone is the most melodic death metal thing they've released, certainly since Come Clarity, if not, Clayman. I guess whether or not it evokes similar emotions to those classic records is entirely subjective, but for me, Foregone's full of little moments that sound like trademark In Flames: all of the opening track sounds like their acoustic instrumentals going all the way back to Lunar Strain; the harmony solo on State of Slow Decay reminds me of the first solo in December Flower; the riffing on Foregone I could be from Whoracle; you could have played me either of the lead melodies from Foregone II or Pure Light of Mind with no context and asked "which band does this sound like?" and I'd have said "In Flames" instantly; there are lots of instrumental flourishes on The Great Deceiver that are pure Björn Gelotte; the recurring melody of In the Dark reminds me of the mid-section of Lord Hypnos, the solo evokes that triumphant upbeat melodic feeling found so frequently on Clayman... These are just some examples, and I don't feel like I'm stretching unnaturally to find these parallels. Add on top harsh vocals that have more similarities to Anders' first three records than anything post-Colony, and I feel like they provide little hooks that keep me listening, even when the clean vocals really aren't doing a lot for me in songs like Bleeding Out, Pure Light and Dialogue. Like, I'll be listening to Pure Light as background music and then the "I won't be long" line just before the chorus will grab my attention and I'll think "I've wanted him to sound like this on a record again for fucking ever. Nice." I even created a shuffle playlist of both Foregone and Colony that I listen to quite frequently while exercising, just so I could compare the vocal tones, and it's only helped to reinforce the impression.

Not expecting to convince anyone, and that's absolutely fine, but I figured that I owed it at least a little bit of gushing on its first birthday, given the amount of enjoyment it's given me over the last year, and also just to gently push back against the notion that it's not worth discussing. I'd probably upgrade my original 7/10 rating to an 8.

 

[Xpyro125]

That’s really refreshing to hear, even if it doesn’t change my mind on it— Which yeah, was never the point. I do genuinely like hearing people getting a ton out of the album when their reasoning has merit (So not the usual YouTube comment on their music videos) when I haven’t, especially coming off of I, the Mask, which I do still quite like. I’ve always tried being positive towards each album, with exception to Battles, which I’m unfortunately subconsciously positive towards despite my reluctance to like something that’s as bad and as anti-In Flames as it is, but so many little things about Foregone put me off from it. The downtuned metalcore riffing, the surprising lack of In Flames-esque melodies, a feeling of a lack of emotion in the harsh vocals compared to prior efforts, and the production of the clean vocals all stick out like a fucking dagger for me.

I feel like I did almost have an epiphany when I listened to it with my father because it was genuinely really enjoyable listening to it with him like we used to with the other albums, but I feel like I only liked it as much as I did there because I was listening to it with him. Before and since then, the album’s been a 6-7/10 for me despite many of the songs having higher marks than that. I just don’t like how it all comes together as a full product in particular, it just doesn’t feel In Flames in the sense of listening to it front to back. I don’t really know how to word any of it. Admittedly, I’ve pretty much just listened to the band in waves here and there, but… I didn’t really listen to Foregone much in that time. I kinda enjoyed most of the tracks more after having let them be for so long, but that was once over for most of the tracks and twice over if I really enjoyed them— And I’m someone who tends to listen to shit on repeat for hours, maybe even a full day. The songs work a lot better individually, and something about that feels wrong to me. I think that’s just how I feel about it in general, something just feels horribly wrong and not In Flames that I don’t know how to put into words.

I do maintain the notion that there isn’t much to discuss with it— It’s a rather straightforward album, and we all very much said what we felt towards it and what we saw in it pretty quickly. Considering its birthday, sure, I think we’re all due a little update on it. It gives us something to talk about with the album that we haven’t already said, and I think that makes it worth warranting discussing again.

Chris Broderick is incredible though, I’ll be happy to discuss that much for a good while.

Edit: Very late, but my take is less that it isn’t worth discussing and more that there’s not much to discuss.

 

[DE4life]

Over the past year I've tried to go back to Foregone a few times, but I always have the same thoughts. The songs that were released as singles are fine - not tracks that I find special enough to want to listen to regularly, but decent enough modern MDM-style songs. I have nothing bad to say about them (except SoSD ATG ripoff) but nor do I really have any desire to discuss them as it's just a case of they are what they are, for the most part. Some parts of the tracks are dragged down by the Benson infestation, but what can you do.

Meanwhile, the rest of the album just leaves me cold. The songs just aren't interesting to me. Pure Light of Mind is the only exception - it's a nice track with fake vocals. If you can get past the latter then there's no reason not to like it, but they do bother me. If it was an artist I didn't really know then it'd be less of a problem, but I know what Anders sounds like and for the most part PLoM is not it, which makes it weird to listen to.

I have no problem with people liking the album, if you enjoy it then that's cool. I'm sure there are albums I like which others would find boring. We all have different perspectives and tastes. Nothing wrong with that.

Personally Foregone will be the least played IF album for me, as there is little on there which I consider as having replay value. I do think it's quite telling that Foregone as an album has had very limited exposure live. Their last show in Singapore on Feb 8th had just two songs from Foregone in a 16 track setlist. I've seen people come up with excuses for this but I'm sorry, that is very unusual for IF. usually plenty of songs from their latest album get showings in the first year after release. According to setlist.fm only THREE songs from Foregone have been played with any regularity - State of Slow Decay, Foregone part 1 and TGD. Bafflingly they've played End the Transmission three times as well, which is bizarre as it's easily the most boring song on the record. That's it though, nothing else from the album (according to setlist.fm) has been played since it was released.

It's strange because Foregone got so much positive praise for being back to da rootz, a return to metal for IF, etc... but even though the metal community as a whole seemed to like Foregone, the band themselves don't seem to care much for playing those songs live.

To contrast with the two most recent albums, ITM had I Am Above, Call My Name, House, Voices and Burn played with some regularity. Deep Inside, Follow Me and Stay With Me have also been played. Battles had The End, The Truth, Here Until Forever, Wallflower and Before I Fall as the songs played regularly, with Drained, Save Me, Like Sand, In My Room and the title track also getting live play at some point.

 

[The Grayfox]

Anybody catch that they released a bonus song from Foregone yesterday called 'Become One'? It features even more horrendous clean vocals. Just weird nobody caught it?

- edit - apparently it's been around for a while and I just never noticed. Shows how much I've paid attention to this album I guess lol

 

[DE4life]

Yeah I thought it was pretty bad, can see why it was a bonus.

 

[Xpyro125]

It’s forgettable, and I don’t remember if I liked it or not back when the album released.

 

[DE4life]

Their recent show in Osaka has been uploaded in good quality:



Foregone Part 1
Pinball Map
Deliver Us
Everything's Gone
Paralyzed
All For Me
Behind Space
Graveland
The Hive
Cloud Connected
Delight & Angers
State of Slow Decay
The Quiet Place
The Mirror's Truth
I Am Above
Take This Life

 

[DE4life]

Also, if anyone's curious, the below show has the live debut of End the Transmission.



Nothing particularly interesting on the setlist otherwise. I do think Beginnings is a nice show intro.

 

[DE4life]

One thing I will say in regards to Anders, having watched some shows from the 2010s versus recently, is that his vocals are far better now than they were ten years ago. Mainly because since 2019 or so he seems to have found a comfortable growling technique in the lower end of the spectrum, and he now often growls many of the cleaner parts of the studio songs. I don't really mind as they always sounded like shit when he tried to do them clean live anyway.

 

[Xpyro125]

So I went on iTunes and found this. What a fucking cash grab by the label. If you’re going to release a bonus version with just one extra track way after the initial release, at least give us instrumental versions of all the tracks as well, it’s not that difficult.

 

[The Grayfox]

Yeah, I saw that on Spotify. It's a total cash grab. No live tracks, no instrumentals, nothing. Just one single bonus track that was already out there. It would've been really easy to add a second disc with 4 or 5 live tracks or even a 'producer's edition' with stems. Just something to make it actually feel like a bonus edition.

 

[drawntoblack]

Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that they keep releasing songs with impossibly produced vocals only to proceed to never play them live?

 

[DE4life]

Better than their previous tactic of releasing songs with impossibly produced vocals that then got butchered live.

 

[The Grayfox]

I got an email yesterday promoting new Foregone merch, they're releasing a 'bonus edition' of the album, yet here they are not playing the songs live. And there's press releases talking about how special they think the album is, how much fun they had recording it, etc. but it certainly doesn't seem like it.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Certainly not as much fun as they had recording Whoracle.

 

[Jester Slave]

I can imagine the rehearsals where they give eachother telling looks after the Pure Light of Minds, the Stay WIth Mes and the Meet Your Makers. No one says a thing, a studio engineer just slowly crosses these out on the paper for the upcoming potential setlist.

Again, I can give a pass to something like PLoM, because it's fine to have a vanity track or two on your umpteenth record, who cares. But jesus fucking christ, you released Foregone pt 2. and MYM as singles, they were both hits with their general audience and you don't fucking play them? It's lame, but on the other hand, they are on the verge of a semi-decent setlist, so if that's the price then so be it.

 

[Xpyro125]

Again, I can give a pass to something like PLoM, because it's fine to have a vanity track or two on your umpteenth record, who cares. But jesus fucking christ, you released Foregone pt 2. and MYM as singles, they were both hits with their general audience and you don't fucking play them? It's lame, but on the other hand, they are on the verge of a semi-decent setlist, so if that's the price then so be it.

This is pretty much how I feel too.

I’ll be completely honest, I get why there are the criticisms about Foregone not having much representation in the setlist, but I’m not complaining in the ducking slightest. Oh no, we’re missing their newer, more boring barely not deathcore songs in exchange for getting some of their incredible classic songs? That’s so sad…

And sure, I know that Graveland and whatnot are on the setlist, but they were on there anyway. We got shit like Stand Ablaze out of this— That’s way more than good enough for me.

 

[DE4life]

All I can say is that I wish they'd taken the same approach with SC and Battles.

 

[Xpyro125]

All I can say is that I wish they'd taken the same approach with SC and Battles.

I haven’t gone back and listened to much love from that era, but from the little that I have seen… I don’t think Anders’ vocals would’ve done the classic songs justice then, especially not compared to now. I saw OFTW and Cloud Connected at Rock AM Ring, and that’s all I needed to know.

I guess it’d still be better than The End and everything else anyways.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Had a whole post written out about my thoughts regarding Foregone a year after its release, but it wasn't gelling the way I intended.

Suffice it to say: I still think it's very solid if somewhat unremarkable, and likely as close to the "classic" In Flames sound as a band well past their prime* is going to get. The biggest strength is the instrumentation, which feels fluid and vibrant in a way most post-Jesper albums have not. There are a lot of cool passages in this album that I think go unnoticed (check the tremolo guitars in the "the devil has done his deed" section near the end of End The Transmission -- cut out the vocals in Foregone Pt. 2 and you've got an In Flames instrumental that could've come out of the early 2000s).

The clean vocal melodies and overuse of vocal harmonies** are the album's biggest weaknesses, not necessarily the vocals themselves (for comparison, Come Clarity had plenty of clean-sung choruses, but they hit far better than they do here). Probably their most consistent album since SOAPF. The majority of the songs are still in my rotation and only rarely do I skip them. I don't assign numerical ratings, but this would be a 3.5/5, which I consider respectable.

In an interview with Ola Englund, Bjorn mentioned that during the pandemic, he and Anders were discussing how long they should wait before continuing the I, the Mask tour. They eventually decided, in his words, "fuck it, let's do another record." And I think that fits my conception that Foregone is really "just" another record for them. The results are better, imo, than anything since SOAPF***, but you can hear that there's a degree of going-through-the-motions on this one as compared to ITM or even Battles.

* This is not a knock against the band. Most bands have a post-peak period and there's nothing wrong with that. I consider DT to be well past their prime, too.

** IMO too many vocal harmonies can dilute what's actually being sung, especially when they're used in verses or intros. Katatonia's recent output is a good example of this.

*** My appreciation of SC is its own thing, lol