New album Foregone out February 2023

[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.

 

[Xpyro125]

But to get back to In Flames, here’s my list. It’s more of a general feeling of my placements since I change my mind on a bunch of albums ever so slightly all the time, but my top three and bottom three are solidly placed. I’d love to say that they won’t ever change, but Foregone had to shove SC to fourth lowest— Though I would go back and put SC in C tier if I made the list today instead of a couple months ago. It’s bad, really bad, but I’ve grown to quite like it.

And Lunar Strain’s finally grown on me, so cheers.

 

[Xpyro125]

Also, man. I like Drained. It’s one of the few Battles songs along with Wallflower and Save Me that I don’t have to say are guilty pleasures when I’m in the mood for shitty pop metal.

 

[DE4life]

Damn man, Slave is going to go ballistic on you when he sees Lunar Strain in the A tier SC is still in the bottom section so I'll accept that. I don't accept your like of Drained, however.

Save Me could be an okay track with a few tweaks. A lot more variation and thought in the lyrics. I think 'Save me' (or more like 'save mehhhhh') is repeated something like 21 times. Bruh. Better production obviously needed as well, but that goes for the entire Battles album. Vocal fakery is grating. There's isn't much to the song beyond the intro and the chorus, so more work needed in the verses too.

Wallflower is the one decent song on Battles. Unsurprisingly the only one with significant input from Engelin.

 

[Xpyro125]

Damn man, Slave is going to go ballistic on you when he sees Lunar Strain in the A tier SC is still in the bottom section so I'll accept that. I don't accept your like of Drained, however.

If this was made even like four months ago, Lunar Strain would’ve been solidly in C tier right under Reroute. I don’t know why, but it finally just clicked for me.

Save Me could be an okay track with a few tweaks. A lot more variation and thought in the lyrics. I think 'Save me' (or more like 'save mehhhhh') is repeated something like 21 times. Bruh. Better production obviously needed as well, but that goes for the entire Battles album. Vocal fakery is grating. There's isn't much to the song beyond the intro and the chorus, so more work needed in the verses too.

Yeah, the chorus fucking sucks, but eh, the rest of the song is pretty good. That much is a miracle for Battles.

 

[Jester Slave]

I think Slave has become old and weary, unsuited for battle at this point. Might also have gotten a wife/girlfriend which would essentially have the same affect on most guys. Not on me, because I'm a beast (in black), but regardless.

I remember one guy who really went in hard on Slave. Only4theweak187 or something? Would write huge posts about how Slave was the embodiment of evil. That was amazing. Think that was the Battles thread.

This may be the first album thread Clay-Man hasn't posted in? Hopefully he just lost interest in the band rather than doing something which landed him in a high security, no internet prison. Can't discount the latter until he posts to prove otherwise though.

Has Sister not posted on this thread at all? I was sure she'd posted a few times. Definitely not had her meme game going this time around though.

Come on now, SOAPF being a calm thread due to it being pre-me era is a bit of a misrepresentation about this board, because I did peek into some of the very old threads and people were absolutely brutal back then. Like, stereotipical "dumb metalheads" dumb.

Yes, it was only4theweak, the guy I managed to annoy the most, which I never understood, because he actually had some good takes and he wasn't annoying me that much either. Except when he desperately tried to psychoanalyze me as a a narcissist, hence why I gave myself that handle, because I thought I may as well oblige. He also helped me discover Ghost, whom I really dig, because I was curious about his cool (Ghost) avatar. I think he may be the only one who even blocked me, I'm not sure.

I am nearing Christ age, which is regrettable, as I was but a wee boy when I first posted here, but life comes at you fast. The girlfriend theory is also right, it all started in November 2019. It is heartbreaking when I'm in the middle of a post and she calls me; I tried to explain to her the importance of telling people on the internet that they are wrong, but she didn't get it. Women, am I right? I also took up learning German, which can be time consuming, though at least now I am at the point, where I can mix leisure with language learning, so I can "study" while mostly doing things I would've done otherwise.

I also think that it is dangerous to get stuck in a "role". Vomiting your soul out in high-school or being a menace on an online metal board are fun phases for a while, but you don't want to wake up years later and see the same exact person in the mirror. I mean, I'm still me, so I wouldn't change a thing about my "essays", but at some point it stops being a fun novelty for everyone involved, and turns into some kind of forced labor. We've also warmed up to eachother over the years, so I can rarely have an honest outrage reading some of your shit takes (edit: Xpyro was trying his best though just now, god bless his soul), because a.) I already know you b.) whether we like it or not, we've became friendly. Which is fine, because it's not like in the early 2000s when internet boards were booming with life, and visiting different subboards felt like discovering thousands of new people and topics. It's just us, and we get as many new members per year as many we are losing due to old age. We are a dying breed.

 

[Xpyro125]

We've also warmed up to eachother over the years, so I can rarely have an honest outrage reading some of your shit takes (edit: Xpyro was trying his best though just now, god bless his soul), because a.) I already know you b.) whether we like it or not, we've became friendly. Which is fine, because it's not like in the early 2000s when internet boards were booming with life, and visiting different subboards felt like discovering thousands of new people and topics. It's just us, and we get as many new members per year as many we are losing due to old age. We are a dying breed.

Just as someone who’s new here and who only lurked in forums without ever saying anything years and years ago, it’s pretty nice here, and I really like seeing everyone else’s takes here. I’ve only really gotten like two or three of my friends to listen to IF, and one who already did abhors everything they did post-Clayman and just thinks everything before it is only passable, so it’s nice getting to discuss the band in a place where they, and melodeath as a whole, are generally enjoyed. I’m sure it was already known, but I like you guys, you’re all pretty cool.

I can’t find any of my old tier lists, but my opinions on the band have changed so much— I’d actually argue that STYE was in my top five back when I was in high school, but I just don’t think it’s quite as good as I used to. CC’s always been my top pick, but I think Clayman used to be my number 2. I don’t remember if Colony or something else like Subterranean was in the third spot, and I didn’t actually enjoy SoaPF, Whoracle, or Lunar Strain back in the day, so it wasn’t those. I get the feeling I would’ve been eaten alive for my old opinions back in the day, and that is pretty funny to think about to me.

Also, this is probably my favorite quote from this forum and likely always will be. It’s just so powerful, I love it.

 

[The Grayfox]

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.

It is very much the same over here in California, it just depends where you're at. If you're right around a major city, things are pretty decent. But when you get to the more rural areas, of which there are a lot in the state, things get dicey politically speaking. I've seen and heard people be openly racist to Hispanics here and it isn't rare. They're fine with Hispanic people doing the jobs they don't WANT, what they would consider the "shit jobs", but then when it's convenient to say so, its a lot of "they're coming here and taking our jobs!"

Damn man, Slave is going to go ballistic on you when he sees Lunar Strain in the A tier SC is still in the bottom section so I'll accept that. I don't accept your like of Drained, however.

Save Me could be an okay track with a few tweaks. A lot more variation and thought in the lyrics. I think 'Save me' (or more like 'save mehhhhh') is repeated something like 21 times. Bruh. Better production obviously needed as well, but that goes for the entire Battles album. Vocal fakery is grating. There's isn't much to the song beyond the intro and the chorus, so more work needed in the verses too.

Wallflower is the one decent song on Battles. Unsurprisingly the only one with significant input from Engelin.

Slave, as I imagine him, is either a real hit at parties or a complete bummer. I just don't see an in between here. To be fair, I don't think terribly highly of Lunar Strain either. Mikael actually bothers me on most of it. Subterranean, on the other hand, I really like. I know I put LS&S in my A tier, but that's as a package. If I separate them, Lunar Strain is significantly lower.

Agreed on Save Me though. It COULD be decent. I think Us Against The World could be fine too but with slightly more tweaking than Save Me.

 

[Xpyro125]

It is very much the same over here in California, it just depends where you're at. If you're right around a major city, things are pretty decent. But when you get to the more rural areas, of which there are a lot in the state, things get dicey politically speaking. I've seen and heard people be openly racist to Hispanics here and it isn't rare. They're fine with Hispanic people doing the jobs they don't WANT, what they would consider the "shit jobs", but then when it's convenient to say so, its a lot of "they're coming here and taking our jobs!"

I’ve got a bunch of friends who live in California, and one’s family moved to Janesville like a year or so ago. That all completely checks out, they’re even more conservative than Midwest people over there and (I think) Susanville’s the same way too, though I could be misremembering there. Most have stayed in Stockton and Lodi, and I think shit’s more about just surviving there than getting involved in politics, which is the way I live my life, though I do hear about the housing and homeless crisis (Especially in San Fran) as well as Newsom’s incompetence quite often. From what I’ve come to understand, it’s all still fucked over there, just in different ways depending on the area.

 

[The Grayfox]

Pretty much, yeah. Stockton is not a place I would ever choose to live. People are constantly talking about Oakland and how dangerous it is but Stockton is up there as a place that is just as bad. I'm about an hour north of San Francisco which is far enough away that most of SF's problems don't effect us. Homeless population a little bit, but not really where I am. Lodi is pretty much just an extension of wine country really. Pretty boring out there though. It has it's bad areas like everywhere. San Francisco's housing issues are pretty fucked. The entire Bay Area really. The average price for a home in SF is well above a million dollars. That speaks for itself.

 

[Xpyro125]

I mean, Stockton’s fallen down to being I think the seventh most dangerous city in America in recent years, so clearly things are going splendidly there.

I only know about the shitty areas of Lodi, had no idea it was wine country otherwise. Kinda reminds me of where I live down here, with the west side being suburbs, the hood, and/or trailer parks, while the east side is all the old money and rich people shit. Only times I’ve ever gotten to go to the east side are when my Brasilian friend and his family invited me for birthday stuff over the years, and man, it was fucking strange being out of the lower class area. I’m just not used to that shit at all.

Homes are around 300-400K where I am, though that’s usually after a lot of fixing up. One million for a house is fucking crazy. Reminds me of when my ex demanded that we go live in LA or Vancouver so she could try to get an acting career— But I was to pay for that shit and provide for us. Suffice to say, we did not last.

 

[Jester Slave]

I genuinely can't take it seriously, when someone rates Lunar Strain higher than a C, unless there's some sentimental connection there, like it being someone's first ever mdm record, or it being bestowed by their dying grandpa. It is a hastily made, shitty sounding record with a few outlier songs peaking out. It doesn't really have any cultural significance either, because the true influence of In Flames started with TJR. Subterranean is a miles better record than LS. Skydancer also sounds like dogshit, but the actual songs are quite decent and much closer to the TJR-like mdm sound.

To me, speaking highly of LS, other than praising it compared to the circumstances it's been made in, is trying to act highbrow. Appreciate it for what it is, but anything above a C is pure hipster delirium. And I've only just realized that you actually put TJR BELOW this shit. How is that even possible? I dare you to spend a week only listening to LS (no skips allowed), then another with TJR and you will quickly re-evaluate their place on your list.

Slave, as I imagine him, is either a real hit at parties or a complete bummer. I just don't see an in between here. To be fair, I don't think terribly highly of Lunar Strain either. Mikael actually bothers me on most of it. Subterranean, on the other hand, I really like. I know I put LS&S in my A tier, but that's as a package. If I separate them, Lunar Strain is significantly lower.

If by party you mean any friendly gathering, then it's pretty on point. If I am almost exclusively surrounded by people whom I feel comfortable with, then I gladly take the role of the loud, obnoxious, controversial, funny bloke. This is even more so true when it comes to board games: I am there to win. Did you just move 5 squares instead of 4? I'm bringing your ass to court.

But if there are other people around who don't fit that bill, even just 1, I barely say a word, unless asked. Every time I'm forced to be with new people (new school, courses where you live together in dorm rooms), the people whose company I enjoy tend to gravitate to me without really doing anything, so I always end up in a sort of click of normal people. However, if it's not organic, I don't feel the need to force conversations. The brothers of my girlfriend are nice guys for example, but in the near 4 years we've known eachother, I barely told them anything else outside of "hello" and "goodbye", despite meeting or even being under the same roof many, many times.

 

[Xpyro125]

I genuinely can't take it seriously, when someone rates Lunar Strain higher than a C, unless there's some sentimental connection there, like it being someone's first ever mdm record, or it being bestowed by their dying grandpa. It is a hastily made, shitty sounding record with a few outlier songs peaking out. It doesn't really have any cultural significance either, because the true influence of In Flames started with TJR. Subterranean is a miles better record than LS. Skydancer also sounds like dogshit, but the actual songs are quite decent and much closer to the TJR-like mdm sound.

To me, speaking highly of LS, other than praising it compared to the circumstances it's been made in, is trying to act highbrow. Appreciate it for what it is, but anything above a C is pure hipster delirium. And I've only just realized that you actually put TJR BELOW this shit. How is that even possible? I dare you to spend a week only listening to LS (no skips allowed), then another with TJR and you will quickly re-evaluate their place on your list.

I will completely agree that Lunar Strain’s production sucks, but I quite like the compositions. For TJR, I’m just not huge on Graveland, Lord Hypnos, and Dead God in Me— Jester’s Dance is pretty great, but I have to be in the mood for Wayfaerer to fully enjoy it. I personally didn’t count Black Ash Inheritance for TJR since it’s sort of its own thing (And bonus tracks in general), but if we are then it goes up to A tier. I’ll definitely have to give them both full listens again at some point, but that’s where I was at last time I listened to IF nonstop.

I only just noticed now that it’s above Subterranean, and that was 100% not intentional. I would never put LS above Sub, ever.

 

[The Grayfox]

The Jester Race is not only the top IF album for me, but I would put it on my top 10 albums of all time list. To me, the magic of TJR comes to life when listening to it front to back. As far as melodic death metal goes, in my mind it's the pinnacle. Storm of Light's Bane, The Gallery, Slaughter of the Soul, Heartwork, all timeless. But I'd say the magic of TJR still surpasses all of them. There are albums by newer MDM bands like Be'Lakor, In Mourning and some others that may some day get the 'classic nod' from me, but not yet.

If by party you mean any friendly gathering, then it's pretty on point. If I am almost exclusively surrounded by people whom I feel comfortable with, then I gladly take the role of the loud, obnoxious, controversial, funny bloke. This is even more so true when it comes to board games: I am there to win. Did you just move 5 squares instead of 4? I'm bringing your ass to court.

But if there are other people around who don't fit that bill, even just 1, I barely say a word, unless asked. Every time I'm forced to be with new people (new school, courses where you live together in dorm rooms), the people whose company I enjoy tend to gravitate to me without really doing anything, so I always end up in a sort of click of normal people. However, if it's not organic, I don't feel the need to force conversations. The brothers of my girlfriend are nice guys for example, but in the near 4 years we've known eachother, I barely told them anything else outside of "hello" and "goodbye", despite meeting or even being under the same roof many, many times.

I'm very much the same, so I can relate.

 

[ThePhobiac]

I always considered Lunar Strain to be sort of just a "skeleton", whereas subsequent albums (including Subterranean) are way more fleshed out. Like, here's pretty basic compositions and arrangements, basic production, basic drumming (sorry, Jesper), but we can harmonize our guitars in a way that draws from Swedish folk music. It's an effective proof of concept, and I can see the appeal if you're into that stripped-down sort of metal. And every band has to start somewhere, right? It's one of my least favorite IF albums not because it lacks quality, but just because it feels like a polished demo and just barely a finished product, unlike, for example, Skydancer or The Red in the Sky is Ours.

I can kind of see Jester Slave's "highbrow" point. To use another example -- although I think this album is way more fully realized than Lunar Strain -- I tend to throw on Ulver's Nattens Madrigal when I'm feeling pretentious, because people have sung its praises and I respect Ulver as musicians. But I'd be hard pressed to say that I'm listening to it because I genuinely like it, lol. It's more a feeling that my intelligence stat is slowly rising while it's on. Although with Lunar Strain it's not so much that I'm getting smarter and more that I'm getting closer to understanding the true meaning of Carl Naslund.

 

[Xpyro125]

I always considered Lunar Strain to be sort of just a "skeleton", whereas subsequent albums (including Subterranean) are way more fleshed out. Like, here's pretty basic compositions and arrangements, basic production, basic drumming (sorry, Jesper), but we can harmonize our guitars in a way that draws from Swedish folk music. It's an effective proof of concept, and I can see the appeal if you're into that stripped-down sort of metal. And every band has to start somewhere, right? It's one of my least favorite IF albums not because it lacks quality, but just because it feels like a polished demo and just barely a finished product, unlike, for example, Skydancer or The Red in the Sky is Ours.

Although I do quite like LS, I can absolutely agree there. I think the compositions, particularly guitar-wise and structurally, are pretty great, though the drums and especially the production do leave a lot to be desired. Edit- I realize I just said the same shit that I did in my last post. Fuck.

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Skydancer in full, so I can’t comment on it, but I do also like The Red in the Sky is Ours— At least as much as I like At the Gates’s music, which admittedly isn’t nearly as much as In Flames’ and Dark Tranquillity’s.

I can kind of see Jester Slave's "highbrow" point. To use another example -- although I think this album is way more fully realized than Lunar Strain -- I tend to throw on Ulver's Nattens Madrigal when I'm feeling pretentious, because people have sung its praises and I respect Ulver as musicians. But I'd be hard pressed to say that I'm listening to it because I genuinely like it, lol. It's more a feeling that my intelligence stat is slowly rising while it's on. Although with Lunar Strain it's not so much that I'm getting smarter and more that I'm getting closer to understanding the true meaning of Carl Naslund.

While I can certainly see the point in that regard, Lunar Strain certainly isn’t a record I’d associate with pretention, even if one enjoys it more than something like TJR. Admittedly, after listening to LS again yesterday and today, I would put it in A-, but it’s certainly better than C where I had it before.

There’s definitely music I’d say I pretentiously enjoy, though I can’t really think of what that’d be off the top of my head. Nebularium by Disarmonia Mundi is an album that I really do enjoy that much, and I think that much is justifiably so, especially when other tough reviewers love it almost as much as I do. Same thing with In the Constellation of the Black Widow by Anaal Nathrakh and Above the Weeping World by Insomnium. Vilosophe by Manes would be one I’d say is pretentious to like, but I only like about half of it because the other half is completely fucking boring. I’m sure there’s something, but I just can’t think of it.

 

[The Grayfox]

It would've been really cool if IF had re-recorded all of Lunar Strain when they did Behind Space and Clad in Shadows. To me, those sound so much better than Lunar Strain did.