New album Foregone out February 2023

[A88]

I really don't remember anything much from this album.

Few days ago when that Become...song showed in my YT suggestions, I was honestly surprised to find out that I've heard it already when album was released.

So what do I remember from Foregone? There are some acoustics, Anders growling "meeet yooour maaakeerrr", one of Foregone songs has some old school sound, PLoM was fake but cool. And that's it. Zero riffs or melodies in my head, and I couldn't identify most of the songs without hearing Anders sing the song name in the chorus.

Has to be the least remarkable IF album ever for me. Not the worst one.

 

[The Grayfox]

I would say it's the same for me. It isn't the worst, but it is the least remarkable. It's forgettable in the worst way -- I forget the moments that are actually decent and only remember the parts that really suck, like the vocals on End the Transmission.

 

[DE4life]

Think that sums it up well. Is it as bad as SC or Battles? Not even close. Do I remember more from SC and Battles? Yeah, for better or worse.

 

[eochaid]

I just remember the fakery.

 

[Jester Slave]

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.

You take that back! It's most definitely the best-structured song outside of the singles and PloM, though I'd say it's better than Foregone 2 as well. At the very least it's cohesive and not either a.) bunch of nothing until an arena-chorus, b.) stuffed with bizarre production choices or both. It also has a unique feel which reminds me a little bit of Filtered Truth, but more traditional sounding. It's also a song where the usage of backing vocals isn't really offensive, because one of the main grips of the song is the dissonant vocals in the chorus, especially towards the end, and with the backing tracks Anders could freely choose and frequently change up which parts he wants to sing/shout. The main riff is catchy and doomy and the solo is at least not an offensive wah-wah galore.

The verses are admittedly pretty mid, but to me it's an absolute front-runner in the non-singles part of the record. I think the lyrics are pretty cool too, especially in our current political climate. I'm not saying "qq we are the baddies here, we are all going to die here" is a ground-breaking lyrical concept, but it more than fulfills what you'd want from a metal band. "This is a tomb and we are buried alive" is pretty cool, while "Passivity is not what the world needs" is surprisingly mature. It's a long cry from "this is the building where I live" and "guys, I'm still getting older and older wtf??!!!"

 

[DE4life]

Haha, well, can't take it back as it genuinely is boring to me - however, that's not to say anyone else has to feel the same way. I've always said if someone can explain why they like a song that I dislike then I respect that. Doesn't mean I agree, but as with all forms of art, music is subjective and we all have our own tastes and preferences. If ETT is something you enjoy then that's cool. Truth is, to me, it feels like something is just off with the entire album. Hard to explain exactly what it is, but the record just doesn't feel very authentic to me. Kind of like Battles but in a very different way. No coincidence that Benson is behind both of them, I'm sure.

Also, is it me, or is the beginning of the below song extremely reminiscent of TJR/Whoracle era IF? First 50 seconds or so I was getting some classic Swedish folk vibes.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Song's not available for me, otherwise I would strongly agree. Disregard, I found it. There's some melodeath vibe to it for sure, but it doesn't sound particularly Gothenburgy to me. More of a flamenco vibe. (It actually made me think of the music from Blasphemous.)

Instrumentally, I like the overall feel of ETT, and it's quite satisfying to play on guitar. That bend in the chorus is a nice hook -- I actually just really like what Bjorn's doing in that chorus in general, and I think it would've worked well if Anders had just screamed over it. And I do like that tremolo-picked bridge just before the last chorus. The song would have fit pretty well on ASOP. My only issue is that the vocals in the chorus are lame, but that's true of most of the clean singing on Foregone.

 

[ThePhobiac]

I dreamt that Dark Tranquillity did their own version of "Bottled" back during the Character era and Stanne was asked about it in an interview with a Turkish metal magazine:

Interviewer: Who is Anders Friden? I do not know this man.

Mikael Stanne: Anders Friden is the singer of In Flames. Bottled is a song that speaks to something very personal to Anders, and frankly to a lot of us guys, but it's not a subject that gets talked about often. The song is about going bald. We couldn't communicate exactly how he felt about it. So there are some differences between our song "Bottled" and the In Flames version. As we get older, dealing with losing our hair is a bigger issue that most people would think. That's especially true if you have dreadlocks, like Anders Friden has, which accelerates the process.

 

[DE4life]

You remember far more specifics about your dreams than I do, bro. I can barely even remember if I dreamed at all, let alone interview segments.

As far as Bottled is concerned, the only band worthy of covering that masterpiece is Brokencyde.

 

[Jester Slave]

I've watched a 10 seconds long trailer on Facebook for the final episode of a Foregone documentary, which lead me to a 44 seconds long video on Youtube, of which the last 5 seconds was a promotional image for the deluxe edition. I am speechless.

 

[eochaid]

Damn... They were one second away to a full minute.

 

[DE4life]

They've seemingly put more effort into a documentary about Foregone than playing the actual songs from the album live.

 

[Jester Slave]

It's a 4-parter. The combined running time is 4 minutes and 10 seconds, but around 6-6 seconds in each video is the intro and promoting the deluxe edition at the end, so that makes 48 seconds which makes this FOUR. PARTER. DOCUMENTARY. last 3 minutes and 22 seconds.

I know it's irrelevant and it's probably what you would call a pet peeve, but it just annoys me to no end. If you've seen the IT Crowd (you should!), you'll get it when I say that I feel like Roy when he heard about a fire at a sea parks. At first you just take the information in, let a slight "hm" out and move on. But then you start to think about it... 3 minutes and 22 seconds slashed into 4 episodes and labeled as a documentary. You have to talk a walk in your yard or neighbourhood and just listen to the many voices of nature, while an ever growing confusion mixed with disdain is brewing with you: it doesn't make any goddamn sense!

 

[DE4life]

At that point it just becomes words and semantics. Anything can be called a "four parter" if you split the length into four parts. At best you can call it creative wording, at worst outright false advertising as nobody would consider anything that's under four minutes a documentary to begin with.

 

[ThePhobiac]

They did the same for I, the Mask. Just brief snippets of the process. I think the days of getting an ASOP/SOAPF-level look at an album recording are over.

 

[Jester Slave]

The whole concept of making a documentary which is less than 4 mintues insane. I don't expect an hour long self-fellatio where the band talks about how great they are, but holy fucking shit, you literally can't produce 15 minutes of content about an album?? Just by talking about each song it should be nearing the 10 minute mark.

Slicing it up into 4 parts is just the absurdity cherry on top. Like some English or deadpan humor.
- We are producing a documentary which is 3 minutes and 22 seconds long.
- That short of a documentary?!
- Don't worry, it will be a 4-parter.

Not since Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi have my expectations been this much subverted.

 

[Jester Slave]

They did the same for I, the Mask. Just brief snippets of the process. I think the days of getting an ASOP/SOAPF-level look at an album recording are over.

Okay, so keep dripping that kind of content BEFORE the album releases. It's still disgustingly low-effort and makes no sense how you can't be arsed to produce 10-15 minutes of content at least, but at least use it as some form of hype for the new record.

Yeah, I get that it's supposed to hype that one additional dogshit song and the deluxe edition.

Oh, btw, how great is it that the records which gets its bonus songs officially released are Foregone and Battles (though those one didn't suck THAT much at least)? Meanwhile fuck you if you want to listen to the bonus songs of SC or Discover Me Like Emptiness on spotify. No, we can't have those. (Okay, I did one last look at these records to see if these songs had been eventually released, and it turns out that SC was updated with the bonus tracks!!! Fuck yeah! I wouldn't've checked without this godlike documentary. Now it all makes sense. Ps.: give us discover as well, you cowards)

 

[DE4life]

It kind of sums up how In Flames have treated Foregone since it was released tbh. It's ironic because as an album it got the most positive reaction from the metal community since... well, probably Come Clarity. I didn't feel that way but a lot of people did. Meanwhile IF seem to have the opposite reaction where they don't seem to give much of a shit about the album, barely playing any of the songs live and releasing a 4min documentary about it. I could understand if this was their reaction after Battles, but considering the praise Foregone has garnered it's quite strange that the band seem far less enthused.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

I keep getting facebook notifications saying Niclas Engelin has 'liked' posts I made on THE page months and sometimes years ago what's that madlad playing at.

He 'heart' reacted a comment I made on an In Flames official Facebook page post earlier today (mine wasn't the only one). If the relationship between IF and THE is still a bit rocky, then that seems like some oddly passive-aggressive behaviour .

 

[DE4life]

He 'heart' reacted a comment I made on an In Flames official Facebook page post earlier today (mine wasn't the only one). If the relationship between IF and THE is still a bit rocky, then that seems like some oddly passive-aggressive behaviour .

I got the same thing from Mikael Stanne last week on another really old post I made in 2022. I assume it's just their social media manager adding metrics somehow, but it's weird.