I've got a really old Reroute t-shirt which certainly looks its age. I obviously have a TJR shirt, as evidenced. I used to have a Whoracle shirt but that somehow disappeared. No idea what happened to it Also have a Come Clarity tour shirt from 2006.
I have 3 or 4 boxes full of old band shirts. I go through it every once in a while and have a nice nostalgia trip. I have a LOT of old In Flames shirts. As a designer, I'm very finicky about shirts I wear that have designs on them these days. I must say I do like this one though:
Colony cover
Colony cover longsleeve
Worldwide Colonization
Clayman World Tour longsleeve
Clayman cover
Reroute to Remain Tour
Reroute to Remain Tour 2 (Yellow Jesterhead)
Soundtrack To Your Escape (Olive)
Soundtrack To Your Escape (Maroon)
Soundtrack To Your Escape (Navy)
Soundtrack To Your Escape cover
Touring For Your Escape longsleeve
Nesting Heads
My Sweet Shadow
Come Clarity cover (White)
Come Clarity cover (Black)
Come Clarity scratch design
Flame Heads
Jesterhead Sweden (Motorhead)
Demonspine
Three Torches
Phoenix
Jesterhead (Green/Yellow)
The Jester Race cover (2007-2008 print)
Whoracle cover (2007-2008 print)
The Jester Race hoodie (2022 print)
Whoracle hoodie (2022 print)
There was a very steep drop off around '08 where I didn't buy any IF shirts. And I didn't again until 2022. And I probably won't again until there's a retro shirt that I really like. I am tempted by the STYE shirt that is shipping soon from their store. I'm also tempted by that Siren Charms shirt because although I hate that album, that shirt design is nice.
Say what you want about their minimalist Jesterhead logo, I will buy a shirt with that on it before I buy anything with their shitty metalcore logo. It's actually a point of pride that I don't own a shirt with that logo on it. It will be a good day when they ditch that horrendous piece of garbage.
Thanks, I just went to the recycling centre and bought a Jamie Walters CD for a euro, so you can judge for yourself whether I'm having a good holiday or not, lmao. I'm a BH90210 fan. It is what it is. Anyway, I was reading the booklet and there's a thanks to Chris Lord-Alge. That name rang a bell and as it turns out it's the guy who "mixed" the Clayman 2020 rerecordings - I can only assume Walters was thanking him for coming nowhere near the studio, then, because his mixing of the Clayman 2020 rerecordings is the shittiest thing I've ever heard. Anyhow, a bit of a random link between a random 1994 pop release and a 2020 In Flames release. Little could Jesper have known what his baby would mutate into back then.
Speaking of the Lord of Alge, he had this to say to us:
“I’m not really concerned with copying the old sound, I’m just trying to make the new sound feel more current. So, you know, they can be mad about it, but look – if you’re mad about it, listen to the originals.”
I can't believe he tried the "I'm making it sound modern" approach. It sounds like the guy who mixed The Tokyo Showdown somehow got worse at his job in the almost 20 years in between. It sounds fucking horrid. Not even by In Flames standards... just by music standards, any genre you want, pick one. I can't believe that guy has 5 Grammys -- not that it means fuck-all anyway -- but still, FIVE? I can almost see exactly how this went. It's like Anders and Benson were talking and Benson said "wait, I know a guy who owes me a favor. You're gonna love him. He's won Grammys and everything, he'll make this sound great. And modern."
He's mixed other metal bands too, so I really don't understand what the hell happened.
It is truly one of the worst mixing and production jobs I've ever heard. I appreciate he has to try and defend himself, but bruh, go listen to any modern metal album and then come back with a straight face and say your mix is emulating anything like that. It sounds like some shitty YouTube mix made by a total amateur with cheap, outdated equipment. GTFO with this condescending "actually it's modern, u luddites just don't get it" attitude. Next you'll be telling me I have to explain my grievances with music theory.
Also @Xpyro125 I just read back your comment on System being objectively bad... explain what you mean by this, as I am grossly offended by that statement
Seems like a reasonable request actually. I kind of wish that guy would come back
System is a pretty decent song. I remember I had a bootleg from the first show it was ever played, which I THINK was Montreal in maybe April of 2002, months before RTR came out. I think Anders messed up on the lyrics, but we didn't know the difference yet anyway. I saw them on that tour and remember being pissed they only played it in Montreal lol.
Seems like a reasonable request actually. I kind of wish that guy would come back
System is a pretty decent song. I remember I had a bootleg from the first show it was ever played, which I THINK was Montreal in maybe April of 2002, months before RTR came out. I think Anders messed up on the lyrics, but we didn't know the difference yet anyway. I saw them on that tour and remember being pissed they only played it in Montreal lol.
SunOfMyth's time here may have been brief, but he left a meme that will be fondly remembered for years to come. We can't ask for much more from people who randomly sign up to have a tantrum and then leave as abruptly as they arrived.
Yeah, System's live debut is fortunately recorded on video (about 38 minutes in):
And yeah Anders does totally butcher the lyrics. Either that or he changed them before Reroute was released in September. I'm not sure exactly when they finished recording for the release in September. You'd assume by April the recordings would have been done, but back then... who knows. Those cleans though... fucking horrible, lmao.
I do like that this is pre-dreads Anders though. He still has that kind of charming but very awkward presence on stage. In the next couple of years he completely changes his stage presence, coinciding with the dreads becoming a thing.
I've wanted a t-shirt with this design for years, but I didn't know if IF even had any manufactured. Eventually found one on an unofficial merch store based in Turkey and I have absolutely no regrets. It's my favourite IF logo hands down, such a striking, clean design.
Nice. It is indeed a cool logo and a simple but aesthetically pleasant design.
I'd really like to get a decent looking SOAPF t-shirt, ideally with the album cover design on the front of the shirt, but haven't really been able to find anything reputable.
Speaking of logos - I really, really dislike the current minimalistic Jesterhear logo. It kinda suits their current musical output though; while it looks kinda neat as a design for ...something, it feels just as soulless to me as Battles and Foregone in comparison to the actual Jesterhead.
They are actually re-releasing older albums now and they put that damn logo on actual records...
I’m so glad someone else is finally saying it. The old logo actually looked like, you know, a jester head. The new one is far more ‘geometric’, in lack of a better word, whereas the old one felt more natural and less uniform— Especially with the slightly more angular top prongs and curves. I actually 3D printed a block of a jesterhead a while back, though I wasn’t able to get the curves since I was using a different and more primitive program than AutoCAD or Autodesk Inventor. I absolutely could’ve made it perfectly there, but you could only really make basic shapes in the other one, and it was clearly intended as a cool, fun thing for kids and beginners. I was definitely into In Flames back when I was taking drafting and design classes, as I remember listening to (And disliking, funnily enough) SoaPF in class back then. Even with my certifications there, I really wish I could go back and do that class over since I think I’d be able to focus on it a lot more than I could back then.
I have that shirt too, but it is also in the laundry at the moment. Love the shirt, but I hate that the design is on the back. Clearly designed by bald Anders and not old Anders.
All jokes aside, the band name is really small too— Surprisingly so. Not sure why no one saw it and said anything, but oh well.
Also @Xpyro125 I just read back your comment on System being objectively bad... explain what you mean by this, as I am grossly offended by that statement
Subjectively, I’ve come to love it, I need to say that, but it’s a bit of a fucking mess sonically. It has a similar sort of issue as House with all of its different parts, but it’s a lot more cohesive, especially on repeat listens. The shift from a fast verse to the clean, slower pre-chorus part, then back to a somewhat ‘controlled’ feeling chorus in terms of speed, which I would attribute primarily to the guitars (Though I’d say every element does that, which is a lot better than if only the guitars did), is rather jarring at first. The vocals, even for Anders’ and Reroute’s standards, are objectively terrible and made me hate it back in the day, but honestly? I actually do quite love them now. While l don’t like the key change, his screams in the final chorus are incredibly impressive and deserved far better production and mixing (It’s a bit of both) than they got.
It’s absolutely a grower, especially as an In Flames fan. Subjectively speaking, all of its objective flaws make it incredibly interesting and give it a ton of character, though it is a fucking mess objectively. That mess made me absolutely despise it when I first heard it, having originally loved the title track and being super excited to hear more of Reroute. It took a while, but I’m pretty sure it’s in my top half of Reroute songs now.
For me, I think I can objectively dislike something and point out its flaws while subjectively loving it and appreciating the risks they took and the character those flaws bring, even these days. Hell, especially these days, given Foregone. I’d take another System (But actually good, unlike House) over another Foregone any day— Hell, I’d take another Siren Charms over another Foregone any day.
I was going to reply to more messages, but I didn’t get around to it before, and everything I had quoted was deleted, so I got the ones I remembered having something to say about.
SunOfMyth gets a bad rap, lol. I understand where he was coming from. Many times in the past have I banged my head on the wall trying to understand other peoples' takes on In Flames, especially when conversations start to talk about things being "objectively" good or bad.
I have shirts from STYE, ASOP, SC, ITM, and Foregone. I will not post pictures, in the event rogue saboteurs weaponize my DNA via gamma ray imaging.
SunOfMyth gets a bad rap, lol. I understand where he was coming from. Many times in the past have I banged my head on the wall trying to understand other peoples' takes on In Flames, especially when conversations start to talk about things being "objectively" good or bad.
I feel like especially for us all, who are rather biased both since we all love the band and since we all have different tastes, it’s tough to talk about objectivity in In Flames’ works— I mean, Siren Charms and Battles bad are pretty easy, that’s undeniable even for those who get some enjoyment out of those albums. Whenever I think of the band’s material objectively, I feel like I have to pair that alongside my subjective view or else I’ll just get lost or have one bleed into the other. Maybe that doesn’t quite make sense, maybe I’m not wording it correctly, but whatever. Either way, I generally speak subjectively about music.
If I didn’t, I’d have to put STYE in C tier at most, and I would really rather not put it that low.
SunOfMyth gets a bad rap, lol. I understand where he was coming from. Many times in the past have I banged my head on the wall trying to understand other peoples' takes on In Flames, especially when conversations start to talk about things being "objectively" good or bad.
Lol, not really. The dude came on here and threw a massive fit from post 1 - he wasn't trying to "understand other people's takes", he was telling everyone that they are wrong. That's obviously not going to end well. He also then started deleting a bunch of his posts which looked even worse.
Sorry, but there's a way to introduce yourself and put across your viewpoints, and the way he did it was not the way. It was immature and childish and deservedly ridiculed.
Yeah, could've made a better first impression for sure, lol. But for all we know, he'd been reading our discussions for years and finally snapped. It's entirely possible that there are lurkers on this board who hate our guts for the way we've besmirched this band's name (except me).
I had a few good laughs watching that video. I haven't paid attention in recent years so I don't know if he still does this or not, but back during this time when Anders would hunch over when screaming and flap his arms like a chicken having a fucking conniption fit, that is good stuff.
Whenever I think of the band’s material objectively, I feel like I have to pair that alongside my subjective view or else I’ll just get lost or have one bleed into the other. Maybe that doesn’t quite make sense, maybe I’m not wording it correctly, but whatever.
I had a few good laughs watching that video. I haven't paid attention in recent years so I don't know if he still does this or not, but back during this time when Anders would hunch over when screaming and flap his arms like a chicken having a fucking conniption fit, that is good stuff.
He certainly had a 'unique' stage presence to go along with his 'unique' voice back then, lol. He definitely became a lot more confident in the next few years, in terms of being on stage at least. His cleans never really got any better.
Also have a Come Clarity tour shirt from 2006.
