New album Foregone out February 2023

[DE4life]

I was just in the local second hand store and saw they had two In Flames albums, Reroute and SOAPF.



Seriously tho, £8 for a used audio cd from 2011? Lmao. It wouldn't have been that much more expensive here brand new at release.

With that said, I checked around online and other than eBay there wasn't anywhere selling it cheaper, so idk. You can get the edition with the dvd from eBay for £7 though.

Reroute was £3. I guess for some reason it didn't hold its' value compared to SOAPF?

 

[eochaid]

Well, our far right parties also do this

Is there a chance of the Tories alligning with the fascists? Because that's what's happening here. The "moderate" traditional right is in local and regional governments with the fascists.

 

[DE4life]

Is there a chance of the Tories alligning with the fascists? Because that's what's happening here. The "moderate" traditional right is in local and regional governments with the fascists.

Well, the Tories were basically taken over by the right-wing fascists within their own party. The far-right element of the party is what pushed for and eventually achieved Brexit - insomuch as you can call such a crazy act of self-destruction an achievement. Pieces of shit like Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson, Suella Braverman, Liz Truss and various other quasi-authoritarian dickheads came to power and tried in various ways to undercut and weaken public freedoms and the democratic state.

Fortunately, these people were too egotistical to work together and it ended up being a snakepit were they all poisoned each other until the cowardly snake at the back, Sunak, was the only one left. He played out the dying days of the Tory government, which by that point was so fractured there was no hope of them being re-elected.

You have other far right parties like Heritage, but nobody gives a shit about them as their policies mainly boil down to "down with the foreigns and the gays". Nigel Farage's new group, Reform, meanwhile gives a more polite version of that message whilst also promising to finally deliver on that elusive Brexit promise. They actually got a decent amount of the vote, but even if they combined with the Tories it wouldn't have been enough to topple Labour. That aside, the Conservatives and Reform have some bad blood, mainly stemming from historical exclusions (Reform members tend to be Conservatives who were too extreme even for that disgusting party) and the Tories being pissed off that Reform takes a chunk of the vote which would otherwise likely go to them.

 

[eochaid]

You have other far right parties like Heritage, but nobody gives a shit about them as their policies mainly boil down to "down with the foreigns and the gays".

That message, in Spain, has almost 4 million voters.

 

[DE4life]

I think because of Brexit a lot of people in the UK think of xenophobia and general exclusionary practice as uniquely British. I can show news articles from basically all other countries in the world showing otherwise. Middle East is far worse. Majority of Asia is far worse. Eastern Europe is far worse. Africa is far worse. Many European countries are also struggling with a rising tide of intolerance and hatred as people get desperate and thrash around looking a group of people to blame for their misery. They'll never look in the direction of the rich, though, because that's who most of them aspire to be.

So yeah, unhappy world with increasingly desperate people in it resorts to increasingly far right ideals which will only accelerate the inevitable collapse.

 

[The Grayfox]

Xenophobia is interesting here because it exists from state to state. In California, most of the state is very accepting of people from other states and other countries. It's a melting of pot of many, many people from many backgrounds. This is where I grew up, so I was raised around people from basically everywhere. There are other states where it's very much the same. Or I should say major cities. Every state in America has large rural areas and within those areas exist the real xenophobes. Even in California -- go to San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego and you'll be fine no matter where you're from. Go 30 minutes in any direction from any of those cities and you're in Redneck Land. Generally intolerant people.

I moved to Colorado and was there for a bit. When I moved there, I was looking at homes and my realtor flat out told me "make sure you change your license plate as soon as you can, because people here don't like Californians." I thought she was kidding. She wasn't. I never got hassled because of the way I look, but my wife who is a small woman did. She experienced it quite often actually. Anyway, the point is, I've never run into a person from a different city, a different state, a different country and thought "what the hell are you doing here?" If anything, I'm intrigued to know how they ended up in my city. People in Texas are much the same as Coloradans and I'll just never understand it. People think they own the areas they live in or something, like they should be able to control who steps into their city or state. The whole thing is really absurd to me.

Because of things like this, I know people who are afraid to travel to other countries. America has a lot of negative stigma surrounding it. The loud obnoxious ones ruin it for everyone else. That's why people who travel from America to other countries will sometimes tell the local people they're from Canada. A lot of us are embarrassed by all of it. Go on YouTube and watch clips from the RNC. Watch Hulk Hogan come out and rip his shirt off. Watch Donald Trump come out with lit up signs and music. It is an absolute circus. There is no mystery why people look at America and fucking laugh.

 

[eochaid]

So yeah, unhappy world with increasingly desperate people in it resorts to increasingly far right ideals which will only accelerate the inevitable collapse.

This, and lack of education and a really low IQ.

 

[eochaid]

America has a lot of negative stigma surrounding

I know this is not true but, a lot of times, the image of America to the outside is that of a poorly developed country in terms of social culture. And all that culture regarding weapons doesn't help.

 

[DE4life]

This, and lack of education and a really low IQ.

As Dave Mustaine once sang on Washington is Next "the new slavery is to keep the people poor and stupid". The way it's done is insidious too. Technically knowledge is everywhere, but we're conditioned from a young age to care more about vacuous, unimportant things. Education is given in prison-like environments with standardised testing that causes emotional distress. Many people associate learning with bad memories and so as adults don't pursue it any further.

 

[eochaid]

That's true. Learning to pass a test is no learning at all. Just memorizing.

 

[The Grayfox]

I know this is not true but, a lot of times, the image of America to the outside is that of a poorly developed country in terms of social culture. And all that culture regarding weapons doesn't help.

Yep. And a lot of people who actually live in America feel much the same. I find that it's not difficult to be tolerant of people. You don't have to understand, you don't even have to like a person's choices, but being tolerant isn't difficult. It's not difficult to not be a prick. The biggest issue here is that people don't even try to understand. Take the Black Lives Matter movement. Nobody was saying that other lives DON'T matter, just that black lives DO. But this country can't wrap their heads around a statement like that. All they hear is "oh, this is white shaming. OUR LIVES MATTER TOO!" Pride parades, a place for people to celebrate once a year and all the straight white males are like "why don't I get a day to celebrate being straight and white?" You can't even begin to explain it to them and you might as well not try because they won't get it. And that's the saddest part, when you give up trying to explain something to someone because you already know they'll refuse to hear it.

 

[DE4life]

I actually think for a lot of people it is difficult not to be an intolerant prick. I can't explain otherwise why so many people seem to default to this position without even being self-aware enough to realise. Or alternatively, not having enough empathy to care. I don't think it's a natural way to exist, but it is how many in the West, at least, evolve from childhood to adulthood. Entitlement in many countries is absolutely off the scale.

And the sad thing is, everyone could live comfortable, decent lives. We have the intelligence and the resources for this. The problem we have is that the current system relies on there being a small amount of haves and a vast majority of have-nots. And this isn't me shooting down capitalism in favour of communism or socialism or some other government structure. It goes a lot deeper than that. No matter what the system, those who want power and control are inherently going to be greedy, narcissistic and selfish. Probably leaning towards being sociopathic as well. The people who want power in any society are going to be the ones least capable of using it in a way to benefit everyone.

What I find most tragic is how people have been conditioned to see these CEOs, millionaires, billionaires, entrepeneurs as the heroes and saviours of society. The people to look up to and aspire to be. As opposed to thinking, fuck me, these people have collectively ruined the planet and society in general for their own gain - and despite amassing more wealth than anyone would realistically need in a single lifetime, they continue to spend it on islands, mansions,, cars, golf courses and other bullshit whilst an uncountable amount of people and animals across the world starve, suffer and die in horrific ways.

Probably, the sooner we die out as a species the better. I appreciate that sounds misanthropic but I don't really mean it in that way. I just think we'll do more harm than good if we continue for too much longer, and it'd be better for us to be gone before we develop the capability to enact some truly catastrophic event that goes beyond Earth. The thought of our species heading out into space is pretty terrifying. Like a plague spreading out across the cosmos.

 

[eochaid]

The biggest issue here is that people don't even try to understand. Take the Black Lives Matter movement. Nobody was saying that other lives DON'T matter, just that black lives DO

Indeed. It's like men, specially in western countries, asking why there's not a straight male pride day. Well. I don't know how to explain them that they have not been assaulted, prosecuted, discriminated against or killed for being straight males.

I actually think for a lot of people it is difficult not to be an intolerant prick.

I agree and I see it every day on social medias. Specially men, that are proud of being a bunch sociopathic morons whose pathetic lives seem to be only worthy (for them) when they insult or threaten everyone around. I cannot understand how someone can be proud of being a racist mysoginistic violent cunt and still think that they are good persons.

 

[DE4life]

I see Biden's stepped aside. So much for God being the only thing that could force him to quit the race. Turns out there was actually one other thing - indeed, the only thing he and the American political establishment value above the good lord almighty - money. Once the donors started pulling their funds he was done.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Tough sledding ahead for the USA.

Thankfully, In Flames washes the worries away.

 

[DE4life]

I love the transition from shitting on Trump to shitting on Foregone making me proud bro.

But yeah, Foregone still sucks and Trump still sucks. Life is bleak at the moment, regardless of Phobiac's attempts to suggest otherwise. The only thing In Flames washes away is their dignity every time they shack up with Benson and his cronies in the studio.

 

[The Grayfox]

What I find most tragic is how people have been conditioned to see these CEOs, millionaires, billionaires, entrepeneurs as the heroes and saviours of society. The people to look up to and aspire to be. As opposed to thinking, fuck me, these people have collectively ruined the planet and society in general for their own gain - and despite amassing more wealth than anyone would realistically need in a single lifetime, they continue to spend it on islands, mansions,, cars, golf courses and other bullshit whilst an uncountable amount of people and animals across the world starve, suffer and die in horrific ways.

This is a key problem. The right especially looks at that group as if they're gods among men. I imagine it has to do with their desire to be one of them. Also, they are used to sitting in a church every Sunday and looking at their preacher, pastor, priest, whatever, as if they're levitating above the rest of us mere mortals. Again, it's a blind faith issue. Donald Trump has somehow convinced these people that every word out of his mouth is fact. There is no other word that is true, just his. If he says elections are rigged, they're rigged. Which is why come November, this country loses either way. Either Trump is president again or he isn't but he convinces his cult foot soldiers that the election was stolen from him. The man is not capable of accepting defeat, just like all the lap dogs that love him. They make excuses, they cry about it, they essentially turn into petulant children throwing temper tantrums unless every single thing is going their way 100% of the time.

Biden having to make the decision to stand down is completely lost on Trump and his peons. All they can do is laugh. When the assassination attempt happened, all I see is Trumpers everywhere calling the left "sick twisted human beings for laughing." Yeah, the tolerant people that pissed themselves laughing when Pelosi's husband was beaten with a hammer are crying foul. The people who, on a daily basis, are making fun of a man who is clearly dealing with cognitive issues. The hypocrisy knows no bounds with these fucking lunatics. I describe them as the people who were bullies as kids. They liked pushing people around, making fun of people, disabilities, races, etc. And their hero, Donald Trump, encourages them to be loud about being pieces of shit as adults.

So yes, unfortunately it is very difficult for certain people to be tolerant and have empathy. That is the sad state of things in a lot of places.

Indeed. It's like men, specially in western countries, asking why there's not a straight male pride day. Well. I don't know how to explain them that they have not been assaulted, prosecuted, discriminated against or killed for being straight males.

Yeah, it's impossible for them to grasp it. You can try and explain it to them all day long, they do not understand and they probably won't ever. And they're blissfully ignorant too -- they don't WANT to understand.

 

[Jester Slave]

Biden made the hardest decision of his life.

Yeah, it must've been very hard for a demented old man, who was already losing polling against his challenger before he completely collapsed against him, to withdraw from the race. What a brave man! It inspired me to announce that I hereby withdraw from the "who is the better basketball player" race against Lebron James. Kind words only, please!

Also, that bullying manchild was already a president, so humans either already deserve to die, or electing him a 2nd time makes no difference.

 

[mindd]

It inspired me to announce that I hereby withdraw from the "who is the better basketball player" race against Lebron James. Kind words only, please!

My condolences, you'll get him next time.

 

[Xpyro125]

I’m a bit late on everything, the site sometimes decides to just stop sending me notifications, so that’s fun.

I'm interested in your thought process for choosing The Quiet Place! For me, it's a quintessentially Soundtrack to Your Escape song (and as you can tell, I think that Soundtrack along with Siren Charms and Battles collectively are the furthest removed from IF's Melodic Death Metal roots). I'm not disagreeing with your suggestion (there are no definite right and wrong answers, obviously), just trying to figure out how it might work. I guess the synth melody could be moved onto guitars (although it's a very minimalist melody in comparison to the twiddly, folk-influenced melodies typical of the classic IF sound). There are vocals similar to the verse vocals on both Colony and Clayman, make the chorus entirely harsh vocals like Only for the Weak - yeah, I guess OFTW would probably be the blueprint for translating TQP to the classic In Flames 'sound font'.

I always forget that there are some really nice guitar parts in Disconnected (that really DO have that twiddly, folk-influenced IF sound), because I just don't find the song that memorable as a whole. I guess some Whoracle growls would go a long way to making the vocals cooler, and classic IF production would definitely bring those guitar parts to the fore, they'd become the melodic focus of the chorus if the clean vocals were replaced with screams and growls.

Enter Tragedy is an interesting shout. Like Disconnected, replace the 'yell-singing' with traditional Anders harsh vocals and I think that would make a big difference to the overall timbre of the song. It'd definitely be on the Morphing Into Primal end of the melody-riffage spectrum (rather than the Swim end), also some of those riffs are in the 'new IF' mould that tend to use chromatic tones a lot more ,whereas their classic riffs tended to be natural minor or harmonic minor, but the main melodic figure of the song is -almost- Artifacts of the Black Rain with different phrasing, so it could work.

I considered Stay With Me too, which seems stupid considering it's a poppy ballad with soaring clean vocals. It's the guitars; the main melody is pure In Flames, twiddly, folky, natural minor, but also Björn's guitar parts (even the acoustic rhythm guitar) have a lot of movement, which is something I associate with classic In Flames (like Jotun, where the rhythm guitar part under the intro has as much melodic drive as the lead part, and you can really hear it when the rhythm part gets played 'naked' at the end of the song). I honestly don't know if I can see those vocals being replaced by older Anders vocals in the mould of Ordinary Story or Satellites and Astronauts, which is the main hangup I have, but instrumentally, I get it.

Glad to see so much Foregone on your list . I feel like if you strip out the overproduced clean vocals (which obviously would never exist in classic IF production anyway) there are plenty of instrumentals and harsh vocals that would translate really well.

Just to compound the aneurism I'm sure I've given @DE4life (sorry, pal), here is my present tier list.

TJR/Whoracle/Colony/Clayman
SOAPF/Come Clarity/Foregone
Reroute/Subterranean
Lunar Strain/STYE/I, The Mask
ASOP
Siren Charms
Battles

I think for me, songs like The Quiet Place and My Sweet Shadow could genuinely slot in perfectly onto albums like Reroute and ASoP with different production— If anything, I think STYE is just as heavily defined by its production and guitar tones as it is its general lack of technicality. I think TQP would only slot into Clayman decently; I don’t think it’d fit on anything else whatsoever, though Clayman is very much a transitionary album imo. I think it has about as much in common with the middle era as it does the classic, and I don’t see that as a bad thing, save for Anders’ waning vocals. I’m not sure how much I agree with all of my opinions on that list, but a lot of them would exclusively slot into Clayman decently, and I neglected to explain that sufficiently. If we were asking which songs could slot into Whoracle, for instance, good fucking luck.

You rate Siren Charms and Battles at the bottom so it's all good. The only opinion that would genuinely enrage me would be somebody suggesting either of those disasters were anything other than the two worst albums in the band's history. I always have time for someone who rates SOAPF highly as well. My colleague asked me the other day what album I'd want playing if I was in Dignitas waiting for the end. Weird and morbid question but they were reading some news article about it on the BBC website, so it wasn't just out of the blue.

Anyway, my first thought was SOAPF. It's interesting because I rate TJR/Whoracle/Colony/Clayman/Reroute higher in general, but I think SOAPF would give me the most peace and comfort overall. Listening to that album just gives me really good vibes.

I’m going to apologize in advance for my list. SC is not at the bottom.

Oh man... I think that the black album is highly overrated and full of fillers, though everyone loves it. And, since it was released, they weren't able to release a single good album and still have become the most popular metal band in the world.

I grew up on Load and (less so) on Reload, though I don’t remember them too well. I quite like Death Magnetic though; shame that Rick Rubin mutilated it. The fact that he decided to brickwall it before it could even get to the engineers speaks volumes in horrific ways.

Why doe bands rely on external writers? Maybe it's about the reputation of the person writing for them. Or maybe it's the inability to write what they have in mind. Maybe it's a lack of personality of the band members. But, if they heavily rely in other people to write their songs I don't see how they are their songs anymore.

A lot of the time it’s to make hits, a lot of the time it’s out of laziness, a lot of the time it’s because they don’t know where to go from a certain point. I’d rather put a bullet in my head than ever do that, but hey, good for them I guess.

As an independent voter who leans slightly left, what it really comes down to is common sense, and there isn't a whole lot of that going on over here. You can't even be a Republican anymore without bending the knee to Trump, and we're seeing people who previously trashed that asshole now do a complete 180 and kiss his ring. Look at his VP pick or people like Nikki Haley who condemned this man and called him vile things both publicly and privately. All of a sudden now they love him. For some reason. There is just no integrity. Trump's followers are stupid enough to believe that people like the two I mentioned (and many, many more) have actually changed their minds. They haven't, nor will they ever. Their initial assessment was correct, Donald Trump is a serious danger, not only to this country but the world, and he is not fit to run a McDonald's, let alone an entire country. The very idea that this is happening AGAIN is so fucking absurd that it's hard to fathom.

Religious and military people seem to love him, and none of us normal people can seem to figure out why since he secretly despises both of those groups. He has point blank insulted both groups publicly, yet they're right there to lick his boots every time he pumps his fist and yells "AMERICA!" It is unbelievably maddening to watch large groups of people flock to this piece of shit like he's some sort of demigod. Long story short, there is a very real chance that America will be run by a bunch of far right lunatics. Again. A nice long vacation over to Europe sounds excellent. Or at least Canada.

Pretty much fully agreed here.

Xenophobia is interesting here because it exists from state to state. In California, most of the state is very accepting of people from other states and other countries. It's a melting of pot of many, many people from many backgrounds. This is where I grew up, so I was raised around people from basically everywhere. There are other states where it's very much the same. Or I should say major cities. Every state in America has large rural areas and within those areas exist the real xenophobes. Even in California -- go to San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego and you'll be fine no matter where you're from. Go 30 minutes in any direction from any of those cities and you're in Redneck Land. Generally intolerant people.

I moved to Colorado and was there for a bit. When I moved there, I was looking at homes and my realtor flat out told me "make sure you change your license plate as soon as you can, because people here don't like Californians." I thought she was kidding. She wasn't. I never got hassled because of the way I look, but my wife who is a small woman did. She experienced it quite often actually. Anyway, the point is, I've never run into a person from a different city, a different state, a different country and thought "what the hell are you doing here?" If anything, I'm intrigued to know how they ended up in my city. People in Texas are much the same as Coloradans and I'll just never understand it. People think they own the areas they live in or something, like they should be able to control who steps into their city or state. The whole thing is really absurd to me.

Because of things like this, I know people who are afraid to travel to other countries. America has a lot of negative stigma surrounding it. The loud obnoxious ones ruin it for everyone else. That's why people who travel from America to other countries will sometimes tell the local people they're from Canada. A lot of us are embarrassed by all of it. Go on YouTube and watch clips from the RNC. Watch Hulk Hogan come out and rip his shirt off. Watch Donald Trump come out with lit up signs and music. It is an absolute circus. There is no mystery why people look at America and fucking laugh.

I’m Floridian, and I pretty much see the state as the America of America. It’s simultaneously the most accepting/no fucks given state and hardcore (nonviolent) conservative state, and it sometimes feels like there’s no real consensus on how we think/run things. I’d say that I’d love to see Ron DeSantis have a bullet put into his head, but apparently now that joke is in poor taste due to Trump’s attempted assassination. Jesus fucking Christ.

In any case, Hispanics aren’t considered a demographical minority within Florida, and people are either completely cool with them or fiercely racist under their breath, so it’s a hell of a ride.

Indeed. It's like men, specially in western countries, asking why there's not a straight male pride day. Well. I don't know how to explain them that they have not been assaulted, prosecuted, discriminated against or killed for being straight males.

I agree and I see it every day on social medias. Specially men, that are proud of being a bunch sociopathic morons whose pathetic lives seem to be only worthy (for them) when they insult or threaten everyone around. I cannot understand how someone can be proud of being a racist mysoginistic violent cunt and still think that they are good persons.

I don’t feel like going back for the other quote I meant to get, but I remember back when I had first heard about Black Lives Matter and everything, I didn’t understand it or the point, and I was one of those “All Lives Matter” people when I was a teenager just due to being uneducated— I think it was 2017 when No Lives Matter by Body Count came out, where the intro made it all completely fucking click for me. What he says isn’t by any means artsy, but I don’t think it needs to be in order to be one of the most profound things I’ve heard. I don’t think I’ll ever put any letters or any bullshit on my social media profiles or anything— I think empathizing with people and treating them with compassion and respect regardless of demographic or differences are what really matter. I never intended not to do so, but I do think that I failed to properly do so in the past. I’d like to believe that seven good years so far can outweigh my two ignorant years, anyways.

As for the latter, I see it the most with modern American Christians. Without getting too far into faith shit, I have to question how we’ve become so completely misguided— At the very least my faith was always built off the teachings of kindness and empathy, since Christian quite literally translates to Christ-like. I think Jesus would be ashamed of just how judgmental and downright heartless his people had become, at least going under the assumption/hypothetical that Christianity is in fact reality.